kiltedgunstar
Saturn Player
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Nintendo ID: KiltedTrainer
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Post by kiltedgunstar on Jan 25, 2016 1:28:34 GMT
So I am not sure if anyone here has posted regarding this particular issue before but I just ran into it the other night and I can't seem to find a solution; thought posting here might help, if not explain what might be happening with my AR 4M+.
So, to start, I've never had any issues with this cart since I got it a year ago or so. I recently picked up my first game which requires the RAM expansion (Waku Waku 7) and figured I'd have no issues at all since this cart is supposed to automatically boot as 1m or 4m, right? For the life of me it will NOT boot as a RAM expander.
I have cleaned the Saturn's pins deep, the AR pins are extremely clean and every other function works perfectly. All imports boot fine, cheats work, my saves work - all consistently, too, no matter how I put the cart in (all the way, up a bit, loosely, tightly, etc). The only thing that seems to not work is the auto RAM expansion. Has anyone else had any issues with this, especially with WW7 possibly?
Am I doing something wrong? Is the AR shot? Is it specifically an issue with WW7 games? I don't have any other ram expanding carts (unless the Gameshark can do it which I didn't think it can). I also don't have another saturn handy to test it on but might be able to track one down to test the cart on outside of my Saturn. For reference, the Saturn I have is an NTSC Model 1.
EDIT: As I'm seeing some peoples' discussions on the Saturn pin connectors which, yeah, suck, how might I be able to adjust the Saturn's pins to try and restore them if that might be causing my issue? I know I've heat treated my NES pins with boiling water and that helped a lot, but can the saturn's pins be removed and worked on similarly or would this be a bad idea?
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sych
"Living for the fantasy" -NIGHTS INTO DREAMS- The Classic Saturn Gem!!!
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Post by sych on Jan 25, 2016 19:21:42 GMT
Having previouly owned Waku Waku 7 and used in conjunction with my Action Replay 4in1 I had no issues whatsoever so yours should be working fine. Could you post a picture of your Action Replay as not all Action Replays contained the RAM expansion back in the day, some just came with Cheats and Region bypass. Are you sure your one contains the additional 4M? If it does, then maybe its just bad luck. I find the ones without the PC port ontop to be less reliable. Did your one look like this? www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-vP0R5ZJqU
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kiltedgunstar
Saturn Player
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Nintendo ID: KiltedTrainer
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Post by kiltedgunstar on Jan 26, 2016 5:42:32 GMT
Yeah mine's one of the later models. The board inside has the PC port on it but the cart is solid with no adapter. The box and cart are labeled and described as 1m and 4m capable. Maybe I'll just keep trying to clean it and the Saturn pins again. Might need to go even deeper or suck it up and get a new AR down the road.
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antime
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Post by antime on Jan 27, 2016 6:12:46 GMT
I recently picked up my first game which requires the RAM expansion (Waku Waku 7) and figured I'd have no issues at all since this cart is supposed to automatically boot as 1m or 4m, right? No, a 4M cart is always a 4M cart. The 1M games are compatible with both the 1M and 4M expansions. If the Action Replay menu appears, there's probably nothing wrong with the cartridge port. Since you've opened the cartridge, are there actually RAM chips in it? If you're unsure, take a photo and post it.
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kiltedgunstar
Saturn Player
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Post by kiltedgunstar on Feb 21, 2016 7:45:34 GMT
Sorry for such a delay. I'll take a look at it tomorrow and take some pics as I'll finally have a chance. I plan to tinker with it tomorrow as is with my day off. I think there were 2 chips which looked like they'd be the RAM portions but maybe I am wrong. Either way, I will be checking in again shortly.
Thank you everyone for the feedback. I will finally try and dig into this issue again. I really need to since I've got a a nice little haul of Saturn stuff coming in the mail next week from several different trades and the Saturn's been getting a lot of attention lately.
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kiltedgunstar
Saturn Player
Joined: June 2014
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Nintendo ID: KiltedTrainer
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Post by kiltedgunstar on Mar 9, 2016 2:54:38 GMT
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Post by linkt101 on Mar 9, 2016 17:19:57 GMT
I had the same problem as you. Here's the picture of mine that didn't work. The board number for this is #1412. While the board number for the image at the bottom is #1308. You can find the number in tiny righting on the back of the cart. And here's my secondary AR cart that does work
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antime
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Post by antime on Mar 9, 2016 19:59:52 GMT
The only thing that immediately sticks out is that diode D5 has been replaced by a solder bridge, but I don't know if that is significant.
Just as a quick overview, the SST chips are the flash memory, the SEC chips are the DRAM and the rest are logic for address decoding etc. As you guessed, the empty footprint is for a latching buffer which would store the data sent to/from the comm port. The four diodes D1-D4 on the right-hand side are what is used to generate the cartridge ID byte, which is what games use to detect what type of cartridge is plugged in. Since the rest of the cartridge works, I would guess that ID generation logic is broken, and I believe that is controlled by the programmable logic IC in the upper right corner. If that is indeed the case, it is unfortunately not easy to fix, since the logic equations used to program the device are not known.
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kiltedgunstar
Saturn Player
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Post by kiltedgunstar on Mar 10, 2016 22:45:09 GMT
Linkt101 and antime, thank you so much for your replies. I think that just means the only easy resolution is to go and get another AR. Any recommendations to avoid this? Maybe seek out an older model, likely? The board numbers you mentioned, Linkt, are interesting as I'd not even checked these. I assume you refer to the inscribed numbers on the bottom of the cart (lower right on mine)? If so, this one has 2 numbers: 1312 and 1308.
If I were capable and really ambitious, I'd try testing the potential issue with the ID generation but that's way out of my league; though it's also really fascinating, so it's still great info.
Thanks again. I guess I'm a little bummed to have to track down another cart but it'll be worth it. Still, great learning experience, too!
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Post by linkt101 on Mar 10, 2016 23:27:36 GMT
Yep, you're just going to have to buy another cart and chance your arm. As there is no way of knowing in advance if the 4mb expansion will work.
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antime
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Post by antime on Mar 11, 2016 18:26:17 GMT
Before buying another one, check for solder bridges, cold joints and other production problems that can be easily fixed with a soldering iron.
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kiltedgunstar
Saturn Player
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Nintendo ID: KiltedTrainer
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Post by kiltedgunstar on Mar 11, 2016 22:10:30 GMT
Before buying another one, check for solder bridges, cold joints and other production problems that can be easily fixed with a soldering iron. What should I be looking for regarding the bridges? specifically the one you mentioned where there's no diode.
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antime
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Post by antime on Mar 12, 2016 7:56:41 GMT
I meant that you should check if pins of the ICs are accidentally bridged. It's not likely to happen with big, chunky through-hole parts, but the production quality on these things is usually lousy. I don't think you have to worry about the missing diode.
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Eidolon
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Post by Eidolon on May 30, 2016 21:31:52 GMT
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Post by jessekilgannon on Mar 26, 2017 23:36:28 GMT
So where's the best place for me to pick on of these up?
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