ToToTEK.COM

[nickkipue]

Hello.

I have just got a pro fighter q 24m. It has a slimline floppy drive that does not read floppies. I swapped it out for a new standard floppy drive. Everything works fine except the floppy drive is always on. If I run a file, it will read, and start the game, but the floppy inside will keep spinning (and run hot) whereas it should stop once the game is loaded.
Anyone has come up with any incompatibility issue like this?

[amptor]

I'm not sure if I can offer much help here. But when building computers I noticed a couple things. First of all, if the cable was plugged in backwards the drive would exhibit this behavior but it would not read files or recognize the drive that way. Since you can read files then you aren't having this problem. Another thing is the floppy drive itself was quite possibly redesigned over time to behave differently for BIOS of newer computers (detection, which drive letter it is and such).

I would recommend trying to replace the floppy drive with one of the same manufacturer and hopefully the same year of drive. It should work. If you only have modern drives available and are experiencing this problem you might have to try a different vendor or in rare cases you could take the controller from the original drive and swap it but I doubt a newer drive is going to accept the old controller circuit board from a mid 90s floppy disk drive.

I kinda doubt you have inadvertantly flipped over the power cable that is feeding the disk drive or else it probably would have fried the thing right away. Just in case, check and make sure the power is plugged into it properly and not backwards. I think the floppy power connector supplies +5V and +12V. If you feed +12V rail into where the drive is suppose to take +5V it should have arced to ground and obliterated the controller board though. In simpler terms, the drive wouldn't work any more if that were the case.

Any other thoughts, guys? I haven't ever had to replace a floppy drive in a copier before. Some people seem to really use up their hardware. My wildcard still has its original drive in it and it works fine. I still even have the made in japan teac floppy drive that came with my 386sx/16 and that drive still works fine too

[Mystic_Merlin]

Something might be shorted on one of the lines.
Usually those copiers have their pcb right on top of the floppy case which can cause shortage. You can use a piece of paper between both to avoid this issue.

Run some continuity tests on the SPF and as advised check out another floppy drive as it could also be some settings on the FDD itself.

[nickkipue]

Hi, I was very carefull not to short anything. There are some spacers to avoid touching the pcb with the floppy drive underneath. It looks like it is related to the floppy drive itself. I swapped it with another one and it looks now fine. However, the pfq now randomly crashes after games load. The thing is rock stable in the starting menu. strange. The caps look ok.

[Mystic_Merlin]

Random crashes are most of the time related to memory issues: defective memory board or too slow.

Best way to test it is to try different SlowRom/FastRom and different sizes (4,8,12,16,24).

[nickkipue]

I tested a save of a 4mb game and it works perfect. I tested with a 16mb game and it crashes (graphical glitches for a few moment then crash). I know the owner of it and he said it has never crashed when he was playing it. Can a ram board go bad with time?

[Mystic_Merlin]

AFAIC, amongst the 50+ copiers I've collected I've never had any memory board issue, even with some that went down in the Thai floods from last year.

Still most ppl have solved their problem changing the board though I reckon it's a bit overkill.

Usually it's more like a loose connection of the board on the pins, or tiny cuts on traces between ICs.
Make sure it's properly seated and stable, I sometimes use a piece of tissue between the pins to secure the connection.

Have you also tried SlowRom/Fastrom roms to see if it makes any difference?
What's the ICs ref. number?
Try 8M and 12M roms to pinpoint the deffective IC if any.

If you wanna test your RAM I believe that only the SWC DX use a compatible slot with Pro Fighters mem boards and has a proper memory reading/writing test function.

[nickkipue]

I have tested a few things. fast and slow (from 8mb on) rom randomly crash. I tried .smc and converted to .fig roms (ucon64 --fig rom.smc) and have the same results.
I looked at the ram board and I see mixed chips:
4 X panasonic MN414400ASJ-70,
2 X different (says TI ...70 TMS444000J on the chip)
2 X different AAA4M204J-70 NPNX 9145 Z3.
Also, the ram board pcb is yellow whereas the spfq is green which makes me think it is not original (I may be wrong as I am not the original owner).
What would an original spfq 24 ram board look like?
Maybe this one was modified and putting it back to default would fix this.

[Mystic_Merlin]

Yellow or green memory board is normal. What is not is the configuration of your board:
1. You have 3 different types of memory ICs
2. 8 working ICs should display 32M

Obviously your RAM has been upgraded from a 16M board, and not by CCL.
Usually it's safer to always use the same ref. number for memory ICs to avoid any kind of issue. I doubt this RAM ever worked as is.
Can you provide detailed photos of both sides?

You should probably unsolder the 2 x AAA chips and if it's still causing problem, unsolder the 2 x TMS. You might be down to 16M but hopefully it'll work.

[nickkipue]

here are the pics. sorry for the delay and for the picture quality, they were taken with a phone.
what chips could cause the problem?

http://dl.free.fr/k77x3ARxB

[Mystic_Merlin]

What does your PF display as memory when you switch it on? 24M or 32M?

It's obvious the TI chips were added later on and not by CCL.
You can trace the lines to check anything odd otherwise just unsolder those 2 TI and test.

[nickkipue]

il shows 32m. The owner is a friend, and he says the PF was working just fine when he used to use it. I ll try to get the TI chips out.