Sega 32X shows TMSS trademark screen, nothing else

Years ago, I bought a Mega CD 2 and 32X advertised as faulty off of eBay. The MCD2 was an easy fix, it just needed a new fuse, but this 32X has been driving me nuts every time I tried to figure out what's wrong with it... Hooking everything up and powering the contraption on yields the following results:

MD2 and 32X powered like normal, game plugged into the 32X, no matter if MD or 32X game: MD2 boots to the "Produced by or under license..." TMSS screen, then shows a black screen afterwards.
Like above, but with the 32X NOT powered up: Black screen from the start.
Exact same results if the video bridge cable is removed and the video cable is plugged into the MD2 directly.

I've opened the 32X up, carefully cleaned everything (cartridge slot, connector to MD, etc.) and reseated the flat cables connecting the two boards. I don't know very much about electronics (let alone have tools like a multimeter or something), so I couldn't check for any problems beyond visible damage, of which there doesn't seem to be any.

Some educated guessing tells me there's enough of the 32X working for the MD to detect the cartridge plugged into it and try to boot it, but it fails because the 32X itself doesn't boot up (doesn't start executing the bootstrap code on the SH2s? I have no idea how the thing works). It also isn't able to fall through to "Mega Drive mode" if a normal MD game is inserted, probably because that requires the 32X bootstrap code to tell the system to do so?

So, does anyone have any idea what might be wrong with it? Or does this sound like a lost cause?

 

May be dumb question but did you plug that video cable on 32X and used a short cable from 32X to Genesis?

 

Only mentioned it in passing, but I do have and have used that short cable:

 

I am sure something like this was happening to one of my 32X units.
All I have noted on the unit is that I cleaned it, sadly I'm not sure how I cleaned it...
Although I think it may have been one that I popped some fine sandpaper in the cartridge slot... not recommended for obvious reasons... ffended:
How did you clean the cartridge slot out of curiosity? :congratulatory:

One thing I have found common on all my 32X units is that the cartridges seem to be able to misalign slightly giving erratic results.
I found this especially with Mega Drive / Mega EverDrive / EverDrive MD carts.

Edit: You don't have another Mega Drive you can test it on do you? Maybe a friend with one? Just to rule it out as the issue.

 

(Ugh, forgot about this thread... probably wanted to forget about that stupid 32X of mine...)

The cartridge slot cleaning was a while ago, but I think I just wrapped some thin cloth around a plastic card or something. Don't think I used any liquids or cleaners... I also did try using some fine sandpaper afterwards, as it helped me with ex. some cartridge connectors before (Super Puyo Puyo 2 SFC no longer freezes when I bump the console )

Mega Drive carts can be a bit of a pain to align and plug in right, true, but with how often I've inserted and removed cartridges while messing around with the thing, I imagine one must've been in correctly at least once...

And I do have two more MDs, an original MD I can't use with the 32X as I don't have the right video cable, and another MD2 that does the same thing as the other, shows the license screen then nothing.

 

I've got this problem with mine too :/

 

Dismantle the unit and check the cables which connect the main board to the analog/cartridge connector board throughly.

edit: Clean as well.

 

Checked and reseated those cables last time I had the system open (when I made the thread), sadly didn't change a thing.

Even though it appears to get power, does the 32X have a fuse that might be blown, like the Mega CD?

 

If it did you wouldn't be seeing much.

 

Really, having it show the TMSS then stop is usually a problem with the address lines not connecting. The console being able to read the first few kilobytes of the cartridge is enough to allow the TMSS check to pass.

 

Yeah, the fuse question was kinda stupid on my part, I guess...

I did make a bit of a discovery tho, as there does appear to be some damage to the board that I didn't catch before - it looks like the wire and resistor(?) below are supposed to be soldered to the board, but the solder joint broke:

 

It looks like it might be soldered to that 'pink' wire but its hard to tell from the picture. Can you confirm it is indeed not connected on anything?
I do not have a 32X myself so i do not know what they are supposed to be like inside.

 

The wire and resistor are soldered together, but not to the board, and right underneath where they are is a spot on the board with solder remnants. It's also very close to the board, with very little space in between, so I guess it's supposed to be soldered to it there.

 

It looks like a hardware repair? There's a recently released service manual for 32x that shows many of the known reproducible trouble and the fixes required. I just checked it, it doesn't show a resistor and wire mod like pictured above.

 

The same wire and resistor can be seen on photos of other 32X online, tho, ex. at http://notaz.gp2x.de/hw.php and http://wolfsoft.de/wordpress/?p=407, so it is probably something done factory side.