HELP - My Falcon appears broke!

[EvilFranky]

Hi guys,

Hoping for some advice as it looks like my Falcon is dying.

Late yesterday evening when trying Doug's beta version of BadMood I noticed that my Falcon was no longer outputting audio via its headphone socket. This has never happened before.

The last time I had used the machine was to try out Anima's port of ChoRenSha and I had the Falcon connected to my plasma TV via RGB Scart. This was working fine a few weeks ago, with sound output to the TV through the Scart cable.

Since this was the last time sound had worked I thought it would be a good idea to test it with the TV again so see if sound was still working via Scart...thus concluding an issue with output only from the headphone socket. Unfortunately today this is what greeted me when I turned the machine on:-



It almost looks like the Falcon is pushing out a refresh that the TV can't process, like 60hz when the TV can only show 50hz material. The TV is more than capable of both refresh rates (plus others!) so I can only assume fault lies with the Falcon.

The only mod I know about is this one which I believe is a clock mod of some description which also removes the bass boost?? Could this have gone pear shaped and caused the issues I'm having?



Machine outputs fine via VGA, I used it for over an hour this morning. So I have an issue with audio output via the headphone jack and weird display corruption via RGB output.

I have no electronics knowledge, need that to be clear. I've tried messing with the NVRAM and setting TV/PAL in the options, this made no difference.

The Falcon at the times I have used it over the last year or so has been with a PicoPSU..

Is there any one on the board who still performs repairs? Any help much appreciated.

[dml]

Try resetting the NVRAM. It could be stuck in 60hz mode due to the NVRAM losing its battery and resetting the 'region code'. It happens on my test machine also, because it is so old the battery is dead.

Use one of the NVRAM configure programs to restore it and see what happens. I bet you'll find it works for a while then reverts back to 60hz after some time of non-use, or after a cold power-down.

That clock mod is a clock buffer patch - nothing to do with bass boost. It resolves some problems with chip clock routing issues around the board.

[EvilFranky]

Thanks Doug, I'll give it a try.

The machine has had a replacement Dallas battery, I picked this machine up about 4 years ago...not sure how old the battery is.

Cool info about the clock patch, I've definitely got the bass boost removed, so not sure where the mod for that exists!

[dml]

Cool info about the clock patch, I've definitely got the bass boost removed, so not sure where the mod for that exists!

I suspect very near the audio ports, at the back-right of the board. All the audio circuitry is there.

[christos]

It's also possible that something is setup incorectly in the audio subsystem. Try to reset it with iphigeny by rajah lone (sorry if i don't remember the program correctly).

[paul92706]

It's also possible that something is setup incorectly in the audio subsystem. Try to reset it with iphigeny by rajah lone (sorry if i don't remember the program correctly).

true, but the audio and video are completely different circuitrys. So he has another problem in the video circuitry also.I would agree with Dough in stateing it being stuck in 60hz mode, due to old NVRAM.

[christos]

Yes, it might be outputing pal60 to a pal50 only tv. That will cause the video issue. But the audio could be h/w or s/w so it's worth a check.

[EvilFranky]

Ah sorry, I meant I plugged the Falcon into the TV with a scart...I get a perfect picture on VGA. I just wondered if PAL60 was different to NTSC60, I believe I can change the TV to expect a NTSC signal...would be worth trying to see if that stabilizes the display via scart which would indicate it is definitely switching to NTSC regardless of the 'saved' settings

[EvilFranky]

One issue resolved...and I have no idea at all why.

Sound output is working again, nothing has changed, but I just played through BadMood levels 1 & 2 without issue...very strange.

I'll not have time tonight to hook it up to my TV, but will test the output again over the next couple of days.

Weird, but I'm not complaining

[EvilFranky]

I've still not had chance to try it hooked up to the TV again, just been so busy.

Will try this week I think.