Nintendo 64 CD64 information? Schematic?
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According to Wikipedia, it only supports a maximum of 32MB installed RAM and has problems running ROMs of protected carts such as Perfect Dark.
EDIT: Had a quick look but couldn't find any pics of a disassembled unit or schematics
EDIT: Had a quick look but couldn't find any pics of a disassembled unit or schematics
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I used to own the CD64 Plus myself.
Only the CD64 Plus supports 32MB ram if I remember correctly. It has a revised motherboard, Rom and firmware, and simm ram slot with trapdoor access. Not sure if the older versions had ram slots.
An ok unit but a bit unstable. When working the gui is functional and has some useful features. It's a bit slow at loading a Rom into ram and then booting it. The other issues are more down to CD based media. You can't bit swap roms during use so if they don't boot you have to convert them on the PC and burn another disc. You also need to write discs with 8.3 filenames.
A big issue for me was the supplied PSU never seemed to work correctly, and sometimes you don't initially realise this because the system will boot into the gui by drawing just power from the N64, but when you try to open the drive door and read a disk it would lose all power. Using a different universal PSU fixed the issue for me.
I might still have the official manual in pdf if you need it, plus links to some useful firmware and other download resources.
I ended up selling mine because I also own a Z64 Mr Backup and it's a far superior device and can do so much more, aided especially by having writable media (zip disks originally, but can be replaced by sd card or hdd). But this is now up for sale too.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Only the CD64 Plus supports 32MB ram if I remember correctly. It has a revised motherboard, Rom and firmware, and simm ram slot with trapdoor access. Not sure if the older versions had ram slots.
An ok unit but a bit unstable. When working the gui is functional and has some useful features. It's a bit slow at loading a Rom into ram and then booting it. The other issues are more down to CD based media. You can't bit swap roms during use so if they don't boot you have to convert them on the PC and burn another disc. You also need to write discs with 8.3 filenames.
A big issue for me was the supplied PSU never seemed to work correctly, and sometimes you don't initially realise this because the system will boot into the gui by drawing just power from the N64, but when you try to open the drive door and read a disk it would lose all power. Using a different universal PSU fixed the issue for me.
I might still have the official manual in pdf if you need it, plus links to some useful firmware and other download resources.
I ended up selling mine because I also own a Z64 Mr Backup and it's a far superior device and can do so much more, aided especially by having writable media (zip disks originally, but can be replaced by sd card or hdd). But this is now up for sale too.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
kenshigros
Member
nothing much but a great website for you
nothing much but a great website for you
nothing much but a great website for you
I wouldn't bother with anything like these any more, now we have the Everdrive.
I seem to remember one of the tracks was cut on purpose, so double check that before performing surgery on it.
The power up, drive spin and then nothing issue is the one I used to get. Was the PSU.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
The power up, drive spin and then nothing issue is the one I used to get. Was the PSU.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
This will power on every time now, however, it appears the memory is bad, or something that controls it.
It will act as if its copying a rom file to the memory, but the when I try to run it, all I get is a black screen.
I did a dram verify thing, in the "software" on the C64, and it failed...
I removed the stick of ram, so it would just use the ram on board, and that also failed...
edit: I don't think there is any ram on the board at all...
It will act as if its copying a rom file to the memory, but the when I try to run it, all I get is a black screen.
I did a dram verify thing, in the "software" on the C64, and it failed...
I removed the stick of ram, so it would just use the ram on board, and that also failed...
edit: I don't think there is any ram on the board at all...
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Could be the RAM is bad. I believe it uses EDO SIMMS.
Just to check. You do have a boot cart in the cartridge slot on the front of the unit? It needs to use an original N64 game cart to boot past the copy protection and trick the N64 into loading the game rom. Mario 64 works best.
Is this useful?
http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/slaanesh79/Backup_Units/CD64/CD64.htm
Is this useful?
http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/slaanesh79/Backup_Units/CD64/CD64.htm
There's a CD64 BIOS that supports hard drives/CF cards but only FAT16 so far. Maybe if med got more testers he would be motivated to update it. I have CD64+ but I still don't have a working N64, so I can't test it.
I don't know if anyone has a schematic but med knows a lot about the CD64.
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Of course! It does nothing at all without a cart in the front...
Thanks for the link, I reckon I've already got every 64CD related page open
What happened, when I first got this, plugged it in, turned it on, worked for 5 minutes, then went off, and wouldn't turn on again.
Pulled it apart, and found there was 1 screw left in the board out of 4... so when the N64 was placed ontop, I assume it pushed the board down and didn't make proper contact...
So, I fitted four screws, powered it back up, and it still did nothing.
Checked the voltages, and burnt my hand on the 7805 regulator, and found no voltage coming from it.
I removed the 7805, and replaced it with a switchmode, 2amp, 5volt regulator module, checked the voltage, 4.98volts, put it back together, and it still did nothing...
Rechecked the voltages, and I still had no 5volts?!
Then I realised one of the screws was shorting out the 5volt rail
So, fibre washers under the screws, and then it powered up...
It now appears to power up every time, but the memory seems bad... whether the ram is actually bad, or the socket doesn't make proper contact, I don't know...
My N64 seemed to "wash out" the image on the screen, almost like its over exposed.. I first realised this when playing Mario Kart... as a result, this makes it rather difficult to even figure out what it written at the top right of the screen, however I know its version 1.3 of the bios...
New bios looks interesting... I had seen that before too, something worth considering for sure.
I remember the screen looking a bit washed out. For me that was due to booting in NTSC mode. Changing it to PAL improved it, but never made it look as vibrant as running a game directly from the N64 itself.
It's very interesting your findings about shorting out screws and missing screws. I also had similar issues with mine that I had to sort out when I got it, and I purchased mine new from Lik-Sank in Hong Kong all those years ago. Remember Lik-Sank? They were a brilliant company I purchased a lot of stuff from in the early 00's. So sad when they were forced out of business by the USA.
It's very interesting your findings about shorting out screws and missing screws. I also had similar issues with mine that I had to sort out when I got it, and I purchased mine new from Lik-Sank in Hong Kong all those years ago. Remember Lik-Sank? They were a brilliant company I purchased a lot of stuff from in the early 00's. So sad when they were forced out of business by the USA.