Capcom CPS2 Suicide


Well.. it apears that capcom didn't quite think thier games would have the lasting playablity that they do..

Capcom CPS2 system ROMs are all protected from pirates by some very strong encryption, these encryption algorithims are unlocked using a key, which is stored is SRAM. This has proved to be a very effective form of protection from counterfiters and emulation authors. However they seem to have forgotten one key aspect of SRAM, if it looses power, you loose all the data stored on it.. In walks the lithium Ion Battery.. Lithium Ion batteries are great, ususally.. They never output less then thier rated voltage (3.6v in this case) however, they only last 5 years.

You can see where this is going already can't you?

Since all of these games are reaching that age, it's becoming a problem that these batteries are dying and the games are rendered useless..

Capcom is well aware of this problem and they have a solution. For a fee (depending on the game) you can send them the board, they will replace the battery, upload the nessecary key to the SRAM (via the CN9 serial connector on the board) and send it back to you good as new for 5 more years. Well this fee is a rather annoying fix for an design flaw in my opinion.

There is another solution to the problem.

You will need to have This only works on games that HAVE NOT suicided yet!

This proceedure WILL and DOES void ANY WARRANTY that is left on your game board.. PERIOD!! if this is something that you care about DO NOT try this.

Also, if you do it and screw it up.. don't blame me..

This is very simple, just don't screw up.

Take the game board and look on the bottom of it.. you should be able to see all of the screw holes pretty easily, use the Trox driver and remove all of them, the case should just pop off with little force, if there is resistance check to see if there is a screw under the Capcom label.

Once inside you will see the battery on the bottom right hand corner of the board. little cylindrical thing that looks just like a battery (it's even labeled batt1).


these pictures are large for clarity (sorry).


Once you have located this flip the board over, you should now be looking at the solder side of the board.
solder backup battery here using the 2 short lengths of wire.


these pictures are large for clarity (sorry again).


then go de-solder the dying battery from the board and it should then look like this.


these pictures are large for clarity (and again).


Solder the next battery in the old one's place using the leads already on the new battey.. and remove the backup battery from the solder side of the game board.

You're all set, if you did it right you should be able to turn it on and play for another 5 years. If you didn't do it right... well.. you've got a really cool Capcom paperweight! Congratulations either way!

Questions?
niobium@arcadezone.org