Virtua Racing SVP Cart Dead?

[Speedle]

Hey Guys,

I picked up a lovely mint copy of Virtua Racing this week, only to take it home and find it's not loading.

I get the Licensed by Sega screen then nothing but a black screen.

I've tested this on both Model 1 MD's that I have and both yield the same results

I opened the cart and gave it a good clean with contact cleaner and also replaced both the caps... alas still not booting.

Has anyone else had this issue with VR? I've searched High and Low on the interwebs and the forums and come up with nothing apart from a few others having similar issues with no resolution.

I'm resigned to the fact it may be dead...

[Thierry Henry]

My JP VR always hangs/freezes at the exact same spot every time.
As with yourself, I've also not been able to find any relevant info as to a possible fix.

[Speedle]

Damn that sucks dude!

I did re-flow all the SVP chip soldier as well to no effect, may reflow the entire board and see if that helps...

[Ace]

Just to be sure, you should measure the voltage on the 5V pins. In my experience, Virtua Racing tends to freak out when you have voltage on the cartridge slot below approximately 3.9V. Also, this game does not behave well on overclocked consoles at all.

[negative chill]

Kind of an interesting issue, wonder if any owners of 32x carts have had a similar problem or if it's just exclusive to VR for the Genesis

[Speedle]

so far it seem the SVP versions are the only one's where I've found others having issues. I know the SVP cart apparently doesn't like being plugged into a 32x and wont work like this. It's probably something to do with the fact that Sega rushed it into production as an answer to Nintendo's Super FX chip. As result maybe the components used are slightly sub-standard... who knows.

Anyway's I bought myself a cart only copy from eBay which works so at least I have a working CIB copy now, so I can experiment with the broken copy now and see if I can get it working again. Should I have any luck I will let you all know.

Had a play though on it and it's actually not as bad as many people say. Runs fast and smooth, yeah it's not as good as the 32x version but it's totally playable IMO. I like it anyways

[Thierry Henry]

Well this is my faulty VR that I had taken a pic of a few years ago when I posted it on these boards.

If your trained eye can pick up something there, let me know.

[cleeg]

I agree, it's very playable and totally impressive that such an 'experimental' release plays as well as it does. Also, I like the plain polygon style in general so this game looks nice to me. I get why it looks ugly to others though.

Glad you got a working copy!

[SPiET]

Same here. Had the game always in its box.

Want to start up. It starts up with the SEGA logo, then goes into the intro screen but video is all distorted! Audio is good so chip dead?

Any way i can test something?

[SPiET]

You mean C21 and C22? @Ace

[SPiET]

I had this game for years and years on the shelf, played perfectly, now suddenly all video graphics distortions, corrupted.

It boots up , and video is all distorted. Audio is fine.

Any idea what is causing this? How can i repair this?

I replaced the 2 caps already.

Dead chip(s)?

[majinga]

My copy of VR no longer work too.

The initial issue was a complete black screen.
I have tried on several MDs, but nothing.

So I tried to replace the caps, with no results.

Then I tried to re-solder every joints, and now the game run again, but with no 3D.

The joints looked fine to me, so it seems a bit strange that re-solder them have improved something.
I've done it just because it was easy to do, and I had no other ideas.

Suggestion?

[majinga]

Ok, now things are getting really odd.

After an inspection I've discovered two pin shorted on IC3, the ram.
After I removed the short the game no longer work at all. I got a black screen.

I checked on the datasheet, the two pins shorted are two of the address, A1 and A2, pin 16 and 17.
https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datash...ction=download

So I tried to solder back together, and now the game run again, but with no 3D.

vr-ram.jpg

Apparently I've accidentally solder them together when I re-soldered the joints.

I wonder if the problem is really the ram.
It can be anything else, but I I'll try to replace the ram IC, just for start.

[majinga]

RAM replaced. No changes. Exactly same behavior as before.

I'm open to suggestions.

[Lycanphoenix]

Replace more things?