GCN Problem: Intermittent Swiss access with Picoboot + USB-C power

[Nickeleye]

I've had my GC modded with a picoboot for quite a while with no issues. I'm using an SD2SP2 loaded with Swiss & games. Normally I leave the default boot option as the Gamecube system menu/disc drive and "A" button to load Swiss at boot. The other day I converted my stock gamecube power adapter to USB-C. I left the GC alone, but snipped the GC power connector off the power brick and wired it up to a 12v USB-C trigger paired with a AOHI PD 65w Charger (can output 12v/3a) + the USB-C cable it came with. I did the same thing with my Wii and it operates normally.

I'm trying to track down the issue. I'm also using a 8bitmods Memcard Pro, GCHD MkII, and of course the picoboot. As I mentioned, the system also still has the disc drive connected as well. I was thinking maybe there was too much load on the power adapter at start (amps?) that was somehow causing an issue with the power adapter so I tried some experiments.
- Removed the memory card
- Removed the disc drive
- Added solder to the SD2SP2 pins (one side) since it was always loose anyway and wanted a better fit
- Shortened up my picoboot wiring significantly (less than 4")
- Tried another sd2sp2
- Tried a sd gecko with my original micro sd card, but also a spare sd card
- Tried setting the ipl.dol as the only .dol in the root directory of the sd card

Unfortunately none of these things fixed the problem... even with all 3 solutions in place at the same time. It seems really strange that the amount of times it'll successfully boot into Swiss is only 10-20% of the time. I'm really starting to doubt the power supply (usb-c). It just feels like this wasn't an issue until then. I may see if I can track down another stock GC power supply. I was just hoping to get rid of that giant power brick.

Any ideas?

I also took this picture of the power regulator board today. Do those 4 caps look like they need replacing. I those tops don't look normal to me. Maybe that's what's causing the problem. If replacing is necessary, it's not an issue for me.

 

[tech3475]

Two options I can think of:
1) Try measuring the power using e.g. a multimeter or a USB current meter like the RD UM34
2) Try reconnecting the original PSU and see if it still happens.

One thing I recall reading about the Raspberry Pi is that apparently there can be issues with certain power supplies because whilst they might be good enough for a battery device like a phone, they weren't for a device like the RPi. Never really verified this myself, although I have a charger which is supposedly good enough for the RPi 3 but Octopi reported current related issues.

 

[Nickeleye]

So, what I did for the usb-c cable is cut off the connector from the original GC power supply (with several inches of the original power wire attached) and then connected that to the usb-c trigger/female plug. The trigger was set to 12v. Before I plugged it into the console, I did verify I was seeing 11.98v on the multimeter. So as far as I can tell, the proper voltage was being supplied.

I’ll see if I can dig up another oem psu to test with as well. If that works, I guess I’d have to say the usb-c power supply I picked up is finicky with my GC setup. I wonder if my GC just has too much going on.

Also if there’s any feedback about how those caps look in the above photo, I’d love to hear it. To me they look potentially suspect.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

So, what I did for the usb-c cable is cut off the connector from the original GC power supply (with several inches of the original power wire attached) and then connected that to the usb-c trigger/female plug. The trigger was set to 12v. Before I plugged it into the console, I did verify I was seeing 11.98v on the multimeter. So as far as I can tell, the proper voltage was being supplied.

I’ll see if I can dig up another oem psu to test with as well. If that works, I guess I’d have to say the usb-c power supply I picked up is finicky with my GC setup. I wonder if my GC just has too much going on.

Also if there’s any feedback about how those caps look in the above photo, I’d love to hear it. To me they look potentially suspect.

The caps look normal to me. Have a look underneath the caps as well if you can see any signs of leakage, sometimes they leak from the bottom.

 

[Nickeleye]

The caps look normal to me. Have a look underneath the caps as well if you can see any signs of leakage, sometimes they leak from the bottom.

I took a picture of the underside of the board but didn’t see anything unusual. As far as under the caps themselves, they’re smd caps, so I’d have to remove them anyway. If I’d have to remove them, I’d probably just replace them at the same time.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I took a picture of the underside of the board but didn’t see anything unusual. As far as under the caps themselves, they’re smd caps, so I’d have to remove them anyway. If I’d have to remove them, I’d probably just replace them at the same time.

I mean around the base of the cap, should not be necessary to remove them.
Occasionally you will have a cap that looks perfectly fine but measures the wrong capacitance, but that is fairly rare.
Anyway, they are most likely fine.

 

[Nickeleye]

Well, I just plugged in a stock gamecube power supply and it did boot swiss the first time. That said, it didn't boot swiss after that for about 20 times and went to the default GC menu. Just to be clear, this is using swiss as ipl.dol to boot directly to swiss - no pressing controller buttons first. I did get one more swiss boot though. So in ~20 something boots, only 2 into swiss. So, that tends to lead me to believe that my USB-C power supply solution may not necessarily be the culprit here. I also know my soldering isn't an issue and I really don't think the pico itself is damaged or anything.

Post automatically merged: Nov 23, 2023

I just did another test. I unplugged the GCHD MK-II hdmi adapter and plugged in my official nintendo component cables and it booted swiss from the picoboot **every single time** no problem with my USB-C power adapter. So, that leads me to believe that this GCHD MK-II is drawing some serious power or something!