Alright, so while other normal NES games work fine, the NES powerpak I have is stuck at the ciclone system blinking... (I tried hitting reset 8 times)... would there really be any problem with my 72 pin connector while other NES games work perfectly? Maybe the Powerpak itself is faulty?
have you tried it in another NES system?
if it doesn't work in other consoles;
which region is it (PAL, NTSC, ???)?
Don't have any other NES... it is NTSC.
I had a PowerPak blinking problem on an NES recently. It turned out to be a dirty connector.
So did other carts work for you when you had this problem? Or is maybe the Powerpak more sensitive to this kind of thing...
does it work if you press it down a bit further and hold it in that position while starting it?
btw, you might not need to buy a new connector, try to clean it first.
I'm really at a loss at what to do now... I tried cleaning the 72-pin connector and reformatting the CF card... would a 72-pin connector be dirty even if other games run perfectly and the Powerpak screen with boot rom version, card version and logo shows up fine as well (but resets itself every couple seconds)? Just because I don't understand (if the connector doesn't work) why other games would work fine (along with at least the start up Powerpak screen graphic working)... maybe if I took out the lock-out chip on the NES it might go past the Ciclone region test altogether? Should I send the Powerpak in for possible repair? Get a new 72-pin converter? A lot of options here... thanks for any guidance
edit: Tried taking out the extra audio mod and that didn't work...
Xero wrote:
would a 72-pin connector be dirty even if other games run perfectly and the Powerpak screen with boot rom version, card version and logo shows up fine as well (but resets itself every couple seconds)?
If only the security pins on the PowerPak itself are dirty, you'll get blinking. I've seen it happen on authentic Game Paks.
So I tried cleaning the Powerpak pins now too... still didn't make any difference... thanks a lot for your help though I really appreciate it.
I'm thinking of possibly sending it back to Retrozone at this point to see if it needs repair... unless anyone has any other ideas? Might be a glitch that resets itself while not updating the ciclone chip... but that's just speculation. I do notice when you first turn it on though, a white screen is there for a split second, then goes into the Powerpak opening screen for another split second then resets over and over in a loop (no white screen from then on though once the power button is on).
tepples wrote:
If only the security pins on the PowerPak itself are dirty, you'll get blinking. I've seen it happen on authentic Game Paks.
I'll precise that you should say "badly contactin", not "dirty". Dirt is only one of the reasons a pin may do bad contact with the NES. The CRAPPY designed connector is another reason, with is 90% of the time. I've had only 2 times games that didn't make contact because there was dirt on the pins. Most of the times you can clean them all you want - it'll still be crappy.
However, if you disable your CIC (cutting pin 4 of it inside the console), it will at least work in the case of only security pins making mad contact. You'll get graphical glitches if CHR pins make bad contact, and a gray (or whathever color it is) screen when PRG pins make bad contact.
Problem solved... turned out to be a glitchy Ciclone chip... just disabled the lock-out chip on the NES and everything works great!
Thanks for all your help and support!
Hi, did you break off pin 4 from near the top of the lockout (CIC) chip or instead did you break off pin 4 of the CIC near the bottom of leg 4 and solder a wire onto pin 4 and ground it like others have done?
I ask as I was going to buy a Powerpak and I did it the former method before I knew about the latter method.
Also when you put the audio mod (I assume stereo mod) back in did the Powerpak still work fine? Do you get any hum sounds from your NES audio after the audio mod that you did? Do you get any audio hum when the powerpak is used? Does the Powerpak increase the audio hum?
Cheers,
Alistair G.
The "tie pin 4 of lockout chip to ground" is the right way to do it, but not really necessary. I don't do it because it seems a tad messy (I can never actually get the pin pulled up!) but if you can, do it.
And PowerPaks work with the NTSC consoles, so it's not needed at all. I would bet a decent bit of cash it was his console having a fault connector and the powerpak getting dirty then a actual faulty cart. If I were buying, I'd not worry at all.
Hope this helps.
65024U wrote:
The "tie pin 4 of lockout chip to ground" is the right way to do it, but not really necessary. I don't do it because it seems a tad messy (I can never actually get the pin pulled up!) but if you can, do it.
It doesn't really matter- the pin has a pulldown on it anyways, so just floating it will make it pull low anyways.