IGT GK 6.2 & 6.4 SHA Failure

[peasoup49]

So with Tilt's assistance a few years ago (can't remember my old login), I successfully upgraded from a 3902 board to the 044 board with Game King 6.2 installed. I recently ended up getting the dreaded and deadly, SHA Failure. Other discussions on this board say to, "throw it over a cliff and buy a new one". It hasn't been thrown yet, but I did purchase a "new" back plane and board with version 6.4 installed. Today I received the new components and installed them. I get the same deadly SHA Failure. Could there be another component that could cause this or did I get a bad board?


Thanks in advance.

[rickhunter]

Got a bad board.  But if the damage to the flash is not extensive (meaning that the areas with actual software are not affected), you can bypass the sha failure by purchasing a Dev39 boot chip.  Member RB has these, so you may want to PM him for one.

These boards are really sensitive to static discharges and almost anything kills them.  So always handle them while properly grounded wearing rubber gloves if you really want to be sure.

[RB]

Thanks Rick!

 

[peasoup49]

Appreciate the info, finally heard from their technician and giving him a call. Understand about ESD damages to circuit boards. I'm a fellow electronics technician for the Navy.    If no good news, I'll be sending a PM out within the hour. Thanks again.

[T]

Appreciate the info, finally heard from their technician and giving him a call. Understand about ESD damages to circuit boards. I'm a fellow electronics technician for the Navy.    If no good news, I'll be sending a PM out within the hour. Thanks again.

I thought my GK 6.4 flash board had gone bad. After reading about the Dev 39 I purchased one (from RB) and was able to load up 6.4 on a different board. So, at this point got GK 6.4 working. Just not sure what the actual fix was i.e. did DEV 39 bypass the dreaded checks and / or was the main board bad? I have GK 6.2 also that is not working (was on same possible bad main board) I will be checking that soon also. At any rate the Dev 39 is great! I ordered a number of them after seeing how awesome these things are. after setting things up game loads right up from dead start.

[rickhunter]

The dev39 bypasses the security checks at boot time.  When the boards go bad, some bytes are corrupted on the flash memory, either because the flash memory is bad or because some static zapped the flash memory.  The Dev39 boot straight to the program without doing any checks, that's why it works.  In fact, the board could be really bad, where the graphics and/or sound are messed up and the game still boots.  It doesn't play right, but it boots.  Sometimes the damage is on an area where there is no program data (Zero Check Failure).  Sometimes it is in an area where there is program data (SHA Failure).  Sometimes it is in an area that does not affect gameplay, but other times it is.  The only way to know is to test everything to see if you see anything wrong.