What chip is this?

[Tharandir]

Bought a PAL PS2 with a chip built in to play import games. Tried it, but it doesn't play PSX games at all, not even PAL games that a regular non-chipped PS2 would play. There's no modchip logo or anything at start-up. Tried to open it to figure out what kind of chip it was, but there's no name on it. Does anyone recognize this?



Edit: Ok, I got it working by tapping the reset button multiple times when starting up. But now my NTSC PSX game is off-center. So I still need to know what kind of chip this is to fix this.

Edit: And the game is slowed down to run in 50 Hz! What's the point of having a chip to play NTSC versions of games if they're just gonna run at PAL speeds anyway?

[Dorkust]

Could be a "clone" of a DMS 3 (21 wires). The clone chips always have no names or limited white lettering on silicon chips.

[Tharandir]

In that case, is there some kind of configuration menu?

Really, my main problem now is that I can't get my NTSC PSX game to play in 60Hz.

[Tharandir]

Well, I bought a new PS2, this time with a *real* Matrix Infinity chip. My NTSC PSX game is now running at 60Hz!

But the picture is still off-center. Is there a configuration menu or something for this chip where I can adjust the position of the picture?

(And I'm still curious as to what chip the one in my first post is a clone of.)

Edit: I figured out how to enter the configuration menu (triangle + circle at boot-up), and I've played around with the settings, but there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the screen for PSX games. There's a "PSX screen fix" option that you can turn on and off, but that doesn't change anything (except I think turning it off makes the game play in 50Hz).

[Denisk]

Tharandir, first of all, what's your chip FW version? Be careful, because if it's v1.93 or below, it wont work properly (at least didn't for me). If it's 1.98, 1.99 or 2.00, then I guess it's ok. Another thing, is your chip an Actel or just a white Matrix Infinity without the Cx and F pins?

[Tharandir]

It's 1.93. What doesn't work about it?

[Denisk]

Well, first of all you should tell me if it's an original Actel chip with matrix 1.93 FW or it's a semi-official (still working clon) that looks like that:


The matter is that the FW 1.93 isn't the "best one" (saying softly). An original Actel chip is 100% upgradeable, so you can install there a 1.99 or 2.00 firmware that is way better that the 1.93. By the other way, any clone Matrix chip (the one that I've shown in the image too) aren't upgradeable, that's why if it comes with a 1.93 firmware, it can be very buggy and with time, changing the preferences can directly kill the chip. As a modder, I've worked with 1.93 matrix clons for a time and all that while I had troubles with making it read normally other region games. Usually, I've recommended people to change the TV preferences every time they used a diferent region game. Chinesse TV's maybe aren't best quality, but most of 'em are compatible with multiple region imputs.

[Denisk]

P.S. Here's a photo of an original Actel chip (sometimes called the "Matrix" chip). To be precise, the "Matrix" is only a FW, a program, so any chip where's written "matrix" is a clon, because it comes already programmed with that FW and can't be changed. Actel chips instead are pretty universal, because they can be reprogrammmed with several firmwares:


(Still, as any good stuff, those are pretty expensive, that's why people use clons)

[Tharandir]

I just opened it to check. It's blue. It didn't say Actel on it, but otherwise I think it looked like your last picture.

[Denisk]

I'd need a closer photo of your chip. Anyway, as I said most of the clones can't be upgraded and the fact you have problems with regions shows that the 1.93 FW can't do the correction right. Last think you could do before taking the photo is entering the chip's prefs (circle n square) and setting a fixed screen correction (+15 or -15) instead of making it auto. Try that, and if it still wont work, post the chip photo here.