PS2 Test DTL-H30001

Certain 3000x series test units will *only* recognize memory cards in the player 1 slot, not the player 2 slot. I can't explain it, only say that I've seen it happen on multiple units.

It does not seem to happen on later models. Just the 3000x series (of which there were various firmware revisions).

-hl718

 

I have some news :

I have pulled up all mc pins connector. It gives no result. Only reading PS1 memory cards.

I have swaped orriginal pad connector with a retail 30k pad connector. Same result : only PS1 memory card a detected.

I have noticed some diferences between pad connectors :

- 30k PS2 TEST pad connector
- 30k retail PS2 pad connector
- a "Sony" 64Mb memory card

Have an idea ?

 

Try an *known original* and *known good* 8MB card.
The issue reported by hl718 might be caused by the early revision of the secrman module on the TEST bios.

Also the same issue might cause the OSD to dislike the ODD size of your memory card (which is obviously counterfeit as SONY never sold a 64MB memory card...)

 

Well, their BIOS contains the same amount of debug code as any retail console; which is not nothing :110:. Sadly, the important parts are missing, so it is inactive and cannot be used as-is. However, if connected The Right Way(TM), the debugger is fully functional, on par with DSEDB on a TOOL running an older SDK release. Some special commands are missing (like the ones for listing interrupt handlers and threads), but debugging is certainly possible.

SNSystems once offered a debugger stub running on TESTs (and using the 1394 cable to connect to a host PC).

Sounds like a firmware bug (just speculating, I haven't observed that issue myself yet). Did you compare the BIOS of one of those machine with a version for a compatible retail console?

 

Nope. When I had access to a few banks of PS2 TESTs, I really wasn't in a position to be dumping firmwares.

I do know that as we cycled the machines out with updated 3000x series units from Sony (with HDD support enabled) that the issue went away. Unfortunately all firmware updates were done at Sony. There was no way to update in-the-field as you can with the PS3 TEST.

-hl718

 

that and look at that wonderful blob! yay for low-cost manufacturing!

I really do commend whoever produced these at their mold accuracy and printjobs, but in the end, counterfeit is still counterfeit- I prefer unlabeled or obviously fake cards to ones that put money into pretending to be sony originals, down to the incorrect model number.

but seriously, get a sony 8mb original card, and try it.. stop trying to futz around with your fake card until you have a reference point.

 

Tested with a official 8mb memory card and it... works !

Copy ! However, I post here only as information purpose. I suspected that the Sony memory card works on 30k TEST. But, I did not a 8mb mc at this time. Plus, during my search on this forum, I found many diferents answers about use of memory card on TEST PS2 and I don't understand why 10k ps2 detects a 64mb and not a 30k TEST PS2.

 

Because when the retail 10k console was developed (earlier than the TESTs as weird it may sound but it's a fact) they considered the possibility of making bigger memory cards in the future so the MASK ROM on the retails are programmed to accept bigger memory sizes on such media.

The TEST on other way uses the TOOL version of modules like for example "secrman_for_tool" instead of "secrman_for_cex" you see on retail units. Including filesystem and management drivers for the memory cards (mcman) and for obvious reasons related to development, restricting the size to 8MB sounds fair and square. SONY would want to make sure all devs stick to the minimum size of memory available (well sadly they never decided to release bigger cards but they could if they wanted to) :shrug:

 

l_oliveira --> Thanks for these precisions ;-)

Well, about this firmware update, how it works ? The mask rom is a read only memory, no ?

 

They make them so swapping a ROM chip is a no brainer for them...
but for practical reasons I bet with you the whole motherboard would be replaced with an updated (and probably reworked) one.

Microsoft is more shameless about that kind of stuff than SONY, though. I've seen BRAND NEW XBOX360 units using year old DVD drives or such.

You know what I mean ... lol :110:

When it became a security hazard (piracy, har har har :evil they (MS) stopped reusing old drives.

 

That's sound crazy, change the whole motherbord just for updating a firmware. Sony has money to loose or something ?

 

No. It's cheaper to place another board for the current customer, take the old board, rework it later in a more peaceful pace and then place it on next customer's machine. Since they own the platform they can just relocate the Serial numbers on the boards, which allow them to exchange boards without causing any kind of issues.

Microsoft do the same thing with their infamous repair service. Infamous because their quality is less than optimal. D:

 

I am not convinced yet. Why does not use a simple eprom to update firmware instead of maskrom ?

The Microsoft's "optimal" canons is not the same as sony's one.

 

1- The PS2 was designed in 1998-1999. How much you think 8MB of NOR flash memory would cost back then (I said NOR flash not NAND flash)...

2- ROM would be MUCH more secure back then than FLASH. Even with encryption Microsoft was forced by XBOX pirates to give up on FLASH and the last model produced had it's bios on MASK ROM. The PS2 only could be modified with MOD CHIPS from start, because it aways been MASK ROM.

So these are the two points I'd like to mention .. :thumbsup:

 

Before anybody wonders, here's an explanation for people not into the innards of flash memory: NOR can be used just like a ROM; i.e., directly connected to a CPU's memory bus. On the other hand, NAND requires an additional controller to decode signals, so it can only be used if the circuit has initially been designed for it.

 

I will just throw in one thing.
apart from all its shortcomings PS2TEST is wonderful in playing retail games from multiple regions. If someone has the sizable collection of NTSC-U/NTSC-J/PAL titles and for what ever reason against the mod chip PS2TEST is ideal~

 

That's what I use my TEST for.

Shame it runs PAL PS1 games in 60HZ mode, which really screws up video output.

Not that it matters really - just nice not to have my JP and PAL PS2 setup at the same time.

 

Well, that can be an advantage in some situations - plenty of bad PAL conversions out there, playing them in 60hz is actually better!

Unless you're a Wipeout nut, like me. I keep a spare PS1 handy for those.

 

Well, the only game I've actually tried PAL wise so far is Spider-Man. It did the same thing that my PAL copy of Sega Rally does on my hz modded Saturn, so I presume that was speed fixed...