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Sega Frankenstein DMD glitches during play

Jakey212

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Joined
May 15, 2025
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5
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Sidcup
After playing MSF for a while the DMD starts to glitch, resets or goes blank but its always with some dots along the top left corner
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Ive recapped the PSU and DMD driver board. I've changed the ribbon cables.
I've found that if I reseat the two rom chips it may prolong the time before it glitches again. Any advice/fixes warmly welcomed - TIA
 
I'd check your 5v first if you haven't already. Any less can cause resets.

Get the sega large dmd harness update if you haven't got one already. Probably about £10.

If you suspect the roms then change the roms for new ones. They can go bad.
Ministry of pinball are reasonable. Set including game rom 15 euros.

After that as you have changed cables then look at the dmd board and see if you can find a fault.

Hope that helps :)
 
I had a similar issue with a Batman Forever that also uses this XL DMD. I replaced the DMD with a colour pin2dmd and that solved it for me. Was £200 for the dmd. That varies with exchange rate but you should still be around that figure as it was only March I bought it. Search terranigma on here and drop him a message for current price.
 
I'd check your 5v first if you haven't already. Any less can cause resets.

Get the sega large dmd harness update if you haven't got one already. Probably about £10.

If you suspect the roms then change the roms for new ones. They can go bad.
Ministry of pinball are reasonable. Set including game rom 15 euros.

After that as you have changed cables then look at the dmd board and see if you can find a fault.

Hope that helps :)
Forgot to add that it's already had the harness update. I can't see anything on the DMD board that stands out. When it's running there doesn't seem to be any dots out which made me think it's a signal issue.
I might try a new set of roms as they're cheap. Thanks
 
also re-flow the dmd boards. as you say, after some time it happens, could be dry joint. I got a bad man forever, got a colour dmd, for the money, well worth it.
 
also re-flow the dmd boards. as you say, after some time it happens, could be dry joint. I got a bad man forever, got a colour dmd, for the money, well worth it.
Thanks. I'll reflow the dmd controller and try and look at the DMD board itself but the solder side doesn't seem accessible from what I've seen.
I've ordered new rom chips so might see how that goes before investing in a colour DMD. I must admit the colour DMD does look good!
 
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