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Author Topic: silent scope 2 - fatal judgement nvram image  (Read 28421 times)

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ed12

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Re: silent scope 2 - fatal judgement nvram image
« Reply #40 on: October 07, 2013, 08:45:32 pm »
hi
ok i am going to take it this is a mcmull ?
2003/2004/-2012 ?
with tophat s/w ?
if so please read this thread on the problem
>http://www.mcumall.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=184<
it explains it in a simler area,as to what i was refering to
if not,please advise and i will dig futher
i do believe i used an olld dallas hexscum generator to big indian hexcsum conveter

ed
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lilshawn

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Re: silent scope 2 - fatal judgement nvram image
« Reply #41 on: October 08, 2013, 01:40:36 am »
yes this was some kind of mcumall dealy. it was here at work before my time. but, yeah it sounds about right. I had a feeling there is an issue with the program itself.

i'm not sure exactly what's going on, but i pissed around with the chip for a while. I found while but normally the chip is blanked with F's. If I try to write my silent scope data it gets to that 0400c space and errors out. if i write all f's to the chip, it will gloss over whatever the issue is with memory space 0400c but error out at 0800c (or something like that.) I can also get the software to offset write the chip, (start write at 0600c until 0fffc and also offset the data by the same ammount) but it stops at 0400c same as before. it must have to run through all the addresses.

sorry, just kind of rambling hoping something sticks to the wall.

If i randomly fill the codespace and write the data and can get it to stop at random places... sometimes i can get it to complete 100% ok. it's bizzare.

I'd normally just say to hell with it and buy a new one, but i had a hard enough time getting the boss to cough up a couple of hunskies to purchase a new CRT chassis after the original one burned itself a nice dime size hole in the board.

- can't you just fix it

me: *looking at him through the hole* with this face
« Last Edit: October 08, 2013, 01:43:34 am by lilshawn »

ed12

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Re: silent scope 2 - fatal judgement nvram image
« Reply #42 on: October 08, 2013, 10:45:49 am »
as i rem more on this problem
it did dawn on me that i to went to mplab for the proper assigened hexcsum
and i could then shove it >the chip<,in my emp30
and it would stick
i have yet to try it on my qc-4 >mcmull<
but i have fresh chips here can give it a go if u like ?
just post me your dump

ed
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Re: silent scope 2 - fatal judgement nvram image
« Reply #43 on: January 11, 2015, 10:15:07 am »
I wanted to drop a post in here, and say THANKS to the good people here work worked out the Timekeeper issue.  THIS thread was the most credible and useful one I found on the Internet when my Silent Scope died six months back.  I had to do a lot of this work posted here, and some other fun things, to make it all work - but again, the basis for what to do was here.  For the benefit of anyone else struggling with a Timekeeper IC, I have two things:

* What I did to get it to work
* What I have for anyone else that gets stuck!

In short...

- The -11p hardware boot failure issue in the Konami Hornet CPU is in fact the failed Timekeeper chip
- The chip has an internal LiOn battery in it, servicing the internal wafer, keeping it "alive." The battery's voltage does not pin-out, so you cannot measure it, nor can you put an external 3.3v to it and make it work
- The battery is buried in the resin - I ventured in one to dig it out and get to the points where it services the waver with voltage.  This is a tricky process - you need to know where the battery lives ahead of time, and you need to work slowly, because you can damage the wafer, or destroy the physical integrity of the chip - and it won't tolerate being plugged and unplugged from a socket
- Even a "bad" Timekeeper can be brought back to life (more on this, in a minute) when the battery inside it is replaced!  The wafer doesn't usually fail - just the battery
- If you try to buy a "new" Timekeeper, you're going to see 1999 era date codes - bad news, even for NOS.  Since the battery is servicing the wafer, it is ALWAYS under load, and therefore dying.  That means even a "new" chip has a dying or dead battery in it.  I sourced several replacements for mine, and all but one were bad.  You'll know it's bad when all you see are blocks of '00' and 'FF' over and over on read and write cycles - this means the chip is "dead"
- You need the "right" kind of programmer to make this work.  Many $50 USB programmers won't handle this class of chip.  As others posted, this chip also works like a Dallas 1225Y, so you need to be sure your programmer can WRITE (not just read/test) this class of SRAM.  I found the MCUMall GQ-4X "true USB" rig does the trick, and can be purchased for $100
- You'll need to short pins 28 to 26 to read or write this chip properly!
- You'll need the right file to write to your chip - for Silent Scope (first run), I used the "SS1830UAA.dat" file as a binary program input file, which I got from a MAME archive.  "UA" in the name means US.  "EA" in the code apparently means Europe, so be careful which file you select
- Once the chip is back in the game, you'll know it works when the CPU and both video boards pass their checks - the screen will go into a deep color static pattern, twice, and then drop you at a screen where you'll need to execute at least three or four setup tests before you can get to game mode.  If the screen doesn't flash like this, you'll be back to the original block scramble boot screen, which means you're in a loop, which means your chip didn't work
- Apparently, one should never set the correct date and time in the Bookeeping menu - this causes the game to password protect the setup menu, thus locking you out!  I do not know the password to unlock this, and while I suspect the reprogramming of the Timekeeper will alleviate this, I am not sure - I can't recall if I read it here or elsewhere

So, what do you do if you find yourself here?  Contact me!  I came up with my own way to get the Timekeeper working, bulletproofed, for anyone with this kind of issue!

If you have a Timekeeper SRAM, or any other similar format chip with a failed battery inside of it, I can help!

Please see - the Dragonfish Reserviced Timekeeper in the B/S/T section here - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,143303.0.html!

« Last Edit: January 11, 2015, 11:23:34 am by minicooperscooter »

Dave11674

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Re: silent scope 2 - fatal judgement nvram image
« Reply #44 on: June 29, 2020, 07:13:28 pm »
sorry to drag an old thread back up

just asking if i cut my old ST timekeeper up
am i leaving the old battery in place yes ?
just soldering on to its 2 points ?

i bought 5 new timekeepers today
out of the 2 i tested i had blocks of 00 00 00 00
and FF FF FF FF
 in chunks one after the other ?
are these no good ?
also my original chip did not read any good data from its sram
i got lots and lots of random data
so im not sure if that chip is totally fluffed
i got a dump from mame and it basically only has like 2 lines of data rest is 00 00
but it seems to correspond what every one else is talking about. but this never worked on either of my 2 tested chips
i have 3 more to test

i dont mind cutting them up if need be
but dont anyone buy them from RS anytime soon lol

thanks

dave