32x makes noise??

[MN12BIRD]

Wow I wouldn't beleive it if I didn't hear it myself! I was fucking around with my 32x playing DooM. I wanted to see what would happen if I unplugged the RF out from the 32x and went right from the Genesis. Basically the menus and health/ammo stuff at the bottom would show but the 3D game area was a black screen. Neato. But ANYWAY when I was close to the 32x and it was running DooM I noticed something... noises coming out of it... LOUD ones too! I don't get it there are no moving parts in there (right??? RIGHT??) but wow it was squealing and clicking away!! Almost sounded like a hard drive but I know there is not one in there or any moving parts for that matter... what gives?? Whats making all the noise? It was loud enough to hear with the TV on and not really trying that hard to hear it. in other words its loud enough to be easily noticed when your close to it.

Kinda thought that was strange anyway.

Night.

[Iron Lizard]

Is your 32x still working?

[MN12BIRD]

oh yeah works great!

This is on my model 2 with no SCD BTW so it's not the SCD drive I'm hearing.

[Iron Lizard]

Thats odd. I never have heard anything like that. My friends Sega Channel caught fire back in the day.

[MN12BIRD]

lol random but hilarious. I'll try and record the sounds later tonight if I can. Might be be loud enough to pickup with my camera but I'll try.

[Genesis Knight]

Neither the Genesis nor the 32X have any moving parts, so this is indeed curious.

[evildragon]

Sometimes IC's makes noises.

My Dell Latitude CSx makes crackling sounds from the northbridge. All CSx's do too, it's just design I guess.

[Shinu]

I can hear minor noises from my 32X. But it's not really moving parts-kind of noise, more like electricity.

[The Sports Guy]

were things getting warm? could it have been something overheating?

[GohanX]

I just popped in Virtua Racing, left the stereo off and put my ear to the 32x, and I heard some noises too. They aren't loud, I had to practically press my ear against the mushroom, but I definately heard it. It does sound like a tiny hard drive accessing data.

[JDB]

Yeah, my 32x makes noises when I'm playing a 32x game too (it's silent when playing a Mega Drive game), I always guessed it was just the CPU or something operating at a frequency humans could hear.. Electro-Magnetic Compatability was one of my modules at university and I vaguely remember the lecturer explainingy why we could hear electronic devices with no moving parts.... It has something to do with the time-varying current causing electromagnetic induction causing magnetic fields (which I presume move air molecules) which we can hear

[MN12BIRD]

I figured it was something like that. Some kinda RF feedback causing the metal heat shield to vibrate was my guess. But your idea sounds good too :)

[Epicenter]

If I remove the MD AV output from the 32x AV Input, the picture is a rainbowy corrupt mess and rolls terribly. I assumed it was relying on the Sync signal from the MD. It's the very first revision of Japanese Super 32x (VA0).

[David J.]

I know when I play a 32X game the picture is all wavy... but when I play a Genesis game with the 32X connected, the picture isn't wavy. Wth?

[evildragon]

If I remove the MD AV output from the 32x AV Input, the picture is a rainbowy corrupt mess and rolls terribly. I assumed it was relying on the Sync signal from the MD. It's the very first revision of Japanese Super 32x (VA0).
32X mixes it's graphics with the Genesis, and forwards the CSync to the TV..

(32X gets the genlocking from the HSync and VSync on the cartridge port)

[Epicenter]

Seems these signals are absent on the "16-Bit Joy Mega Drive 3" clone I tested the 32x with. The picture rolls uncontrollably when the 32x's output is connected directly to a TV with no input.

[evildragon]

Seems these signals are absent on the "16-Bit Joy Mega Drive 3" clone I tested the 32x with. The picture rolls uncontrollably when the 32x's output is connected directly to a TV with no input.
You need an input though, as it will use the CSync for the video encoder, along with the RGB lines for the Genesis video.

The VSync and HSync on the cart connector are only for the Ys (or whatever that pin was called), so the 32X knew where the pixels were. Ys line from the Genesis, tells the 32X which pixel to put 32X video.

[MN12BIRD]

If I remove the MD AV output from the 32x AV Input, the picture is a rainbowy corrupt mess and rolls terribly. I assumed it was relying on the Sync signal from the MD. It's the very first revision of Japanese Super 32x (VA0).

yeah same here it turns black and white and rolls. But I ditched the 32x cable completely and plugged the video cable right from the Genesis2 to the TV while playing DooM. Then you get a perfect picture of the status bar and boarder around the game play screen.