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Stern Spiderman USB Update Problem

I TiltAlot

I TiltAlot

Registered
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
514
Location
Northampton UK
Alias
Keith
Hi Chaps, hoping for a solution here...

Recently bought a Stern Spiderman which is running old (1.7) code.

Have tried to update code to 2.6 via USB stick today but the the game will not update. When I get to the stage of switching dip switch 8 to on and rebooting the game, the game just shows rebooting.... on DMD and hangs. If I turn off the game and back on again the DMD is blank. The game will not reset via the reset button until the dip switch 8 is put back to off (all the other dip switches are already set to off). The game still plays normally with the old code. I have not yet got to the stage of inserting the USB stick into the game, and I have updated several SAM games without problems in the past.

I have tried removing the Bootflash ROM (U9) and replacing it, all pins on the ROM are inserted correctly.

I suspect the Bootflash Rom (U9) is faulty. Do I now need a new Bootflash ROM, or can the ROM to be reflashed? Where will I be able to find a new ROM, or somewhere to reflash it? I can't see anything on the UK parts sites.

Thanks in advance, Keith
 
You haven't put the USB stick in yet? I thought that was the first stage? Insert stick, select update game rom in menu, screen tells you to move dipswitch, follow instructions on the screen...etc
 
No, the game doesn't ask for the memory stick to be inserted until step 4c in the manual.

I'm getting stuck at step 3 after changing the dip switch 8 to on and rebooting the game.
 
Try it with the stick in * that's all I did on walking dead last week, didn't follow any manual just the onscreen instructions

* at your own risk obviously :p
 
I tried inserting the memory stick first, then operating dip switch 8. The game makes a noise to recognise the stick has been inserted, but still gets stuck with the DMD showing Rebooting... when I attempt to reboot the game.
 
Is this the same USB stick you've used before?

Just checked my dip switches on SM and 1,5,6,7 & 8 are all off, the rest are on. No idea why they are different to yours.
 
Spiderman is SAM1,

With SAM1 they stupidly used an obsolete USB 1.1 controller chip, which does not work with most modern USB2.0 sticks.

You want the oldest and smallest usb stick you can get your hands on. If you don't have one, but an old crappy half gig used one on ebay for a couple of quid.

As you said you recently bought the spider-man, I am assuming you are not using a known good usb stick with it yet.

I'd certainly try different usb sticks before assuming their is a board fault
 
Yes it's the same USB stick that I have used to update AC/DC, Shrek, and Star Trek. The file is unzipped and in the root folder of the USB stick as before.

The DIP switches were originally set the same as on your SM (UK setting), I set the switches to all off - (USA setting) as this is what the manual requested to update the game. I originally tried updating the game with the dip switches set as UK setting without success.
 
I use a 512MB stick for SM, leaned from experiences with the Humax Freeview box that new/large USBs aren't much use!
 
I made sure that I bought a USB 1.1 compatible pen drive, (and boy did I had trouble locating one in the shops!). It is a 4Gb capacity FAT32 formatted drive.

I hadn't got to the stage of being asked to insert the USB pen drive into the machine when doing the update procedure, so this shouldn't affect the rebooting fault.
 
Not sure about Shrek, but ACDC and Star Trek are definately SAM2, so you wouldn't have a problem running a modern usb stick on them....
 
Ah in that case you need a 128mb USB pen drive.

You could try deleting the partition and just creating a primary partition of 128mb with diskpart.
 
I still don't think it is anything to do with the compatibility of the pen drive. :)

The game isn't rebooting when dip switch 8 is changed to on and the game cycled off and back on again. This is before the game even asks for the pen drive to be inserted into the USB port on the game to update the software.
 
What about doing a full factory reset wiping everything. Then trying again?
 
Keith if it has an early boot rom in it then sometimes you canot update from a stick for some reason if you have another stern game try swaping this over and updating again i think version3.1 is the latest if you search this on pinside then i am sure you will get some more info
 
Chris, I have the options to either update or backup so don't think it's an early boot eprom. I've just been reading up on Pinside about this myself.

Arv I've tried a factory reset and it's still the same.

@Archyta5 has just been round to have a look. He's hopefully going to post up a video of what is happening when I try to update the game.

P.S. the game recognises the memory stick when I do an audit dump onto it.


Thanks everyone for all the suggestions so far! :thumbs:
 
Last edited:
Here is the video as promised!


As described, the game just sits on REBOOTING... when you get to the end of the video and does not move past this, with or without the memory stick in.
 
Can you not jumper the board to cause a reset like you can on PC mobos? Would that have the same effect?

What version of bootflash is in there?
 
4GB is way too large. You need another pen drive, half a Gig or smaller as well as being USB 1.1
 
There is a reset button on the board but this has no effect when the game hangs (when it says Rebooting...)

Nothing on the EPROM chip (U9) but a sticker on the the board says Spiderman version 1-05-E 05/16/07
 
I believe the game hangs because it either can't find the pen drive or the file on the pen drive. I have had games load in the code before now then fail code verification, rendering the game totally useless. That was also pen drive related.
 
Peter, the game hasn't asked for me to insert the pen drive when it hangs. That would be the next step once the game has rebooted.
 
I still think you need the pen drive in first before going down the update route. I am aware that it isn't supposed to be until the next step.

Did you try switching the game off and on again (power-cycling) instead of hitting select?
 
Yes Peter, I had tried switching the game off and on again. The screen stays blank with just the GI lit on the playfield.

I'll hunt out a smaller USB 1.1 compatible pen drive in the next few days. I still suspect that it is the Bootflash EPROM (U9) at fault... ;) Any sources for this chip?
 
I TiltAlot said:
Yes Peter, I had tried switching the game off and on again. The screen stays blank with just the GI lit on the playfield.

I'll hunt out a smaller USB 1.1 compatible pen drive in the next few days. I still suspect that it is the Bootflash EPROM (U9) at fault... ;) Any sources for this chip?
Click to expand...

I may have one USB we can try if I can track it down. An old 512mb one I bought years ago. Likely it's compatible.
 
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