Broken Knuckles Chaotix after cleaning?

Hi. I recently got myself the game and i proceeded to clean it the way i always clean my newly purchased cartridges.. I used a q-tip andsomething similar to isopropyl, untill it was no longer discoloured. The cart was pretty clean to begin with. I then let it evaporate for a few minutes and put it in my 32x. Im met with a flash screen that doesnt really wanna go away. I reset and get passed it into the game. i let it run untill the auto-demo thing comes along. I see a frozen sprite of two messed up characters go around on the level. I reset it. I cant get passed the flash. I reset again and i get passed the screen, and choose practice mode. Once there i start running, a few seconds later the game froze on me. I proceed to reset, flash screen problem. I reset once more, and is now met with blackness. I reset many times, i turn the machine off completely several times. Nothing helps.

I continue to open up the shell and i cant see any significant damage, so i rub it with an eraser, and clean that off with a q-tip again. Black screen still. I take the cover off the 32x, clean the port with a saturated paper towel and a credit card, doesnt even come back miscoloured, so the 32x is really clean. Put it back together, and still get a black screen.

During all this ive switched cartridges with my only other 32x game that works flawlessly, and genesis games that also work great through the 32x. Can i somehow have damaged the game? I feel confident i let it evaporate and it was not inserted wet. I can see tiny specks on the contacts that are slightly darker than the copper colour, but it doesnt look like damage as such. Nor can i find any damaged traces..

The seller assures me it worked flawlessly when it was shipped out, and i have no reason to believe the seller would be lying. Does this seem consistant with any type of user end damage that im unaware of?

Any help would be appreciated.. The game came boxed in very good condition, and id hate to have to buy a loose copy to get it complete again..

Regards,
grimm

Have no idea why. But it now seems to work.. I gave it another go and tried to turn the console on with the game plugged in. Black screen. I tried resetting, and now i got the splash screen (sorry ive been saying flash..), but broken. i turned off again, black screen. reset, and splash but still not past. i did this over and over, and each time i got further along the splash screen. then suddenly the game let me go into the start menue, with some glitch.. then i reset and it brought me to the start screen. i went to the quest thing, and did a full level. i turned the machine off, and on again, this time the splash screen came on as normal, and ive not been sitting watching it demo itself for a good 10 minutes or so.. Seems to be working..

I hate when stuff like this happens! Now i have no idea what was wrong! On the good side, the game seems to work now, 9 out of 10 times, and increasing. But its an extremely confusing game to get into...

Before cleaning or taking apart any game, I've always found it best to check and give it a good test run first - just to ensure you were given a properly working game to begin with. Perhaps the solution did not dry completely on the pinout, found its way into the cartridge slot and interrupted the contact? Seeing that as it progressively began to play, that's my own guess. Never hurts to be cynical once in awhile.

I've got a 32X that is finicky with Chaotix too, I always just chalked it up to the version of the system. I did a cleaning on both the 32X slot and the cart, then tried to barely, very gently, insert the cartridge to see if I could get varying contact. Eventually I found a sweet spot, but I just threw the 32X in a box and decided to stick with my regular one since it doesn't have issues.

Yeah, prolly should try the game before cleaning from now on just for the sake of it.

As for finicky 32x, it plays everything else just fine and although not in cosmetically great shape, the contact port didnt have a speck of dirt in it when i cleaned it..

Maybe there was indeed traces of cleaning sollution still left even though ive never had this issue before, and i let it evaporate aproximately for as long as usual.. Im gonna keep trying it over and over the next couple of days to see what happens with consistancy.

For the record, i bought a brand spanking new game for my brand spanking new atari jaguar, which also didnt work at all at first. then i got it working if inserted a particular way. after using an eraser it got less finicky, but still needed to be inserted that particular way to work. Sometimes game carts just have gremlins i guess..

Thanks for the input guys, its appreciated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xelement5x

I've got a 32X that is finicky with Chaotix too, I always just chalked it up to the version of the system. I did a cleaning on both the 32X slot and the cart, then tried to barely, very gently, insert the cartridge to see if I could get varying contact. Eventually I found a sweet spot, but I just threw the 32X in a box and decided to stick with my regular one since it doesn't have issues.

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That is a VA0 32X, as far as I know. Those ones are very finicky and tend to crash. That info is in the 32X Service Manual

How do i identify my 32x? Maybe it is a VA0. I bought it loose so i dont have a manual.

The VA revision can be seen at the cart port :

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8333/dscf4028j.jpg

It says IC BD MARS MA IN V A 0... Seems i have the bad revision then?

Buy a probe, use a probe. Sometimes visual inspection doesn't show the lost connection.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grimm

It says IC BD MARS MA IN V A 0... Seems i have the bad revision then?

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Well, that one requires the terminator thingy/Sega CD or an internal modification in your Genesis.

What does it mean when it says VA but there's no number? :/ I tried as hard as I could to see if there was a number, but there really appears to be no number whatsoever.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...pse1d3bd82.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...psb02ca3af.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...pse9fa9258.jpg

I looked at the top cartridge slot, and it says it's a MARS VA0.

Looks like mine's a VA0. It works fine though without a terminator or a Sega CD attached, on both my VA3 (American) and VA4 (Japanese) Genesis systems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by evildragon

What does it mean when it says VA but there's no number? :/ I tried as hard as I could to see if there was a number, but there really appears to be no number whatsoever.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...pse1d3bd82.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...psb02ca3af.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...pse9fa9258.jpg

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It's a VA0 32X. The top board will always be VA0 , it's the bottom one that changes.

Ok, so if it is a VA0 due to the lack of a number on the bottom part, why does mine work without a sega cd or terminator? The sega consoles haven't been modified whatsoever on the expansion port.

It'd be nice if someone would pin down exactly what the issue is with Knuckles Chaotix, since so many people seem to get bitten by the game not working (or crashing, etc.) and assume they've been sold a bad copy, when the problem is (from what I understand) really the 32X.

Well,I'm pretty sure Chaotix pushes the 32X a lot, thus creating some issues.

Well, AFAIK it's mostly Chaotix that makes the VA0 32X crash. As far as I'm aware the VA4, VA5, and VA6/6.5/6.8 are affected by that problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by evildragon

Ok, so if it is a VA0 due to the lack of a number on the bottom part, why does mine work without a sega cd or terminator? The sega consoles haven't been modified whatsoever on the expansion port.

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Your 32X has been refurbished. Open it up and see what they've done to it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by villahed94

Well, that one requires the terminator thingy/Sega CD or an internal modification in your Genesis.

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I dont know what a "terminator" is, i do have a Sega CD 1 attached to my genesis though. Could you please elaborate? I dont understand the relevance.

Btw, i had to open it up to get a good look at the model number, and i found some cables secured with hot glue. Does that mean someone has done something to the unit at some point? I could take it apart again and take a picture, if this is not something they did at the factory. First 32x ive ever seen in person.

A terminator is a block that attaches to the SCD expansion port if you don't have a Sega CD. If you have a Sega CD, you don't need it.

A block?

Eh, hard to explain.

http://www.segaage.com/forum/message...threadid=42099

Oh, so it was supplied by Sega with the VA0's? First ive ever heard of this.

Yes, by SEGA.

I'll need to see what work was done to my refurb 32X. I already had to repair it earlier this year because the ribbons got loose.

Bumping an old thread, but since I resolved an issue with this game I figured others may like to know.

I received a 32x and a copy of Chaotix that simply would not load on it, despite thorough cleaning of cart, Genesis Model II and reseating the white cables inside the 32x. I also had all three AC adapters (Genesis, Sega CD II, and 32x) plugged in. The game simply would not boot past the selection screen, and it was a rarity to get that far.

After seeing suggestions online, I simply swapped different Model II Genesis's and the game worked on the first try. So just passing on this information in case it's of use to anyone.

Knuckles Chaotix is a game that for some reason is very finicky to begin with when playing on systems. I've heard of people having a lot of problems with the game in general playing on their 32x.