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byc
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:53 am

N64 freezing randomly after upgrading firmware

Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:25 pm

My N64 turned into a damn lemon after I upgraded the 64drive firmware. It randomly freezes/crashes, sometimes even 40 minutes after being powered on. I've ruled out the expansion pak, controller pak, jumper pak, and other cartridges, and even cleaned the contacts with Isopropyl alcohol and some compressed air. And this never happened until I upgraded the firmware (Not that I think the 64drive could really anything to the console).

The console isn't sensitive to sudden movements or touching the cart - it just randomly freezes. The screen will freeze, showing a more pixellated version of whatever the screen was at. Or it'll just go black. Sometimes the screen will get corrupted just before it happens (showing corrupted lines / garbage on screen), and flash back and forth. Sometimes I can't even get the thing to boot at all.

I have no clue what's up - I've cleaned the cartridge slot and contacts multiple times and nothing fixes the problem.

Any ideas?

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marshallh
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Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:39 am

Re: N64 freezing randomly after upgrading firmware

Thu Jan 01, 2015 12:23 am

You won't like to hear this, but this sounds exactly like what happens with poor cartridge contact. Specifically, the video interface locks up when the CIC can't talk to the PIF anymore. This means interlacing stops working, and you see a pixelated screen (in high res modes). The CIC is independent of the 64drive so it wouldn't be affected by a firmware upgrade.
The other issues are usually what happens when a game gets bad cart data.

If you leave it on at the 64drive menu and something still happens, that is going to be a connection dealing with the CIC, since the menu at idle uses absolutely no data from the cartridge.

Iso alcohol is a good start but it does not address oxidation of contacts. Your culprit is probably going to be the cart connector inside the N64 (which is removable without desoldering). Do you have another n64 to try?

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byc
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:53 am

Re: N64 freezing randomly after upgrading firmware

Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:57 am

Unfortunately I only have the one unit. I just don't understand why it happens so randomly, but not when I wiggle the cartridge - it still remains stable.

I had the dextrose intro running, and was timing it - and to my amazement I came back 6 hours later and it was still running (which hasn't happened since, normally it freezes within the first few minutes). I noticed it had a 'hiccup' where the sound audibly halted for a split second, but it kept going (not common), then about 30 mins it halted for good. All without any interference.

And yes, it definitely happens on the 64drive menu. It'll show a pixellated screen or sometimes flash a frame of odd colored stripes, possibly even going back to rest at the pixellated screen after.

So if it's left on the 64drive menu it's most likely the CIC and PIF connection? interesting. What can be done about oxidation? The cart's fine but I can hardly tell with the slot. I don't have the security bits to take this thing apart but if it's going to get to that point I will

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marshallh
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Re: N64 freezing randomly after upgrading firmware

Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:13 pm

CIC problems always result in a unrecoverable hang. Since it comes back, I'm inclined to think it is your expansion pak. Spotty RAM would do that.
3rd party expansion paks are notorious for odd issues like this. Have a jumper pak you can try? It could also be a connection problem with the pak, though I've never heard of any issues like that since it gets changed so infrequently.

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byc
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:53 am

Re: N64 freezing randomly after upgrading firmware

Thu Jan 01, 2015 4:01 pm

I tried the Jumper Pak before and it encountered the same crashing. :|

So would it be impossible for a CIC problem to encounter a hiccup, avoiding a crash? It was a rare occurrence, most of the time it will just freeze on a pixellated screen, or on a screen of garbage (which may flicker before finally freezing).

So I had the 64drive running fine from 7 in the moring until 2:30 - I thought maybe it was fixed, and went out. Came back 2 hours later and I see this:Image
Yeah.. and now it won't even turn on. What happens to the 64drive when the red light just blinks once?

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marshallh
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Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:39 am

Re: N64 freezing randomly after upgrading firmware

Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:00 pm

Sounds more like an internal fault related to your n64. What happens with other cartridge games?

The 64drive led will show dimly for about 100ms (barely long enough to notice) and then fast extremely quickly for about 200ms. Any activity past that is cart bus activity, normally you see a certain pattern with respect to the boot process.

One time I ran across a broken N64 on ebay. It ran fine but there was no video. After tearing it apart, the composite video trace on the PCB had been completely vaporized, probably from a lightning storm.
The RCP started to exhibit very odd behavior after several minutes, the audio started getting crackly and garbled.

Where are you located?

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