Ummm, is this Nintendo DDH right?

[Parris]

I've taken delivery of my first ever Nintendo DDH and from the off I knew I was going to be hobbled somewhat as I have no Marlin card. However, as it can be connected to a TV I thought I'd give it a go and at least ensure the unit boots ok!

Guess what?

It displays a large 'E' in the LED section and no output. Inside there is an empty RAM slot and a flashing LED at position DSP1 (above it is written 'heartbeat', but I am not convinced the DDH has a heart beat lol) to the immediate right of the HDD power insert.

Any ideas? Is that RAM slot meant to be empty? If not what type / amount / speed do I require? And please tell me it was standard off-the-shelf memory available on eBay and not some gizmodified-uber-rare nonsense Nintendo had made from Platinum and Moondust!

Thanks in advance. Any internal shots of a DDH would be welcome, just so that I can compare. The version of BIOS appears to be 4431.

[Parris]

Just noticed the MB is marked 'DRAM' and the sticker, which is partially peeled off suggests memory..........48Mb. Guess this is what it eludes too. Anyone know the specific type I'm after if non-standard?

[klarth]

If youre talking about the ram-ish looking slot on the far right hand side near the front, its supposed to be empty. Ive never taken mine apart, but im assuming the ram is underneath the ORCA board somewhere. As for the E, I had that problem before. Ill dig up my docs and see what thats about again.

[klarth]

OK, heres my info on the 'E' error. Pretty much either:

1.) Your DDH harddrive is missing the main.abe firmware file
2.) Your DDH harddrive is corrupted/dead, or
3.) Your DDH hardware is bad.

First hook a computer up to the serial port on the back of the DDH (the one labeled RS-232) and open up a hyperterminal session. I cant remember the serial port settings off the top of my head, and the manual just says to click their shortcuts. Give 9600, 1 stop bit, 1 parity bit a try. For the time being my DDH dev PC is configured for psx1 dev so Id have to spend an hr reconfiguring it to get access to my win2k drive.

Anyway, turn on the DDH and youll see vxWorks boot up and it should spit out some sort of error message if somethings horribly wrong. If that doesnt give you anything, take the IDE drive out of the DDH and plug it directly into a computer and see whats on it, and if its readable.


Heres part of the DDH FAQ if it helps:

Q: My DDH displays an 'E' on the front panel indicator and will not respond to loadrun or stop commands. Why is this?

A: Most likely, the main.abe file is missing or corrupted.
This file contains the firmware for the DDH disk emulation hardware. This firmware is loaded from the emulation drive when the DDH is powered up. If the firmware is missing or corrupted, you will see the E on the front panel indicating the error.

To correct this, go to:
Start|Programs|gameOptix DVD Development Kit|Restore DDH System Files and follow the instructions. Please ensure that you have properly partitioned and formatted the emulation drive first.

[samael64]

I posted a bunch of internal pics of my two DDHs on my collection thread some time ago. You can take a look HERE.
The DDH cannot display video without being hooked up to a computer. You need to transfer files over to its hardrive and then run which ever game/demo/etc you want to play and then it will out put video.
The E is most likely due to the main.abe file, its either screwed up or missing all together. Once you get a Marlin, everything should be good.

[Parris]

Many thanks for the confirmation. So the DDH is unlike Gdev / Gbox in this respect? Fair enough! A Marlin hunting I will go...

Amazingly detailed responses from you both and the time / effort is much appreciated.

[Barc0de]

the difference between a DDH and a GDEV is basically that the latter doesn't have its own internal dedicated HDD, while the other needs to transfer the image from the host to its insides.

That said, marlin cards are not compatible with some PC setups (Mobo issue), and they need a connection to an IDE port to make a bridge.

[klarth]

That said, marlin cards are not compatible with some PC setups (Mobo issue), and they need a connection to an IDE port to make a bridge.

hence my setup issue :banghead:

Fyi, in case it helps you out when you get a marlin, I managed to get mine to work on an LX440 P2 motherboard. Its a bit of a pain though. I have to plug the marlin directly into the motherboard ide connector, with nothing else plugged into the remaining ide slots.
Then i need to plug my windows boot drive and a cd drive into a promise ultra ATA TX100 pci card. Took me almost a whole day of messing around plugging stuff in and out to get it to work the first time.

[Barc0de]

exactly why I always use a trusty GDEV ;)