Ghouls n Ghosts Not Working At All

[Asayuki]

Hi Asayuki What do you mean by loose joints exactly? Do you mean chip legs? or the joints that connect the A and B boards?

I mean any mechanical contact, solder joint or else that looks good but in reality isn't. Unfortunately there is not much to hint you about on this. You have to carefully inspect your board for solder joints that look suspicious, clean all connectors, sockets and chips that fit into those sockets. Feel free to post a photo of whatever you think suspicious and we will tell you our opinion. Other than wishing you good hunt there's not much that can be done remotely.

I have my ESR meter now and I measured the big electrolytic cap on the left side/ front of the Ghouls board. It has written on the cap : 2200 uF 25V . My meter said it was 2304 uF ESR=0.08 Ohms. The standard ESR for a 2200uF cap according to the chart with my ESR meter is 0.06 Ohms. Is my capicitor too high a resistance?

That cap is more than fine and serves the audio amplifier. It has nothing to do with the logic.

How do I measure the other capacitors on the board ? My ESR meter only has crocodile clips. So I need legs to attach it to. I need metal probes to attach to the clips i guess?

You can use two metal terminals cut from some old capacitor or resistor.
For a proper measurement don't forget to desolder the component from the circuit and to discharge the capacitor before connecting to the ESR meter. If the cap is still charged, you can fry your meter.

[Missile5]

Hi Asayuki What do you mean by loose joints exactly? Do you mean chip legs? or the joints that connect the A and B boards?

I mean any mechanical contact, solder joint or else that looks good but in reality isn't. Unfortunately there is not much to hint you about on this. You have to carefully inspect your board for solder joints that look suspicious, clean all connectors, sockets and chips that fit into those sockets. Feel free to post a photo of whatever you think suspicious and we will tell you our opinion. Other than wishing you good hunt there's not much that can be done remotely.

Ok I'll get looking. It's annoying because I am not an electronics guy so keep having to buy everything I need - even bits of wire. I should buy a solder iron next in case I need one. My logic probe arrived today, so that's something else at least.

I have swapped the A board with my Strider. G n G seems to start every time now (although its early days) and no longer restarts when I jog or move the boards. I haven't yet tried Strider B board with G n G A board (to make 100% sure it is the A board which is the problem) which I'll do next.

HOWEVER there is now a graphics issue that wasn't there with the old GG A board. When Arthur moves left - his animation frames seem to not be flipped within their sprite squares.He also has the same problems when climbing ladders. Otherwise he is fine. I haven't played far into the game, but the vultures also have this problem when flying right (but they are fine going left). I haven't noticed any of these problems with Strider at all. Any ideas on this?

[Asayuki]

According to your account of the facts, I have the impression that the board to board connectors of the GnG B board are dirty or there might be a bent pin.
You might see some strange stuff on Strider as well because of GnG's A board connectors being dirty as well. Of course I might be totally wrong.
Your eyes (and maybe a strong magnifying lens) are the best tools you might want in this hunt.

[Missile5]

According to your account of the facts, I have the impression that the board to board connectors of the GnG B board are dirty or there might be a bent pin.
You might see some strange stuff on Strider as well because of GnG's A board connectors being dirty as well. Of course I might be totally wrong.
Your eyes (and maybe a strong magnifying lens) are the best tools you might want in this hunt.

The pins all look fine to me as far as i can see. They look clean too. I spent quite a long time looking. Solder joints on pins look solid too.

SInce my last post I have done the following:

I unplugged the Strider A board from the G n G B board and inserted it again and had the same issue with the graphics so not sure why that is happening.



(Not a great photo but you should be able to make out Arthur moving left - actually the images are facing correct way but are in the wrong 16 x 16 sprite boxes. You can see his body halves are swapped here. He moves right as normal)

I then tried the Strider B board with my G n G A board and had the same problems with Strider as I used to have with G n G: When I switch it on it has a blank screen and will usually play a piece of music from Strider on repeat. Didn't manage to start the game after 7 attempts and gave up. But it may be possible to start it. Once G n G failed to start 12 times.

Just to check the Strider A board was still working I plugged Strider back into it and had a great time playing a fully-functioning game. I looked carefully to see if there were any problems with the graphics but couldn't see any.

The Strider B Board has a repair on the back I think. Doubt it changes things but here's a photo



I am thinking I need to get hold of another CPS1 A board to try with G n G. It could work.

[Asayuki]

Ok, then you have two issues. One appearing randomly on the A board of your GnG set. The other needs to be verified whether it belongs to the Strider's A board or to GnG's B board.
After you have tested with yet another A board, one thing you should really do is to use your logic probe to compare signals on the two A boards. You sure will find out why one of the two is not starting most of the times.

[Missile5]

The other needs to be verified whether it belongs to the Strider's A board or to GnG's B board.

Thanks for the help.

It's important to realize that the graphics issue with G n G only occurs when using Strider A board with G n G B Board. When (sadly not often) G n G works with it's original A board there are no graphics problems.

I suppose its possible the Strider A board has a fault that isn't shown up by Strider. Maybe G n G uses a feature that Strider doesn't? For example maybe Strider doesn't use flipped characters or some kind of other animation feature

Yes I need to get another A board to check. I haven't figured out how to use my logic probe yet but I'll read up on it and do that next

[Missile5]

I've just had my Ghouls n Ghosts A Board fixed by a proper repairer. Some of the pins of the CPS-A-01 chip were not connected properly. Feels great to finally have this working

[Asayuki]

Glad you got it solved! Yet another saved Capcom pearl.