MegaCart Repair Request

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:25 pm

Hello. This is for anyone or everyone involved in the creation of the MegaCart. Mine stopped working last night. Now when I plug it in and turn it on I only get a black screen. All my other hardware/carts work fine so I am really afraid the MegaCart is no longer working. I was hoping I could send it to someone here who was involved in it in order to repair it. Naturally you would be compensated for your efforts (PayPal is best.)

I understand that there is no warranty and I don't want this to be seen as a complaint. I simply am asking someone who is able to fix it to do so. I was really enjoying my MegaCart and I would like to start enjoying again.

Please PM me if you think you can help.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:47 pm

Why is this thread marked as announcement?

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:50 pm

Hi, Paul,

since you got other cartridges running, I presume no permanent damage was done to your VIC, and presumably, also your Mega-Cart.

It is quite possible, that (parts of) the NVRAM got corrupted, where the cart stores information to be retained on power-off.

You should try to power up VIC+Megacart with CTRL held down to enter the Service-Menu. From there, you can reset the NVRAM to valid default values. Then tell, whether your Megacart shows signs of life again.

In any case, it is not necessary to make this topic an announcement - I'll set it to a normal posting.

Greetings,

Michael

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:59 pm

gklinger wrote:Why is this thread marked as announcement?

oops. My mistake. This is rather a normal post after all.

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:01 pm

Mike wrote:Hi, Paul,

since you got other cartridges running, I presume no permanent damage was done to your VIC, and presumably, also your Mega-Cart.

It is quite possible, that (parts of) the NVRAM got corrupted, where the cart stores information to be retained on power-off.

You should try to power up VIC+Megacart with CTRL held down to enter the Service-Menu. From there, you can reset the NVRAM to valid default values. Then tell, whether your Megacart shows signs of life again.

In any case, it is not necessary to make this topic an announcement - I'll set it to a normal posting.

Greetings,

Michael

Thank you Michael. I will give it a try in the morning.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:25 pm

Please forward support requests via web page.

http://www.mega-cart.com/contact/

This is best option, since I can log and track requests.
(Also, I lack time to check all the forums that MegaCart has been discussed on around the world)

I'm confident that what ever the issue is with this MegaCart, it can be fixed.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:28 am

This sounds like a nightmare... Megacart stops working...

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:33 am

Actually I encountered something similar before when I plugged in my Mega-Cart into a known broken VIC-20. It seemed to corrupt the NVRAM and refused to start when plugging it into my working VIC. After issuing a reset as Mike points out, the NVRAM got cleared and it works again.

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:07 am

Mikam73 wrote:This sounds like a nightmare... Megacart stops working...

Hehe, well I won't get too panicky yet. I will try what was suggested and let you all know. Probably later tonight (my time).

Barney · Post by **Barney** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:58 am

I had somthing similar happen to me. My entire MEGA-CART menu was there but most of it was blacked out. Just the Mega-cart title was at the top of the screen. I used the reset button a couple times but it would not go away. I turned the power off, waited a few seconds and powered back on.....problem solved.

Barney

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:09 am

pitcalco wrote:
Mikam73 wrote:This sounds like a nightmare... Megacart stops working...
Hehe, well I won't get too panicky yet. I will try what was suggested and let you all know. Probably later tonight (my time).

Could you let us know if this worked?

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:25 am

***NOTE FOR ALL MEGA-CART USERS***

When you note any strange behaviour of your Mega-Cart, the first thing to do is to reset preferences.

Preferences are located in NVRAM and some programs may overwrite it so normally a reset fixes the problem.

How to reset Mega-Cart preferences:

1) SWITCH OFF THE VIC
2) HOLD THE CTRL KEY
3) SWITCH ON THE VIC (with Mega-Cart

)
4) SELECT RESET PREFS

I hope this helps.

PS: If you have done a preferences backup before, you may also restore it.

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:12 pm

While I intended to get right on the matter, I got caught up with a bunch of work and only now have been able to do some more VICing. I apologise for making those interested wait for a reply.

That said, I am happy to confirm that the simple rectifying measures as suggested in this thread worked perfectly well. Simply restart the computer while holding the CTRL button.

Thank you to Mike especially for first suggesting it as well as the rest of you for your support.

Now back to more serious matters

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 5:29 am

I'm happy that you have solved the problem.

This problem may occurs especially if you load some cart images from file and using the Vic +32+3K Only.

It does not occur if you launch cart games from menu of course.

Remember that you may backup your preferences then restore them if any problem occurs, take a look here:

How to clear preferences and restore default factory settings

How to backup preferences

How to restore preferences