System 246 won't boot

[DJ Long Cat]

I get the white dot stary screen thing, then it goes to a black screen. Does this mean I need a new DVD drive? I'm running Soulcalibur 2.

[Spectre]

I get the white dot stary screen thing, then it goes to a black screen. Does this mean I need a new DVD drive? I'm running Soulcalibur 2.

Has the motherboard ever booted while in your possesion, is the dongle present, any other software to try?

In my experience Namco 246 is power hungry and very flaky. How are you running it?

[andygeezer]

Sys246 is the POS arcade hardware ever - and should be bin'd.

[Spectre]

Sys246 is the POS arcade hardware ever - and should be bin'd.

shame really as there are some half-decent games on it

[andygeezer]

Yeah nice games - but the hardware scares me - look at it funny and it stops working.

[invzim]

Is system 256 regarded as more stable?

[subbie]

I get the white dot stary screen thing, then it goes to a black screen. Does this mean I need a new DVD drive? I'm running Soulcalibur 2.

When you turn it on. Do you hear a tone from the speaker? Does it go "Ding Ding Ding" then stop or does it sound like a scratching error? The system gives a different tone on booting if it booted the dongle properly.

Sys246 is the POS arcade hardware ever - and should be bin'd.

no no no no. You mean 357. =P

[chacal]

Check 5 volt ,check IDE ribbon cable

[kamex]

Yeah, I had to really ramp up the 5V to get my 246 to run in my Blast City. If I'm not mistaken, the JAMMA adapter board thing has a little light on it that will stay solidly lit if it is getting enough power. If it isn't, it will keep blinking.

Not sure what I had to set the 5V on the PSU to in order to get it to run, I just turned it up little by little until it would boot and run.

[dion]

When you turn it on. Do you hear a tone from the speaker? Does it go "Ding Ding Ding" then stop or does it sound like a scratching error? The system gives a different tone on booting if it booted the dongle properly.

this is not true if you're turning them on in their cab. because the sound amp have a bit delay after power on that long enough to skip that ding sounds. you can however trick this, by keep the sound amp alive when powering off the main board.

[DJ Long Cat]

Ok an update because I wanted to wait for a new drive.

I'm pretty sure the board just died in transport (which is lol for me since I've dealt with CPS3 and STV before and nothing bad happened).

I get no beeps at startup and the screen goes black after 15-20 seconds of star-field. I'm pretty sure its a dead board.

The PSU was running the 5VDC line at 7ish volts but it didn't complain on the JAMMA board. I just don't know what to do at this point, other than submit an insurance claim at my post office.

[purplec]

From what I remember the snow is a good thing, this happened to me on my 246 when I tried to run Tekken 4

[Spectre]

The PSU was running the 5VDC line at 7ish volts

[DJ Long Cat]

The PSU was running the 5VDC line at 7ish volts

Could that have damaged the board? I have another PSU that I could try but I just installed it into my Neo. Could this really just be a PSU issue?

[Spectre]

Could that have damaged the board? I have another PSU that I could try but I just installed it into my Neo. Could this really just be a PSU issue?

Just a PSU issue? If you feed something the wrong voltages then there are no guarantees it's going to work. Best case scenario everything will be fine for a while but eventually parts will fail. Worst case scenario you'll damage your hardware the second you turn it on. I wouldn't connect up anything with +7v on the 5v rail and expect it to work, let alone notoriously picky hardware like namco 246.

[DJ Long Cat]

I tried my other, more correct psu on it (4.95vdc) before I used this one.

Why would the game still function if it was damaged with high voltage? Wouldn't the jamma board detect too high of voltage?

I'm pretty much just coming to the conclusion that the board is dead and I'm planning on getting another.

[Hewitson]

Why would the game still function if it was damaged with high voltage? Wouldn't the jamma board detect too high of voltage?

Absolutely not.

[DJ Long Cat]

Well I guess I can call this one closed.

Could it have harmed my dongles?

I had no idea the PSU was so jank since the atomiswave worked with it. I guess that a resilant piece of hardware!

[subbie]

Try getting another 246. The dongles might be ok or possibly were dead from the start.

If you keep an eye out loose 246 can sometimes show up for cheap on ebay (like sub $60).