Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Sounds interesting. Maybe we can spot a pattern that allows people to still buy correctly working consoles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 So, did some more testing on all 3. The 2 woodgrains seemed fine in 20-minute tests using the 624 image. The amber one locked up about 7-10 minutes in twice. I took it apart and put a heatsync on the RAM. and testing again and will report back. Below are pictures of the amber motherboard before and after heatsync. Maybe the problem boards can be narrowed down to the model of the RAM chip? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Great! How are the the woodgrain RAMs labelled? Can you post pictures of these too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Great! How are the the woodgrain RAMs labelled? Can you post pictures of these too? Sure. I can take them apart later and get pics. 13 minutes in the cube is still spinning but the background is red. No lockup. Going to turn it off and start again. Edited September 15, 2022 by MMarcoux66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) I read Nanya NT5CB64M16FP-DH and found the datasheet. Here is an excerpt: DH means DDR3-1600 (10-10-10). IIRC that is a memory clock of 200MHz. I wonder how that fits to the default RAM speed of 624MHz. @Dirty Harry ? The chip size is 13 x 9 mm. Edited September 16, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 12 minutes ago, MMarcoux66 said: Sure. I can take them apart later and get pics. 13 minutes in the cube is still spinning but the background is red. No lockup. Going to turn it off and start again. Red is not good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredtriestomakeretron77work Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 45 minutes ago, MMarcoux66 said: So, did some more testing on all 3. The 2 woodgrains seemed fine in 20-minute tests using the 624 image. The amber one locked up about 7-10 minutes in twice. I took it apart and put a heatsync on the RAM. and testing again and will report back. Below are pictures of the amber motherboard before and after heatsync. Maybe the problem boards can be narrowed down to the model of the RAM chip? This is super interesting! Here is a picture of my faulty Woodgrain.There is nothing on the chip on mine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 3 minutes ago, fredtriestomakeretron77work said: There is nothing on the chip on mine... Similar to my console which I got very early from Hyperkin for testing purposes. The RAM is only labeled "D/G". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) So more amber testing. It stayed up for about 40 minutes before frozen cube and red background. Turned it off and right back on and it only stayed up for like 5 minutes before red background and frozen cube. Reset it again and it had been going for 10 minutes and now locked up with black background and non-moving cube, I'll start testing with one of the lower clock speeds. Ram heatsync is hot to touch but not where it will burn me touching it. This system seems very inconsistent in how it is behaving. If there are any games I can test against it, I would be happy to do that as well. Edited September 15, 2022 by MMarcoux66 More observations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) Try the ARM games, e.g. Galagon seems to stress the CPU (and probably the RAM too) most. Edited December 4, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Try the ARM games, e.g. Galagon seems to stress the CPU (wand probably the RAM too) most. I'll check and see if I have a ROM for one of those. I don't have Galagon, but do have a couple of physical Champ games like the new Lady Bug and Wizard of Wor. If I remember, the carts did not work on the Retron under 6.6. Edited September 15, 2022 by MMarcoux66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) You can download the demo ROMs at the Champ Games website. And they should all work with the latest Stella. Edited September 15, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Locked immediately on the 504 image but the chip may still be hot from the other image. Going to let it cool down for a bit and test again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredtriestomakeretron77work Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) 30 minutes ago, MMarcoux66 said: So more amber testing. It stayed up for about 40 minutes before frozen cube and red background. Turned it off and right back on and it only stayed up for like 5 minutes before red background and frozen cube. Reset it again and it had been going for 10 minutes and now locked up with black background and non-moving cube, I'll start testing with one of the lower clock speeds. Ram heatsync is hot to touch but not where it will burn me touching it. This system seems very inconsistent in how it is behaving. If there are any games I can test against it, I would be happy to do that as well. You're describing exactly what I saw in my tests with my Woodgrain. It's inconsistent but we seem to be getting similar results. Like Thomas mentioned, Galagon is a great game to stress the system and I used the demo he posted above. Another good one is Stay Frosty 2, which Thomas recommended:https://github.com/DirtyHairy/r77-firmware-ng/files/9432598/SF2_20131217_RC8_NTSC.zip (I hope it's ok to repost this one here) It has a great attract mode so I just let it run until I get a crash. Those are my 2 goto games now for testing my Retron. Edited September 15, 2022 by fredtriestomakeretron77work 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 43 minutes ago, fredtriestomakeretron77work said: Another good one is Stay Frosty 2, which Thomas recommended:https://github.com/DirtyHairy/r77-firmware-ng/files/9432598/SF2_20131217_RC8_NTSC.zip (I hope it's ok to repost this one here) It has a great attract mode so I just let it run until I get a crash. It's OK. All of my games are freely available via the "try" links in my Signature line, or the About Me page of my profile if you have signatures turned off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredtriestomakeretron77work Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 38 minutes ago, SpiceWare said: It's OK. All of my games are freely available via the "try" links in my Signature line, or the About Me page of my profile if you have signatures turned off. It's quite an honor to read you, thanks for posting! I'm a recent fan of SF2, and currently going through your blog/profile and having a blast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 2 hours ago, fredtriestomakeretron77work said: This is super interesting! Here is a picture of my faulty Woodgrain.There is nothing on the chip on mine... The CPU heat sink is slightly smaller compared to the one you posted above (which I had seen before). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredtriestomakeretron77work Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 4 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: The CPU heat sink is slightly smaller compared to the one you posted above (which I had seen before). Oh my, you're right. I noticed that you see some thermal paste or glue sticking out from under on mine, but I just thought it was off center. I just took another look and here's a close up pic. Retron assembly seems... inconsistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 (edited) 28 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: The CPU heat sink is slightly smaller compared to the one you posted above (which I had seen before). 2 of mine have the bigger heatsync (1 amber and 1 new box woody) and one has the smaller one (older box woody). The Amber bigger one I shared the motherboard picture of was just on with like a thermal sticker. It was off center and was very easy to move as it was close to the RAM. Had to move it so that I could put the smaller sync on the RAM chip for testing. So there are 3 retail boxes that I can tell, the original with the triangle in the corner as was the same with most Retron products. The amber box and the normal woody box without the triangle. The original box came with the bigger heatsync. Edited September 15, 2022 by MMarcoux66 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredtriestomakeretron77work Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 22 minutes ago, MMarcoux66 said: 2 of mine have the bigger heatsync (1 amber and 1 new box woody) and one has the smaller one (older box woody). The Amber bigger one I shared the motherboard picture of was just on with like a thermal sticker. It was off center and was very easy to move as it was close to the RAM. Had to move it so that I could put the smaller sync on the RAM chip for testing. So there are 3 retail boxes that I can tell, the original with the triangle in the corner as was the same with most Retron products. The amber box and the normal woody box without the triangle. The original box came with the bigger heatsync. My smaller-heatsink-faulty-woodgrain came in this one: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 29 minutes ago, fredtriestomakeretron77work said: My smaller-heatsink-faulty-woodgrain came in this one: So, we can't use the heatsyncs to tell the difference but maybe the boxes? That is definitely a newer run box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted September 15, 2022 Author Share Posted September 15, 2022 14 hours ago, MMarcoux66 said: I have 3 of the Retron 77s in the family. 1 Amber and 2 originals. Only tested the amber with the 624 image. After 10 minutes the cube locked up on the screen but the background did not turn red. I was playing games on it earlier without issues. I will test on the other 2 and report back. Thanks alot! A crash means that your DRAM is wonky, even without the red background 😏 However, if it is stable enough to play, then there is nothing to worry about. Looking forward to the results for your other two Retrons! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted September 15, 2022 Author Share Posted September 15, 2022 Just finished catching up. Thanks alot for your results! Do you get the lockups also at lower DRAM clock speed? The different RAM chips are interesting. My own unit has an unmarked chip, just like @fredtriestomakeretron77work's. However, mine is rock solid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 So 2 of the 3 have the issue. Cannot tell by the heatsyncs. One has a small one and the other has the larger one. Here's a pic of the woody's ram that failed the test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 4 minutes ago, MMarcoux66 said: Here's a pic of the woody's ram that failed the test. Same Nanya RAM chip as in the amber you posted above. What chip does the working one use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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