A question from a Newbie

Adistar · 11/19/2009, 04:22 PM

Hello one and all, I have a question I hope you can help me with, I have recently acquired a PC-FX with Zenki, Chip Chan, Zeroigar, Battle Heat and Tengai, but it appears to have a problem with the internal memory, I'm sure it is faulty, everytime I go to start a game the same message appears, in Japanese of course, the only English words are RAM, and start, it must be along the lines of your internal Ram does not work, press start to continue without saving.

I have been into the menu and formatted both the internal memory and the BMP, both menus are blank.

The problem means that certain games that I have bought since just don't work, Team innocent does not get past the run screen, the screen goes blank and then nothing happens and First kiss story just plays a message and quits back to the system menu.

Has anybody here encountered this problem, I have tentatively opened the console up, but I have no clue what I am looking for, plus I do not want to disassemble it, as it seems to be very hard to do.

Any help you may have will be gratefully received.

Arkhan Asylum · 11/19/2009, 07:59 PM

can you take pictures of the screens that appear? I've never run into any error screens! Its possible maybe it didn't format?

btw, how much did your setup cost you anyway? You got the expensive games already!

Tatsujin · 11/19/2009, 10:22 PM

i'm very sure and w/o seeing the screen, but i'm certainly sure that this message tries to inform you about your internal RAM which has to be initialized first or just is plain full -> erase some data first so that you can play the games.

nat · 11/19/2009, 10:51 PM

I think he said he already formatted his memory, and it is completely empty.

Arkhan Asylum · 11/19/2009, 10:54 PM

Quote from: nat on 11/19/2009, 10:51 PMI think he said he already formatted his memory, and it is completely empty.

yeah. I wonder if hes getting some error screen noones seen before? Are there system error screens or anything like that?

Tatsujin · 11/19/2009, 11:42 PM

Quote from: nat on 11/19/2009, 10:51 PMI think he said he already formatted his memory, and it is completely empty.

lol.. those who can read are king

Adistar · 11/20/2009, 07:40 AM

Hello again

Many thanks for your replies, most appreciated, to Arkhan, the system initially cost me £299 with Zenki, Chip Chan, First kiss and Battle heat, Zenki has a badly faded spine, so that seems to have knocked a few quid off.

I then ordered Zeroigar and Tengai for £170 and £45, and finally Team Inncocent for just £12, with that outlay it is a bit troubling to be encountering problems, I have not bothered with the machine before, sticking to my PC engine collection, but the machine and games seemed a good deal, all except Team innocent and First kiss play absolutely fine, but none save anything to the machine.

The format message appears to be the same for the internal memory and the BMP, what they say I have not a clue, but there does not seem to be a problem formatting either.

I have taken three pictures of the screens for Chip Chan, Zeroigar and First kiss. I have attached them, hope I've done it right!!

Tatsujin · 11/20/2009, 12:29 PM

as I just thought, there isn't nuff RAM available. therefore RAM must be cleard that the game can be saved.

OldSchoolGamer · 11/20/2009, 03:53 PM

OBEY le Tats!

Adistar · 11/20/2009, 04:01 PM

Hi Tatsujin

There is nothing in the RAM at all, it is totally blank, no game data is listed, I have photographed it, along with the formatting screens, I format the memory, but it makes no difference, the previous messages still come up, Team innocent fails to load etc.

Arkhan Asylum · 11/20/2009, 07:16 PM

man! You paid a ton for those games! >_< I was hoping maybe you got them for a steal!

Hmm, your problem is strange. Very strange. Gonna need a PC-FX internals specialist to fix it.

Maybe the internal BRAM battery is dead?

Adistar · 11/20/2009, 07:38 PM

Quote from: guest on 11/20/2009, 07:16 PMman! You paid a ton for those games! >_< I was hoping maybe you got them for a steal!

Hmm, your problem is strange. Very strange. Gonna need a PC-FX internals specialist to fix it.

Maybe the internal BRAM battery is dead?

Here in England it seems to be an expensive console to collect for, Zenki is only on sale on a couple of sites and is going for £250-£280, Chip chan is around £80-£150,
and Zeroigar I have only seen on sale once and I snapped it up while I could.

The machine goes for around £100 to £150 depending on condition.

One of the reasons I have never gone for one until now is the price of the games.

The problem is very strange and annoying, If there is a battery on the board that does give me some hope, if it is down to faulty capacitors or something along those lines I am rubbish with a soldering iron!

I have even tried leaving it on for a few hours to see if it charged something up, but it didn't.

Arkhan Asylum · 11/20/2009, 08:33 PM

you could attempt to dis assemble the unit yourself and see if theres a battery on the board , but if you're not patient/good at reassembling weird stuff, you might want to hold off til someone confirms that there is a battery on there.

Tatsujin · 11/21/2009, 03:48 AM

Quote from: Adistar on 11/20/2009, 04:01 PMHi Tatsujin

There is nothing in the RAM at all, it is totally blank, no game data is listed, I have photographed it, along with the formatting screens, I format the memory, but it makes no difference, the previous messages still come up, Team innocent fails to load etc.

Adistar, what you did was completely right. you initialized the RAM which then deleted all backup files succesfully. so at that point i can't help anymore. as already stated from arkhan, it seems to have a problem with the FX ram/management.

but normally the battery should have no effect as long the device is powered

Arkhan Asylum · 11/21/2009, 04:08 AM

Quote from: Tatsujin on 11/21/2009, 03:48 AMbut normally the battery should have no effect as long the device is powered

yeah... this is true, it should at least be able to start a game and create save data, and then just lose the data upon power off.

Hmmmmm

Adistar · 11/21/2009, 06:00 AM

Thanks guys, you have confirmed I am using the console correctly, I thought I was, but it is good to be sure, so it must have a serious fault, I have found this page

http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1305

This guy has taken his fx apart, and there is a couple of close up pictures of the boards, and there is no battery, so it must be a capacitor, or chip that is faulty, just my luck!!

Charlie · 11/21/2009, 09:07 AM

I'm not fully familiar with that unit, but I have studied the two pictures of the large boards as best I can (wish there were closer close-ups), and I do not see anything that jumps out as a super-cap or a battery.

However, the most likely spot for such a device would be someplace in close proximity to the power supply circuitry...and it appears that said power supply circuitry is inside the narrow rectangular "swiss-cheese" shield, which, as Murphy would have it, is the one board that is not disassembled and has no close-up picture!

Just my 2 cents worth..
Charlie

Tatsujin · 11/21/2009, 09:35 AM

since the PC-FX came out relatively late (almost PSone age) i could imagine that it uses an eeprom (or kind flash memory) for saving datas.

btw. i don't think a RAM buffer supercap would be placed near the power supply, more near the RAM, which again would be placed some where on the mainboard.

so, it's just possible that the memory is somehow damaged or such.

how about other games?

Arkhan Asylum · 11/21/2009, 02:36 PM

try contacting the dude at NFG games, hes pretty cool and can maybe help you out.

Adistar · 11/21/2009, 04:45 PM

Right, I have taken the front panel off the machine, and looking past the blue power button on the front, can be clearly seen a backup capacitor, it is right next to where the BMP plugs in, I have managed to photograph it, I have also marked a square round the battery in the second picture where it is on the board, under the white panel, you can just see the bottom of it, this must be the culprit to the problem, my next problem is reaching it to find out what it is and if it can be replaced.

OlgaShtain · 07/04/2010, 02:40 AM

I am a newbie to the max. For those who dont know me I have no idea on how to do anything with my truck.. so Im trying to learn. Ive had a noise coming from the driver side front wheel for a couple months now and I have no idea what to do. When the wheel spins it makes a "swoosh" sound, but once I drive around for a while it makes a high pitched squeek. It doesnt make noise when I brake, just when I drive. It also doesnt make the noise when I turn a corner just when Im driving straight. My friend initially suggested the Heat Shield, and he said it was sticking out a little bit so he hit it back a little bit but it didnt do anything. Another friend told me its the brakes.. so Im going to lift it up tomorrow and take a look. Does anyone know what I should be looking for? Like I said before Im trying to learn on my own so Im kinda lost here

TGX16 · 07/09/2010, 05:18 PM

Quote from: OlgaShtain on 07/04/2010, 02:40 AMI am a newbie to the max. For those who dont know me I have no idea on how to do anything with my truck.. so Im trying to learn. Ive had a noise coming from the driver side front wheel for a couple months now and I have no idea what to do. When the wheel spins it makes a "swoosh" sound, but once I drive around for a while it makes a high pitched squeek. It doesnt make noise when I brake, just when I drive. It also doesnt make the noise when I turn a corner just when Im driving straight. My friend initially suggested the Heat Shield, and he said it was sticking out a little bit so he hit it back a little bit but it didnt do anything. Another friend told me its the brakes.. so Im going to lift it up tomorrow and take a look. Does anyone know what I should be looking for? Like I said before Im trying to learn on my own so Im kinda lost here

I´d say this question has come in the wrong forum all together,
however I´d say that the wheelbearing is the culprit.

NecroPhile · 07/09/2010, 05:53 PM

Quote from: TGX16 on 07/09/2010, 05:18 PMI´d say this question has come in the wrong forum all together, however I´d say that the wheelbearing is the culprit.

I'd say it came from SpamBot 3000.

Arkhan Asylum · 07/21/2010, 02:18 AM

Quote from: NecroPhile on 07/09/2010, 05:53 PM
Quote from: TGX16 on 07/09/2010, 05:18 PMI´d say this question has come in the wrong forum all together, however I´d say that the wheelbearing is the culprit.
I'd say it came from SpamBot 3000.

OlgaShitstain!

lol

Mathius · 07/30/2010, 12:22 PM

I wonder if Adistar ever got his problem fixed?

"Olgashtain" probably saw the name of this site "pcenginefx" and thought it was a site dedicated to engine repair. Engine=well, engine and fx could be missinterperated as "fix." PC Engine Fix

Adistar · 07/31/2010, 03:08 PM

I wonder if Adistar ever got his problem fixed?

No, it still does not work as it should, I took the capacitor out to see if was causing a short or something, but it behaves just the same, I put it back together and left it at that, takes so long to get into it, and after taking it apart twice already, I collected a couple of springs and screws that fit in God knows where!