UniROM 8.0.K - GDB Debugging, install/backup to/from memory card, homebrew from memcard, etc

[rama3]

If you're in Caetla, a button combination switches between PAL and NTSC display. Select + L1, I believe it was.
The Unirom menu checks the BIOS region for the display mode. Would be neat if it had the Select + L1 combo as well though

[dustyjo]

Have u tried using the old time based swap trick to boot the flasher program again and reflash with a different firmware? I agree, it sounds like you may have inadvertanely installed a PAL firmware on ur cart

Well I flashed the one explicitly marked NTSC so I donno how that could be possible. I flashed the standard "UniROM + Caetla" too and it does the same thing.

[likeabaus]

DId you try what rama3 suggested to see if you can at least see what's going on in Caetla?

[dustyjo]

Caetla won't boot at all. You press Select or Start on the Unirom screen and it just freezes. It also won't boot anything other than retail discs.

[rama3]

Console is a Japanese SCPH-5500

Japanese consoles ignore the unlock command anyway. You need a modchip for them.

[ghrayfahx]

Anyone familiar with a chinese device called a "Power Replay"? I picked one up at a local shot for $5. In the menu it says it's a "High Speed Golden Finger". I can get the disc to boot but it says it's unknown.

card.jpg

screen.jpg

[ghrayfahx]

And I have no clue why it uploaded them sideways and upside down

[Administrator]

Yeah, I got about 100 of these things sitting in my cupboard. Might sell them off in the 'Store' I guess. I have no use for them (new old stock).

[ghrayfahx]

I picked up an action replay I was able to flash. however, I cant use the normal method to play games. If I try it freezes on loading.If I go down to the second fast boot option it then works. Also, randomly it will boot direct to the flasher screen. Circle button restarts and I can get to the normal loader after that.

[likeabaus]

Anyone familiar with a chinese device called a "Power Replay"? I picked one up at a local shot for $5. In the menu it says it's a "High Speed Golden Finger". I can get the disc to boot but it says it's unknown.

card.jpg

screen.jpg

That's the Caetla rom with a little bit of editing (the bottom where it says "High Speed Gold Finger.") To be honest, that's probably the only code they changed, to make it sound "better" lol. My guess is it's just one of the various cheap AR/GS clones. They may have gone with some other cheaper chipset that they had a surplus of at the time. Are you able to flash it anyways, regardless of the chipset being unknown? Of course doing so would be at your own risk, as a brick could happen...

[ghrayfahx]

I tried to flash it but it kept saying it couldn't detect it. I just wound up flashing an action replay. It has some minor issues itself. When I try to use the R1, R2 method it just freezes. I have to go to the option below the R2 one. And when I try to play Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen it plays ALL the cinematics from the game and locks up when I try to skip. Soul Reaver loaded and played just fine.

[Kryptonick]

I'm struggling to get this to boot.

I really, really suck at the swap trick, however my cart allows backups to run - I trick the sensor, insert the cart, power on with a real game. The cart menu loads, the disc stops spinning and I swap it for a back up. I press start on my controller and the backup loads.

I've tried this with backups of 3 or 4 games I own and they all load regardless of which real game I use initially.

When I try to get my Unirom disc to load nothing happens, the disc just spins and spins regardless of which real dis i use. Eventually it stop spinning and I have a blank screen.

Do i need to do the swap trick or is there another method I can use?

EDIT:

I burnt version .44 and it loads. My Card won't be detected though, it's a cheapy thing - "Passcard PS-121B"

Anyone had any luck with these?

[rama3]

My experience is hit and miss with cheap clone cards. More on the miss side. Most can't be flashed with x-flash.

[nocash]

I burnt version .44 and it loads. My Card won't be detected though, it's a cheapy thing - "Passcard PS-121B"

It could be probably detected when knowing what flash chip you have in there. If you don't know, disassemble the card, and post a photo of the hardware inside.

[likeabaus]

I haven't used Unirom or its flasher myself, but is there a way to force a flash when the chipset is unknown (BRICK RISK of course), but I'm just curious. For those who have cheap clones that won't autodetect, I'm wondering if they can force the flash process anyways and see what happens. Brick risk is high with this method, but if you one doesn't care about the cart in question (maybe you have multiple lying around or something) it might be worth experimenting and reporting your results (good or bad) with the name of the clone.... Just a thought.

[rama3]

There is a way to force a flash attempt. I did it twice, both times causing a brick.
Cart 1 did accept the new ROM but would only hold some of it after a power cycle.
Cart 2 failed to flash and was just bricked.

[likeabaus]

Were you able to reflash them back to stock or anything else for that matter, using a hardmod or the timeswap trick to load up a flashing tool? Or were the carts just toast altogether?

[rama3]

The only way to restore them is to desolder the flash / eeprom and program them externally.
Well, or somehow write a compatible programmer for PSX and maybe fix any programming voltage problems they might have had.

[Kryptonick]

It could be probably detected when knowing what flash chip you have in there. If you don't know, disassemble the card, and post a photo of the hardware inside.

Ask and ye shall receive!

[nocash]

There's a datasheet for the CAT28F010N-15 flash chip, http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/308/on%20sem ... 326877.pdf
Maker code (addr 0) is 31h for Catalyst
Device id (addr 1) is B4h for that chip
There're also flowcharts for write/erase in there (haven't compared if/how they differ from other chips).

Maybe most important is that it's only a single 128Kx8 chip (most Datel carts have twice that much memory). So first thing to check would be if you are writing more than 128Kbytes.

PS. Charles MacDonald had mentioned carts with only 128K, don't remember where, but knowing him, he might have a schematic for it. As far as I remember he didn't specify the PCB board name, but maybe it's same/similar to your "PS-121 ZISAN P/N:SA09C" board.
If yes, then your U1 chip might be PIC (can't read its part number on the photo), with whatever purpose, normal expansion carts don't have such chips.

PPS. and U4, is that a "78xx05" device for creating 5V power supply? Going by the datasheet the flash should need that voltage as supply. Oh, and the datasheet says that it needs VPP=12V for programming (unlike other chips that can do that at 5V). So then, there's really a voltage problem, and the only reliable way to program/reprogram it would be desoldering the chip (or injecting 12V). I wonder how they have wired up the VPP pin, the highest voltage from PSX expansion port would be 7.5V (or 7.9V or the like) - maybe that would also work to some level, although the datasheet says that it must be at least 11.4V.