Nintendo 64 - chopped mainboard trouble

[Disco_Stu]

Hi,

I'm currently building a portable Nintendo 64, featuring a chopped mainboard, chopped PSone screen, internal controller pak...

The mainboard was running fine, but now it has some issues. Sometimes the inserted game doesn't start and after shaking the console it starts fine. This seems to be a loose connection somewhere, that I couldn't find until now. I've replaced the complete cartridge connector and wires and resoldered all parts on the bottom of the mainboard without any effect. But this isn't the bad problem: some games doesn't start at all. I've figured out that no game that includes the eeprom (U2 on the cartridge) runs on this console. There is also a bad problem with the internal controller pak. If I start a game that supports the controller pak, I get the message, that there is no controller pak, that there is no ORIGINAL controller pak or that the inserted controller pak is damaged. I've tested the controller with another console and there it ran fine and I could save and load from the internal controller pak so I think that there is a problem where the console manages the saving function. Does anyone know where this actually is?

[marshallh]

Pins 19 and 21 on the connector are used by the PIF and cart eeproms. Make sure those are connected.

[Disco_Stu]

those were the first that I've checked... are the connections of the eeprom only running to the PIF, or are they connected to the RCP too?

[Disco_Stu]

Sorry for double posting but I can't edit my last post.

Yesterday evening I've tested some games and it seems that the eeprom causes not the mistake. I've tested: Diddy Kong Racing, Blast Corps, Doom 64, extreme G, Daikatana, Gauntlet Legends, Forsaken, Duke Nukem Zero Hour, Donkey Kong 64 and JetForce Gemini. diidy Kong Racing and Blast Corps were the only games that didn't boot, all others worked fine. I know that these two use the eeprom, but I think some of those other tested games (DK64, GFG) are using it too. Any way this morning I wanted to test some other games but no one works... its frustrating...!

Edit 1: DKR and BC are running on other consoles just fine!

Edit 2: some pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4

Edit 3: A little video that I recorded yesterday, when it worked

Edit 4: So, I've resoldered the PIF and the U8 now. I'm not sure if the loose contact is fixed now but most games are running now. I've tested 50 games and only 2 weren't booting up: Diddykong Racing and 1080 snowboarding... Blast Corps works fine too. The next thing I'm going to check is the controller pak...

Edit 5: after connecting an oem controller and anoem controller pak to the portable, the intern controller pak works fine now O_o

Edit 6: tested again this morning... the console works still fine, but the controller pak seems to have issues again