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[DarkAkuma]

I recently purchased a GDSF7 from this site, and received it a couple days ago. After I finaly got the parallel port connection working, and some games loaded up and running, ive run into a problem i just dont understand.

When im playing a game, at random times the screen will flicker alittle, and the video will cut out, yet sound will still play (either the game music or 1 continuious note). Sometimes I can still hear sounds that are a result of my button mashing while trying to snap it out of this. Sounds like menu cursor moveing around, sword slashing, or whatever. Hell, sometimes I can even get it to snap out of it and resume normal gameplay, but most of the time its just stuck. Also, sometimes the game just stops. The cursors will still be blinking, and music will still be playing, but its pretty much frozen. Absolutly no responce to my pressing buttons.

Whatever the problem is, it seems to be showing up in different ways, but i think it is all the same thing. And it has so far shown up in every game ive tried.

I thought it might be bad sectors of the ram, but ive tryed games in almost all the memory banks. I dont think its the power supply either.

This is what i have:

gdsf7 64mb + 64mb
9v 1.2ma power supply (from my genisis)
snes running through av cables

These are the games ive tried: (yeah, im a rpg fan)

Seiken Densetsu 3
Star Ocean
Lufia
Finaly Fantasy II
Dragon Quest V
Breath of Fire II

I tried 3 different sets of av cables, normal snes cartridges still run fine. Ive tried smacking the thing (hate doing that, but was running out of ideas). Running games in normal or super modes. Maybe some other things im forgeting.

Luckly when these problems occur, I can still reload the saved state, and gameplay will run like it should useualy. But that doesent always get me past the errors. Some times it happens at the same point continuiously (like with SO and DQ5).

Anyway. Does anyone know what the problem is? I tried to be as thurough as i could be. I can probly try to describe the problems better if i need to, but im haveing a hard time since it realy seems to randomly happen.

[DarkAkuma]

I just hooked up my snes with a RF adapter. Before it was av going through my vcr. When my vcr has video signal comeing through blank or distorted, the screen turns blue which is whats been happeneing.

Now i see with the RF adapter, when the problem hits its not going blank, it gets distorted and starts scrolling. The screen turns to a bunch of scrolling/jumping horizontal lines with a palete change, but you can still see the game screen behind all the distortion.

Apon further thinking about this, if i had to take a guess on this thing. The reason its probly showing up differently is that when it gets distorted its trying to access new graphics to display, like with a menu or screen change. When it seems to just freeze is when im talking to a character in game, when its accesses text. So i guess maybe it is some sort of ram issue.

Also with the games where my button mashing seems to help snap it out of it, ive noticed behind all the distortion the game is still playing and responding, just realy slowly. I guess since in this case its still working, however slowly, a change of menus/screens snaps it back out of it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Id realy like to get this fixed so i can play this thing, rather then let it collect dust.

Btw, i can solder and repair things. I used to do modchips and repairs here and there, so have the tools and experiance to fix this, if this is a fixable issue and someone knows how...

[kyuusaku]

Can you make a video of it?

[DarkAkuma]

A good video? No. I might be able to make a crapy video with my web cam though. Just got to wait for the drivers to download from the slow logitech website. I havent had it hooked up in a while.

But even after I have the drivers installed and it working, I think I remember it showing TV's as just some white blur. I'll probly have to see if I can borrow a digital camera to atleast get a pic.

[DarkAkuma]

Ok. Heres a shot of my gdsf7 playing DQ5, and how this screen should look.



And heres a vid of how the same screen looks when the problem hits.

GDSF7 problem

Best quality i can do.

[Trenton_net]

My first instinct would be to say you have RAM problems. I’ve seen games mess up the same way in hardcopy form (Due to dirty/oxidized pins, cartridge ports, etc), but since your using a copier, I’d assume it’s RAM that’s messed up.

Are you using original bung RAM, or new RAM?

I also wouldn’t be surprised if the copier was just acting up on its own accord. Give the age of them, and the fact most come pretty beat up from anonymous sources/owners (Used), I wouldn’t be alarmed if something started to fail.

If you can, you should try it on a Super UFO or Pro Fighter and see if you get the same issues. If you don't, then you know at least your ROMs are clean dumps.

[kyuusaku]

The first thing I thought was interference from the RAM, but this isn't it. I've experienced that before and it looks like a ground-loop on your TV. I've also experienced bad RAM. If you can get the game to snap out of it, then it's certainly not bad RAM either.

Do you know if the TV is rolling or if the SNES is flickering or is your camera to blame?

And you're POSITIVE that your power supply is good? Can you check it with a voltmeter?

Can you try the GDSF7 on a different SNES? Very rarely certain SNES have problems with the GDSF7 probably because of different bus timing. I think that might be what the problem is.

[DarkAkuma]

The camera is adding nothing to that video, cept some blurryness.

Testing on another snes isnt a option for me anymore. Dont know anyone with one i can borrow.

Im posative that my power supply is the most recamended power supply. 9v dc 1.2ma from 1st gen genesis. But if this paticular one has gone bad, i have no idea and guess ill try and scrap up another to try. I havent played my sega in years (pretty much since i had sega channel...) so i wouldnt be able to say if ive had any problems with that.

I realy hope it isnt a rare snes/gdsf7 timing problem. Ive had this snes for years, and its always been good to me. Problems have been rare, if ever. Would hate to have to get a new one just to be compatable with 1 thing. I hope theres a hardware fix for the snes or GDSF7 if this is the case.

Btw, i dont know if it means anything different, but this problem has never shown up when the GDSF7 was in the bios. The first day i had it, it was sitting in the bios screen for several hours while i tried getting the parallel port working. So if it was going to happen, it would have happened then.

[DarkAkuma]

I just tested a 12v dc 1.2ma power supply. After about 20 minutes of playing DQ5 (a game which has proven to be easily repeatable with the problem) i was thinking about posting that it seems to be working now. Left it on, and instead went and took a shower, came back and it was still running fine. Then when i was acctualy ready to sit down and post that is working, it happened again. The screen went all funky like in the video i posted.

I am begining to think the freezeing thing is save state related though. I know the save state feature on the GDSF7 isnt perfect. Does that sound like a common save state problems? Game freezeing while music still plays?

Anyway. With the new power supply it still seems to be happening, just less so. Does this help narrow the problem down?

[kyuusaku]

Using real time save generally only affects the sound, not the actual game. When the GDSF7 restores the game, it can't get the sound CPU back to the same state.

Does this problem occur with other games? Often translated games have illegal code because they were only tested on emulators.

[DarkAkuma]

The graphics/scrolling problem happens with 3 un-translated/un-patched roms of all the roms ive tried. Lufia, Final Fantasy 2 and Breath of Fire 2. The problem happens with all the roms ive tried since i got gdsf7, but those are the only untouched ones.

All my roms come from my goodsnes set. Their the ones with "[!]" in the title, which as far as i remember means good dump. And all my patches are apply to the same type of rom.

[kyuusaku]

And real SNES games work fine? It's either the GDSF7 timing or interference which looks like it's getting onto a PPU address line. If all games do this intermittently at least you don't have bad RAM.

Do you play games in "Super Mode" by the way?

You aren't playing 60hz games on a 50hz SNES are you? (I'd guess no since you call Mega Drive Genesis)

[DarkAkuma]

Yea. Normal cartridges work fine. Ive tried playing in both normal and super modes. Just the super mode save state option gives me a chance to not lose any progess i make in a game.

Their ntsc roms. Either USA or JAP. I live in the US, and my snes was purchased about 1 year after snes came out, and purchased in the US.

If it is this timing issue between the GDSF7 and my paticular SNES, is there a fix i can do for one of them? Also, im assuming that if one of these had to be replaced to get past the problem, its the snes right? All GDSF7s would probly work the same for me?

Also, for the hell of it since i havent ruled it out yet. Im trying to fix my floppy drive in my comp so i can load roms to the GDSF7 like that. I figure there might be a chance that the roms are getting corrupted while being sent over the parallel port. Ive never used this parallel port cable before, and got it used. So i have no idea how good it is.

[DarkAkuma]

Well. Its not the parallel cable corrupting the roms. Games off disks work the same.

Also, now that its easier for me to load up games (had to boot over from vista to xp to use the parallel port), ive tried a couple more since the power supply change. The graphics/scrolling problem is still happening with FF2 and Lufia aswell, just FAR less, like i noticed with DQ5.

The power supply im using right now is just some spliced together thing. Ill buy a univeral 1200mA one eventualy, if i think it will stop the problem completely. But i still dont know what the problem is...

god this is annoying...

[kyuusaku]

You'd probably be better off trying to find a used SNES.