SNES vertical bar: Quick and easy fix.

I got 3 1-chip-01 Super Famis and all got the vertical bar in FF6. Might try this.

 

Underside of the 7805 (output and ground) and the S-ENC A (pins 2 and 5).

Just make sure your pinout is the same, triple check that negatives all run to ground... and make sure you don't do this at 2am
Concentration seems to slip slightly after being awake for a very long time.
Do let us know how you go if you choose to sacrifice those 220uFs for a great cause
By all means though, do test with lower uF caps. I didn't try anything above a 47uF on the video encoder as I didn't want to melt through the damn thing.
My soldering iron tip is huge and started to degrade quite rapidly... new ones on order, but still!

What model board did you have in the Super Famicom? and which chip? Just a vanilla S-ENC?

 

I did this yesterday to my 1CHIP-01 EU SNES. It has the S-RGB encoder, and it did indeed remove the vertical bar Unfortunately this SNES also suffers from ghosting which is cast on the right side of objects, but unfortunately this mod didn't improve this issue at all

It's pretty much impossible to take a picture off, so I tried to illustrate it a while ago in this picture. Ignore the vertical bar, as it is pretty much gone now


Any idea what causes this, and if it can be fixed?

My Super Famicom is one of the older models, and these usually have a softer image. Unfortunately mine has the crappiest image I have ever seen :O


Looks terrible, and that's using my XRGB Mini :O

I'm using the original Super Famicom RGB cable, but I am aware of the differences in cables for PAL and NTSC systems, and I did modify it accordingly when trying it with the JAP system (caps for JAP, resistors for PAL).

 

If you have a 1chip, it is not one of the older model. The 1chip is the last series before the Snes mini. They are supposed to have the best picture
I cannot say what causes the ghosting but on Composite and S-video filtered and possibly weak luma can cause similar effects.

 

These are two different systems I have both a 1CHIP EU SNES and an older Super Famicom. I wonder why the picture quality is so shitty on the SFC. Though I haven't seen any SNES variant that had close to a perfect image yet. (haven't seen the 1CHIP-03 yet). I used to have a US SNES mini and it looked exactly like my current EU 1CHIP with ghosting and everything :/

 

That's just the type of photos I need! Thanks!

Off the top of my head, it's a 1chip, but I'll confirm this once I open it up again.

 

Just a quick update:

Im glad you guys had good results so far but for some reason it seems this does not work on the SHVC-CPU-01. I tried on mine and it did not work, just like for SinNombre over at NintendoAge. Cannot say why it does not work on the early SNES.

 

can you make a PDF of these findings for us all and also thank you for all your hard work guys it helps alot

 

The S-RGB got two 5V pins. Do I need two caps?

 

Adding to the 7805 makes quite a difference, then adding directly onto the S-ENC made a huge difference.
I'll tell you what I'd try, try with one, then with two, compare and report

Most curious! More investigating needed, that's what I like to hear!

 

Did it like this:


But didn't make any difference to the vertical bar.
I'm curious how Bearking mod his 1-Chip.

 

@ sanni:

is that ikari01's 50/60hz switch on the bottom left picture? what's that white IC?
my switch looks like this:



but I don't get that bar on my 1chip... I wonder if it's cap rerated, have you changed yours?

 

This is getting very mysterious, why it seems to work on some SNES and not on others.
If you guys have very big caps on hand, you can always try to use this as an experiment. I used a 4700uf on the SHVC-CPU-01 regulator and it removed maybe the Tinniest bit of the bar. So there is still something happening ( sort of ) but almost imperceptible. The interference must be travelling along a different path on those.

But now I have some other console problems to fix so I wont be putting much time on this for now.

 

IIRC, the ghosting is actually caused by the PPU in the 1chip and mini models and can't be fixed.

 

That's what I thought No choice but to hunt down a 1CHIP-03 then...

 

I got lucky and got a 1chip-03 randomly. Apparently they are pretty rare.

 

Cool it works but why does it work and what will this do to the SNES long term?

 

I gather you tried it and it worked? Can you tell us what board revision you used?

It should pose no risk to the SNES long term. A cap used in this way will act as a filter on the power rail, in other words it removes the AC component in the DC ( Ripple or noise ) .
It also acts as a "reservoir" of sort. The capacitor holds a charge and if there is a spike in power demand that would normally produce a system wide voltage drop the "reservoir" cap will help counter this.

The only adverse effect I can think of is that when you cold boot the console, the caps are empty and while they are filling up, the power rail voltage might be low for the split instant while they are filling and this could glitch the console. I have experienced this with larger value caps. ( The larger the cap, the more likely such a problem might happen) Pressing reset once and the console boots as normal. But With two 220 uf caps it should not be an issue me thinks.

 

I'd think the MaxWar's fix wouldn't work in some SNES systems is not all SNES systems use the same encoder? The one he's taking pics of his mod on are the encoders that actually have component outputs, correct? If so, the pins are completely different on that one, which is why it wouldn't work for most of you. I even think the encoders are in completely different spots on the motherboard!

Also this is the first time I've heard that the 1CHIP-03 does not having ghosting. Is this for sure? I'd think either all 1CHIPs would have it, or just the Mini (the Mini definitely has it). It seems kind of weird that the 1CHIP-01 and 1CHIP-02 would have it, but not the 1CHIP-03.

 

I haven't and I own a 1CHIP revision; last time I ran it on my PVM I don't recall being able to find the lovely bar but I can always hook it back up to check but I'm not exactly hopeful I can contribute anything useful to this thread beyond advice and technical bits.

And if I'm not mistaken what you're describing sounds a lot like a decoupling capacitor which I usually see as .1uF ceramic disc capacitors, at least in low current environments. I'm curious as to the 220uF value selection and if it has a basis in engineering as opposed to "hey this looks like it works and nothing has blown up yet" that is too common amongst ourselves.