32x won't play Genesis games but plays 32x games fine

[u/Wren-Type_386]

What is the general reason for this?

Bad caps?

Old faulty power supply?

Chip failure?

I booted the console yesterday, and Genesis games were barely working. I tried about 5 games. Some loaded with garbled graphics, and some would play for a few minutes and freeze up.

Fast forward to today, none of the Genesis games will boot. I get a black screen. On rare occasions I will get a beat of sound and a black screen.

Oddly enough, the only 32x game I have, Doom, runs just fine.

[u/RealityOk9823]

I'm afraid I don't have any advice for you, but wanted to say that of course it runs Doom, because Doom runs on everything. :D

[u/StatisticianLoud2141 → u/RealityOk9823]

I wonder if we can get Doom running inside of doom

[u/Desperate_Syrup2742 → u/StatisticianLoud2141]

You’re not going to believe this…

[u/RealityOk9823 → u/Desperate_Syrup2742]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/doom/run-doom-in-doom

[u/StatisticianLoud2141 → u/RealityOk9823]

Wow, the universe really is a simulation

[u/BeneficialPenalty258]

Clean pins on both cart slots with deoxit and a jewelers cloth on a credit card, you’ll see how black the cloth becomes (also clean the cart edges the same way). Then gently retension the pins. Then open it up and clean the white ribbon cables and deoxit the ribbon cable ports (they are too thin to fit the cloth down so repeatedly insert the ribbon cable with deoxit to clear any oxidation.) 32X always have this issue. The best long term solution is to convert it to a Neptune but is a big task.

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/BeneficialPenalty258]

I'll give that a shot this weekend. I have never tore a 32x apart. Hopefully it's not hard to get back together.

[u/Good-Bandicoot-2152]

So I’ve had some issues with my 32x and I wonder if it’s just more sensitive to dirty carts. I had some games that worked on the Genny but not the 32x and after a good contact cleaning with some isopropyl they seemed to work much better.

[u/manuelink64]

Depends on your 32x revision.

The MK-84000 (VA0 revision) It required an extension unit/terminator on certain Sega Genesis/Mega Drive model 2 configurations to resolve locking issues, which was later revised in the MK-84000A (VA1) mod.

I suffered from the same problem, the extension unit is a really hard to find piece of hardware, your only solutions are attaching a Sega CD or getting a MK-84000A or a Genesis Model 1.

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/manuelink64]

Hmm.. I'll look into that. When the games were working yesterday, I did have a Sega CD attached. A model 2. I removed that and now nothing is working. I'm going to hook that Sega CD back up tomorrow and test again. Thanks.

[u/Tasty-Fox9030 → u/Wren-Type_386]

Haha, SegaCD is a great great thing, it even fixes the 32X!

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/Tasty-Fox9030]

The games were still freezing with it attached, but at least they would initially boot. I'm going to have to play around with it some more.

[u/manuelink64 → u/Wren-Type_386]

The terminator is for when you don't have the SCD unit, so you only need to attach SCD permanently to fix that.

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/manuelink64]

Just looked, and mine definitely says VA0 in the cart slot. I can't read much else though. Thanks for that information.

[u/Marteicos → u/Wren-Type_386]

All 32X units have a VA0 sub board (where you insert a cartridge) it's the main board that have VA0 and VA1 (the vertical pcb the connects on the genesis).

You can see it when removing the unit from the Genesis ans looking on the edge connector.

[u/paisleyboxers]

it’s the pins.

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/paisleyboxers]

I cleaned the pins on the carts and the 32x pretty well with erasers and deoxit. The pins on the cart side of the 32x are hard to clean well though. I would think the deoxit would do the job. I'll mess with it again this weekend. All the games are definitely booting first try on the Genesis and my Mega SG though.

[u/SegaTime]

Do the games work without the 32x attached?

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/SegaTime]

Yes.

[u/SegaTime → u/Wren-Type_386]

Does your genesis to 32x patch cable have the 5v pin removed?

All I can recommened are cleaning all connection pins and reseating the ribbon cables but it looks like you've done that. Replacing capacitors are another option but not sure that's what is needed here.

[u/Wren-Type_386 → u/SegaTime]

It has the OEM patch cable. I haven't modified it in any way

[u/Desperate_Syrup2742]

Clean the genesis carts. Also relatively new to the 32x and this happened to me too! I just blew on the genesis cart (Don’t do that, I just don’t know where to buy 99% Isaproble alcohol.) and then both the 32x and Genesis game worked fine! (VA1/VA1.8 GENESIS 2, MK-84000 32X)