PC Engine Core Grafx Overheat?

[LaC]

I have a Core Grafx that appears to lock up due to over heating.
If I play Soldier Blade for like 15 minutes and then go and try to play Air Zonk, Air Zonk will lock up with garbled graphics almost immediately.  Sometimes the music will continue.
If I then let the system cool down for a bit, Air Zonk will play fine. Eventually locking up much later.
I had problems with other systems before (sega cd, 32x), and a full cap replacement fixed it.

Is this at all common?
I was wondering if there are any other things I should be checking/replacing that could be causing this? I was thinking maybe the 7805 regulator too.

[schweaty]

Core Grafx aren't commonly known to overheat or need cap replacements.  Have you checked the voltages at the regulator?

[Tatsujin]

do you use an original PSU? or what rate does it have?

but even if the 7805 overheats a bit, it still should regulate the 5V voltage just fine.

maybe something completely different? like dirty contacts, or some cold/broken solder points in the inside, which can cause such phenomenons when the system warms up a bit etc. how do other games react?

[LaC]

do you use an original PSU? or what rate does it have?

but even if the 7805 overheats a bit, it still should regulate the 5V voltage just fine.

maybe something completely different? like dirty contacts, or some cold/broken solder points in the inside, which can cause such phenomenons when the system warms up a bit etc. how do other games react?

I'll check the voltage on the 7805. And maybe just replace it to see what happens.
I've had other games lock up too.
I use the sega genesis model1 power supply.

I should probably look for cold/broken solder joints around the heat sink? Nothing else feels hot to the touch. The heat sink and power switch sure do get decently hot though.

[Bernie]

Id go with an original power supply first.

[thesteve]

mine has an issue with 1 game card when hot
but its when the game is hot, not the system
game fine other systems
system fine other games

[LaC]

Id go with an original power supply first.

Don't have one. I thought the voltage from a gen model1 was well within tolerance...
Is there a known issue with them?

[Bernie]

I'm not totally positive, but its a cheap way to tell.  Retro game cave sells em.

[LaC]

It does have an RGB amp installed. Very similar to the one talked about here -> http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?45483-What-s-currently-the-best-RGB-mod-for-the-PC-Engine

There are power decoupling caps (0.1uf+220uf) in parallel on VCC->gnd on the amp itself. And 0.1uf+200uf on the 6260, pin 41 and pin 43 both, to ground.

mine has an issue with 1 game card when hot
but its when the game is hot, not the system
game fine other systems
system fine other games

[LaC]

Ok so I don't think this is a heat thing. I just turned it on cold and it locked up with the same type of graphic distortions in Air Zonk. 
Also more info... This is using an Everdrive. (This is not my system, trying to fix it for someone).
I turned it off, and reinserted the Everdrive, and now it worked up until the end of Level 1, then crash.

It does have an RGB amp installed. Very similar to the one talked about here -> http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?45483-What-s-currently-the-best-RGB-mod-for-the-PC-Engine

There are power decoupling caps (0.1uf+220uf) in parallel on VCC->gnd on the amp itself. And 0.1uf+200uf on the 6260, pin 41 and pin 43 both, to ground.

mine has an issue with 1 game card when hot
but its when the game is hot, not the system
game fine other systems
system fine other games

[Tatsujin]

do you use an original PSU? or what rate does it have?

but even if the 7805 overheats a bit, it still should regulate the 5V voltage just fine.

maybe something completely different? like dirty contacts, or some cold/broken solder points in the inside, which can cause such phenomenons when the system warms up a bit etc. how do other games react?

I'll check the voltage on the 7805. And maybe just replace it to see what happens.
I've had other games lock up too.
I use the sega genesis model1 power supply.

I should probably look for cold/broken solder joints around the heat sink? Nothing else feels hot to the touch. The heat sink and power switch sure do get decently hot though.

I was more thinking of cold solder joints around the data lines/conducting paths etc. which might crash a game when not making properly contacts.

[LaC]

Are you saying I should get in there with a magnifying glass and check every joint? sounds like fun. though, not sure if i'd be able to tell good from bad at that scale.

do you use an original PSU? or what rate does it have?

but even if the 7805 overheats a bit, it still should regulate the 5V voltage just fine.

maybe something completely different? like dirty contacts, or some cold/broken solder points in the inside, which can cause such phenomenons when the system warms up a bit etc. how do other games react?

I'll check the voltage on the 7805. And maybe just replace it to see what happens.
I've had other games lock up too.
I use the sega genesis model1 power supply.

I should probably look for cold/broken solder joints around the heat sink? Nothing else feels hot to the touch. The heat sink and power switch sure do get decently hot though.

I was more thinking of cold solder joints around the data lines/conducting paths etc. which might crash a game when not making properly contacts.

[schweaty]

take out the everdrive.  what happens when you use real PCE games?  it could just be a bad everdrive or corrupted ROMs

[OGHUGO]

This sounds very familiar..
Hmm....

[FriendofSonic]

LOL, what a twisted triangle. We have the original seller and now the buyer checking in in these last two posts. I'm not intending on taking sides, but I'll be curious to find out what the solution is. For the record, my TED never crashed in my Turbo Grafx, but I also never tested the Air Zonk ROM so I don't know *shrugs*

I *think* the romset I downloaded was indicated to be Everdrive friendly-- not that means anything at the end of the day since people make mistakes and a bad rom may not have been discovered.

I am a layman but would a bad ROM cause garbled graphics (and still run)? In my experience,  ROMs immediately lock up and never really run. I'm also not sure why he would get inconsistent results with running the ROM. Could still point to a hardware failure with the TED I guess,  but that still brings me back to the point of how I didn't have issue with my TG.

[OGHUGO]

LOL, what a twisted triangle. We have the original seller and now the buyer checking in in these last two posts. I'm not intending on taking sides, but I'll be curious to find out what the solution is. For the record, my TED never crashed in my Turbo Grafx, but I also never tested the Air Zonk ROM so I don't know *shrugs*

I *think* the romset I downloaded was indicated to be Everdrive friendly-- not that means anything at the end of the day since people make mistakes and a bad rom may not have been discovered.

I am a layman but would a bad ROM cause garbled graphics (and still run)? In my experience,  ROMs immediately lock up and never really run. I'm also not sure why he would get inconsistent results with running the ROM. Could still point to a hardware failure with the TED I guess,  but that still brings me back to the point of how I didn't have issue with my TG.

Indeed, as I've told you in our emails back and forth I never had a problem with the system locking up.  I used original HuCards and not a TED since I recently got that.  When I opened the system to mod it, there were no leaky or blown caps.  Perhaps the TED is just drawing too much power from the system making it overheat/lock up ?  I know that I tapped in to the +5 from the card slot for the region mod chip.  Maybe before attempting to re-cap the system and charge you for his work, LaC can tap in to the power from the regulator instead of from the card slot to see if perhaps that fixes the issue.

[FriendofSonic]

Well bad caps don't always leak AFAIK (my Game Gear experience definitely tells me this, at least for GG systems )but I'll bow out of this conversation since I'm not the most experienced person in technical matters like this.

[thesteve]

Caps can be an issue, but I expect not this time
Most flash carts (not sure on TED) use 3.3V flash chips
They don't drive the bus as well
This is rarely an issue, but will cause what you described

[Bernie]

Wait... this thing is locking up or acting stupid when using a Turbo EverDrive with roms, but from the sound of it does NOT do so with actual HuCARD games? 

Funny thing is, I have never had issues with my EverDrive.  I use a rom set that I went through and divided up by region/hacks/translations, and have never once had the TE lock up my system.  However, others have had issues with roms they had, that did just that.  Fixing it was as easy as directing them to my set. 

I guess the system should be tested with a real Huey to see what it does.  Then just go from there.

[OGHUGO]

Wait... this thing is locking up or acting stupid when using a Turbo EverDrive with roms, but from the sound of it does NOT do so with actual HuCARD games? 

Funny thing is, I have never had issues with my EverDrive.  I use a rom set that I went through and divided up by region/hacks/translations, and have never once had the TE lock up my system.  However, others have had issues with roms they had, that did just that.  Fixing it was as easy as directing them to my set. 

I guess the system should be tested with a real Huey to see what it does.  Then just go from there.

Well said Bernie.  I never had an issue with this system when using it with real hucards never did test it with a TED (since I barely got it).  Friend of sonic said he played the system when he got it for like 15 mins with a TED and didn't see any problems.  I when I got my TED I tried some old roms I had for years on my pc and most didn't work so I when to the isozone and for their set and everything worked fine.  So please have LaC 1.  Use a regular hucards, 2.  Try tapping power from the 7805 for the region mod switch and 3. Get a well known working rom set for the TED and have him report back..

[FriendofSonic]

Wait... this thing is locking up or acting stupid when using a Turbo EverDrive with roms, but from the sound of it does NOT do so with actual HuCARD games? 

Funny thing is, I have never had issues with my EverDrive.  I use a rom set that I went through and divided up by region/hacks/translations, and have never once had the TE lock up my system.  However, others have had issues with roms they had, that did just that.  Fixing it was as easy as directing them to my set. 

I guess the system should be tested with a real Huey to see what it does.  Then just go from there.

Can we make arrangements for me to get that ROM set or at least the ROM for Air Zonk so I can get it over to LaC? I'll send you a PM or if for some reason I can't,  my email is my user name on this site @gmail.com

OGHUGO, you still sold me a system with terrible jail bars which since have been greatly alleviated,  so I'm not sure where I lie on your claims of testing it. Maybe it is my ROMset, maybe not. Hope it's the former.

[OGHUGO]

Wait... this thing is locking up or acting stupid when using a Turbo EverDrive with roms, but from the sound of it does NOT do so with actual HuCARD games? 

Funny thing is, I have never had issues with my EverDrive.  I use a rom set that I went through and divided up by region/hacks/translations, and have never once had the TE lock up my system.  However, others have had issues with roms they had, that did just that.  Fixing it was as easy as directing them to my set. 

I guess the system should be tested with a real Huey to see what it does.  Then just go from there.

Can we make arrangements for me to get that ROM set or at least the ROM for Air Zonk so I can get it over to LaC? I'll send you a PM or if for some reason I can't,  my email is my user name on this site @gmail.com

OGHUGO, you still sold me a system with terrible jail bars which since have been greatly alleviated,  so I'm not sure where I lie on your claims of testing it. Maybe it is my ROMset, maybe not. Hope it's the former.

Friend of Sonic, never said you lied..  sorry if you thought I meant that..  I did not meant that what so ever.  Just don't know if you relayed that info to LaC..  Also I took pics, and I did not have jailbars using an XRGB mini connected through HDMI on a 50 inch plasma.  You have a PVM..  So I guess that is totally different.   I think I did ask you to try to view this on a different screen..  like a scaler or converter.  But you saw I sent you pics and they did not show jailbars..
Here is the pics I sent Sonic if you guys would like to check them out and see if you guys can see any jailbars in the images.
http://oghugo.com/ebay/coreg/pics/index.php
Let me know thanks.

[thesteve]

I don't see any
Please note than cables and even cable routing can cause them

[bust3dstr8]

If it could be a thermal issue I would try press testing and/or cold spray on the QFPs after it fails.

[Tatsujin]

yeah no jailbars there.  crispy as crisp RGB.