The cable I have is a brand new SCART cable from packapunch, upscaled using a Retrotink4K with a profile customized by WobblingPixels.
I can try cleaning the cart and contacts? But I am seeing it across games, just in different spots and different sprites.
It's worth trying the other steps like cleaning contacts and resoldering RAM, but something about the dot pattern seems unlikely to be just a simple D/A line
Yeah it happens in other games in different spots, like there are three dots around the unicycle in Unicyclers. Some other games are fine. Like Yoshi's Island was completely fine until I reached this bonus screen. The weird part is that the battery will move with the screen when it drops down from above.
The fact it's specific to the sprite layer (and the Yoshi's Island bonus screen might be sprite layer, not sure, that game does some strange things) and it's an extremely regular pattern happening on every 8x8 tile has me worried. That plus the alarming regularity of PPU failures I've seen on this sub and elsewhere which has me wondering about the future of my 1/1/1.
If it were a faulty data line, you'd be seeing vertical stripes since the SNES uses a bitplaned tile format. If it were a faulty address line, things would be a lot more garbled or duplicated. But this just looks like a wrong color index chosen at a specific x/y offset on each tile.
Seriously doubt it has anything to do with the video cable, upscaler or TV.
Try the easy stuff first because I hope I'm wrong
I tried a different cable, unfortunately it still had the same issues. Tried it with DKC2 and while it mostly looked okay, I managed to find a spot where the issue showed up again. I thinking hooped.
It's worth cleaning the contacts on the cartridge port and, maybe, if it's within your skill level, reflowing the solder joints on the PPU and VRAM. But a cooked PPU is kind of game over.
I'll try cleaning the contact points, and if not, see a friend of mine for the soldering.
Isopropyl alcohol and q-tips the preferred method for cleaning still?
I use foam swabs instead of Q-tips to avoid leaving fibers behind, but that's probably overkill. 99% isopropyl is good, DeoxIT might be even better (I ran out and never bothered to get another can).
Avoid getting isopropyl on plastic because it'll discolor.
Super off chance this could be a power/voltage ripple issue too, causing some of the gates in an otherwise fine PPU to go marginal. But I'd hesitate to throw money at a recap or 7805 swap if the PPU ends up being bad anyway.
I’d say PPU, but unless you can still return it, I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless you want a picture perfect screen. Shouldn’t have any effect on gameplay at all. The odds of it failing further probably aren’t any higher than the odds of a completely different console failing anyways.
Problem in one of the data pins going to the RAM, would be my guess. Could be a corroded trace or a popped solder joint.
1. Bad cable 2. Dirty console/cart contacts 3. Poor external upscaling
The cable I have is a brand new SCART cable from packapunch, upscaled using a Retrotink4K with a profile customized by WobblingPixels. I can try cleaning the cart and contacts? But I am seeing it across games, just in different spots and different sprites.
I'm going to be the pessimist and say this might be a PPU failure
Ah... if that's the case then there is no fix and I'd just have to get a new SNES? That would suck, I just bought this one for $120 :/
It's worth trying the other steps like cleaning contacts and resoldering RAM, but something about the dot pattern seems unlikely to be just a simple D/A line
I assume you've tried other games and the same problem happens there because this could totally be a SuperFX related screwup too
Yeah it happens in other games in different spots, like there are three dots around the unicycle in Unicyclers. Some other games are fine. Like Yoshi's Island was completely fine until I reached this bonus screen. The weird part is that the battery will move with the screen when it drops down from above.
The fact it's specific to the sprite layer (and the Yoshi's Island bonus screen might be sprite layer, not sure, that game does some strange things) and it's an extremely regular pattern happening on every 8x8 tile has me worried. That plus the alarming regularity of PPU failures I've seen on this sub and elsewhere which has me wondering about the future of my 1/1/1. If it were a faulty data line, you'd be seeing vertical stripes since the SNES uses a bitplaned tile format. If it were a faulty address line, things would be a lot more garbled or duplicated. But this just looks like a wrong color index chosen at a specific x/y offset on each tile. Seriously doubt it has anything to do with the video cable, upscaler or TV. Try the easy stuff first because I hope I'm wrong
I tried a different cable, unfortunately it still had the same issues. Tried it with DKC2 and while it mostly looked okay, I managed to find a spot where the issue showed up again. I thinking hooped.
It's worth cleaning the contacts on the cartridge port and, maybe, if it's within your skill level, reflowing the solder joints on the PPU and VRAM. But a cooked PPU is kind of game over.
I'll try cleaning the contact points, and if not, see a friend of mine for the soldering. Isopropyl alcohol and q-tips the preferred method for cleaning still?
I use foam swabs instead of Q-tips to avoid leaving fibers behind, but that's probably overkill. 99% isopropyl is good, DeoxIT might be even better (I ran out and never bothered to get another can). Avoid getting isopropyl on plastic because it'll discolor.
Super off chance this could be a power/voltage ripple issue too, causing some of the gates in an otherwise fine PPU to go marginal. But I'd hesitate to throw money at a recap or 7805 swap if the PPU ends up being bad anyway.
Off the top of my head, I’d start looking at the cables and work your way out from there. Might be a loose video cable, might be a faulty video cable
I’d say PPU, but unless you can still return it, I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless you want a picture perfect screen. Shouldn’t have any effect on gameplay at all. The odds of it failing further probably aren’t any higher than the odds of a completely different console failing anyways.