MSX2 does not play cartridges [SOLVED]

Por VegaVegas

Resident (59)

Imagen del VegaVegas

26-05-2020, 12:07

Here I have an issue with my MSX2 HB-F1XDmk2. Once I replaced FDD belt the diskettes started to work 100% fine, I could play MSX2 games and some standard MSX games by MSX-DOS like Mappy, Zanac, Knightmare etc. I got a dev-cart today that can play up to 32KB standard games. However none of any standard 32KB games play through the cartridge slot. Absolutely nothing plays through the cartridge slot, not even any games that played fine from the FDD... I suspect something is wrong with the cartridge slot circuitry, so do you have any ideas where to start?? Thanks in advance for your help

Just to pinpoint one thing- both slots aren't functional, slot2 is just as dead as slot1

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Por meits

Scribe (6530)

Imagen del meits

26-05-2020, 12:51

did you try several games through that one cartridge or did you try several cartridges?

Por VegaVegas

Resident (59)

Imagen del VegaVegas

26-05-2020, 14:15

Well, I kind of expected that question. I have only 1 dev-cart PCB and recorded a few games on it and none of them worked. I only got some slight signs of life once I tried to launch Zanac. What I mean signs of life I got some random Japanese kana characters displayed on the screen, other than that it was just blue screen or system resetting constantly. The system was initially described as "cassette was not recognized" so I would definitely say something is faulty in the system

I measured the voltage and it was 5.26V (heat sink was removed) which is kind of steady and expected. I kind of start to answer my own questions as I found HB-F1XD service manual which is almost 100% the same model:
http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/docs/service_manuals/sonyhb...

I suspect IC4 is most likely to be defective as this is the data latch for cartridge slots. Secondly I would suspect any or all of IC12, IC13 or IC14 gate chips. What are your ideas??

Por Manuel

Ascended (19273)

Imagen del Manuel

26-05-2020, 14:18

I'd first try with a regular, known working, cartridge...

Por meits

Scribe (6530)

Imagen del meits

26-05-2020, 15:24

While you're at it, please suspect the hic board underneath the diskdrive as well. if it ain't already overleaked with capacitor acid it will soon.

Furthermore what Manuel said and what I was trying to hint at in my first post.

Por VegaVegas

Resident (59)

Imagen del VegaVegas

26-05-2020, 15:46

OK, I have some update- I found an empty EPROM 2764 that is 8KB/64Kbit and tried to program Warp Warp on it just for the sake of it. Once I launched that on my MSX and to my surprise... it WORKED! On both slots! However that is just a 8KB game only and it's on a very old UV EPROM. At least there are some real signs of life on those cartridge slots after all

So just to be specific- I tried to program a 32KB game before on W27E257 flash chip and it didn't work at all, even though they were programmed and verified. So if any of you know very technical details- when a game is 8KB, /OE pin of chip needs to be connected to /CS1, when 16KB -> /CS2 and if 32KB -> /CS12 respectively, so I reconnected them as respectively. After all I have no idea why that flash chip didn't want to work or perhaps any of the higher /CS pins are damaged. Any ideas??

Por Guillian

Prophet (3516)

Imagen del Guillian

26-05-2020, 15:53

Try to swap the higher 16KBs with the lower 16KBs of the 32 KB ROM. You can use a hex editor or similar.

A 32KB ROM should be visible at #4000-#BFFF on the MSX

Bear in mind that if you write the 32KB as is, the first/lower 16KB will be visible at #8000, and the higher 16KB will be at #4000.

Por VegaVegas

Resident (59)

Imagen del VegaVegas

26-05-2020, 16:08

Guillian wrote:

Bear in mind that if you write the 32KB as is, the first/lower 16KB will be visible at #8000, and the higher 16KB will be at #4000.

AH, I was completely not aware of that... Alright, once I swapped two halves and flashed the ROM chip, the cart started to work. So the machine seems to be 100% working from the very start, amazing! Looks like this is the thing of learning something new with new machines. Many thanks for your help!

(I consider this matter as finished, so please mark the topic as [SOLVED])