JVC X'Eye FM Audio Problem

I'm sort of cross-posting this between multiple forums in hopes that someone will have some ideas of "what to try next" with this JVC X'Eye. A friend recommended I came here because of Drakon's massive amount of modding experience.

I'll try and be as informative as possible.

I have a JVC X'Eye that I recently purchased off of eBay, knowing it had an "audio problem on the cartridge side". I initially assumed this was a capacitor problem as happens with many Genesis units (since the X'Eye uses Genesis 2 parts), and after receiving it I was unsure what to think. I went ahead and did a full cap replacement anyways, but the problem was not alleviated.

Here is a recording of what the audio in the X'Eye sounds like: https://youtu.be/OjPDd2CIq9w

I made the recording before the cap replacement, and I did not re-record as the sound post-replacement was identical.

I have some pictures of the board here: https://imgur.com/a/vpFCN

I think I'm running into a wall here. I'm OK with a soldering iron, but I'm not a whiz at this stuff, and it's been nine years since I did anything other than follow a "how to" when soldering/fixing things. I'm trying to use this as a refresher, but right now I'm completely at a loss as to what to look at next with this.

Any idea what I should look at next with this?

Thanks so much!

I modify things I don't bring them back from the dead. The whole "replace capacitors in your sega genesis" theory I think is complete hot air. I replaced caps in one of my genesis systems one by one and tested it and nothing changed. There's a lot of things that could be causing your problem and from those pcb pictures the pcb looks fine and undamaged (although you didn't show the underside of it). If the pcb is fine chances are you have a blown chip and I'm pretty sure the audio hardware in these systems uses chips you can't just buy at an electronics supplier. I've also never touched a jvc x'eye or had one in my posession so I have no clue what the pcb from a working one looks like. I usually roll my eyes at these "technical help" threads in forums becuase 99% of the time the problem will never get fixed. I've never seen or heard of an issue like this so it could be anything causing this.

Drakon wrote:

I modify things I don't bring them back from the dead. The whole "replace capacitors in your sega genesis" theory I think is complete hot air. I replaced caps in one of my genesis systems one by one and tested it and nothing changed. There's a lot of things that could be causing your problem and from those pcb pictures the pcb looks fine and undamaged (although you didn't show the underside of it). If the pcb is fine chances are you have a blown chip and I'm pretty sure the audio hardware in these systems uses chips you can't just buy at an electronics supplier. I've also never touched a jvc x'eye or had one in my posession so I have no clue what the pcb from a working one looks like. I usually roll my eyes at these "technical help" threads in forums becuase 99% of the time the problem will never get fixed. I've never seen or heard of an issue like this so it could be anything causing this.

Right, I figured you might have run into some similar issues during modding, especially since you've worked with Genesis 2s and the CC audio mod.

Most of the ICs in this are identical to various Genesis 2s, and I figure while there are plenty of those floating around (and I have a stupid number of them) and far fewer X'Eyes, even if there's a blown chip I don't mind killing a Genesis 2 (or a lot of them) to make the better system work properly. The only issue is that X'Eyes are both rarer and traditionally less problematic (on the cart side, that is) than Genesis 2s, so there's a lot less information floating online. For the caps, for the most part I take it as "hot air" just like you, though the caps in Sega hardware have been prone to failure (poor part sourcing due to Sega not having their act together?), though that's more with the Game Gear.

Thanks anyways, I'm trying to keep from giving up on this project since it's for a friend.

Yeah my speciality is modding not repairing. It's a pity to see a x'eye die. Also I'm actually more of a video person than audio I've built a lot of complicated audio stuff but I understand the video circuitry a lot more. If you're looking for audio help I strongly recommend you bug tiido about this he's the guy who created the crystal clear audio mod. Tiido may not always have the immediate answer but he's great at pointing you in the right direction if you're willing to listen and try things. I've never had a genesis 2 have a problem like that have you? Even if I found a genesis 2 with a problem like this I would have called it a day and stripped it for parts those systems are so cheap. Really with something so glaringly off it's probably the entire chip needs replacing. From the pics the pcb looks pretty flawless unless some tiny surface mount resistor broke off or something.

Drakon wrote:

Yeah my speciality is modding not repairing. It's a pity to see a x'eye die. Also I'm actually more of a video person than audio I've built a lot of complicated audio stuff but I understand the video circuitry a lot more. If you're looking for audio help I strongly recommend you bug tiido about this he's the guy who created the crystal clear audio mod. Tiido may not always have the immediate answer but he's great at pointing you in the right direction if you're willing to listen and try things. I've never had a genesis 2 have a problem like that have you? Even if I found a genesis 2 with a problem like this I would have called it a day and stripped it for parts those systems are so cheap. Really with something so glaringly off it's probably the entire chip needs replacing. From the pics the pcb looks pretty flawless unless some tiny surface mount resistor broke off or something.

I'm going to be reaching out to Tiido on the Sega-16 forums as soon as I can post over there. He seems to be the most 'in the know' person about Genesis 2 audio, and I'm always willing to learn something new, so hopefully he'll be able to shoot some ideas for testing some of the ICs in the audio circuit or some other ideas.

And you're right, I've never had a Genesis 2 with a problem like this, and I would definitely just strip and trash it if I did. And I'm starting to suspect the same thing you mentioned -- an entire chip that needs to be replaced. I figure if I can isolate where the problem is, then I can plan a next step better. If it was the ASIC, I'd just chop it off at the legs and wire one from a donor Gen2, but a 200-ish pin IC wiring job is a bit of a stretch without making sure first.

Thanks for the recommendation about contacting Tiido, I'll beg him for his help.

Godspeed. I consider tiido a good friend he's helped me with so many technical things that lead to me figuring out a lot of mods. I wouldn't have been able to figure out a lot of things without tiidos help. Tiido's pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to this technical stuff and hardware knowledge, especially master system / genesis / 32x sega hardware (maybe even more). Tiido's not right 100% of the time but all of his theories are very logical and make perfect sense he just needs you to try out his ideas on the actual hardware. Tiido's always willing to suggest things to try and look at as long as you're willing to actually do the work. Tiido also seems to know more about sega hardware than anyone on the planet. I mean he knows most of how the 32x hardware actually works....like nobody knows this stuff.

Ever since I built Tiidos insane crystal clear audio mod people have been coming out of the woodworks thinking I'm some sort of sega hardware master or something. I may have helped bring tiido's awesome audio mod more into the mainstream with my youtube demos but really tiido is the brains of this upgrade I'm just a guy who's really good at soldering and slightly better at promotion. I am slowly learning how all the hardware works and how to engineer my own stuff but like I mentioned before I'm a video upgrade guy. I know video encoder circuits and how to wire them into almost anything. I also know how to clean up video interference in analog signals using sometimes really ghetto techniques but they atleast work. Tiido is the king of sound, sega hardware, and designing custom electronic circuits of any kind. Honestly I think the only reason why tiido isn't also the master of video upgrades is because in his country he uses pal and rgb so he doesn't have any need to clean up the signal from his genesis. Apparently when you run a genesis with a pal colour subcarrier frequency the rainbow banding completely goes away and there's no video issues whatsoever.

Drakon wrote:

Godspeed. I consider tiido a good friend he's helped me with so many technical things that lead to me figuring out a lot of mods. I wouldn't have been able to figure out a lot of things without tiidos help. Tiido's pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to this technical stuff and hardware knowledge, especially master system / genesis / 32x sega hardware (maybe even more). Tiido's not right 100% of the time but all of his theories are very logical and make perfect sense he just needs you to try out his ideas on the actual hardware. Tiido's always willing to suggest things to try and look at as long as you're willing to actually do the work. Tiido also seems to know more about sega hardware than anyone on the planet. I mean he knows most of how the 32x hardware actually works....like nobody knows this stuff.

Ever since I built Tiidos insane crystal clear audio mod people have been coming out of the woodworks thinking I'm some sort of sega hardware master or something. I may have helped bring tiido's awesome audio mod more into the mainstream with my youtube demos but really tiido is the brains of this upgrade I'm just a guy who's really good at soldering and slightly better at promotion. I am slowly learning how all the hardware works and how to engineer my own stuff but like I mentioned before I'm a video upgrade guy. I know video encoder circuits and how to wire them into almost anything. I also know how to clean up video interference in analog signals using sometimes really ghetto techniques but they atleast work. Tiido is the king of sound, sega hardware, and designing custom electronic circuits of any kind. Honestly I think the only reason why tiido isn't also the master of video upgrades is because in his country he uses pal and rgb so he doesn't have any need to clean up the signal from his genesis. Apparently when you run a genesis with a pal colour subcarrier frequency the rainbow banding completely goes away and there's no video issues whatsoever.

yeah its too bad that all those old scart tvs are so friggin heavy. they are just piling up in landfills over there much like our old crappy coaxial only tvs here in the US. im sure theres thousands of gamers here who would want them all.

ive actually come across a website selling multi-system Pal60 tvs but i dont see anyone selling crts anymore.

Honestly a properly engineered s-video circuit looks just as good as rgb on a crt. Even on my capture devices s-video looks just as good as component video. I do love using a crt though I hate the idea of retro gaming on a flatscreen but something tells me eventually I'll have no choice.

first of all, i can hear how the 1 channel is kind of sticking. its odd and i cant really solve your problem, but just thought id let you know that the rumors of the x eye having better sound than a genesis is wrong.

my x eye still has crappy sound on the cart side, often sounds like someone hitting a metal garbage can. but on the cd side its better.

im not sure if the sega cd also has good sound, its been years since i traded my model 1 for a saturn, which was probably the best console trade i ever did.

mvsfan wrote:

first of all, i can hear how the 1 channel is kind of sticking. its odd and i cant really solve your problem, but just thought id let you know that the rumors of the x eye having better sound than a genesis is wrong.

my x eye still has crappy sound on the cart side, often sounds like someone hitting a metal garbage can. but on the cd side its better.

im not sure if the sega cd also has good sound, its been years since i traded my model 1 for a saturn, which was probably the best console trade i ever did.

btw, if your cd lens in the x eye ever dies, its the same one as in the saturn. its an optima 6s pickup, wich you can get for peanuts over at electronix.com.

i also know where to get the on/off and reset switches for it.

Cool thanks for the info. I discovered that the pc engine / turbografx cd attachment produces better quality sound than the turboduo. It's a bit sad but oh well.

Drakon wrote:

Honestly a properly engineered s-video circuit looks just as good as rgb on a crt. Even on my capture devices s-video looks just as good as component video. I do love using a crt though I hate the idea of retro gaming on a flatscreen but something tells me eventually I'll have no choice.

theres a device called the hd box pro thats supposed to be really good at scaling 240p to a hdtv vga port. its supposed to be on the level of the xrgb, and costs around $50.

i just might do this after component crts are no longer affordable, or easy to find.

its on my mind to pick up a couple spares though, so that will be a while from now.

btw, what are you charging these days for that sound mod? id love to have it done eventually, or just a board only built and sent. my main focus is getting that nes running and i really dont want to build tiidos mod right now.

could you do it on an x eye?

i wouldnt want it on anything else cause i just cant deal with the slower loading on them.

btw, have you ever noticed how the scd monkey island takes so awfully long to load? its almost as bad on the x eye. piss poor optimization on that game, for me it just makes it unplayable compared to the pc version.

mvsfan wrote:

btw, what are you charging these days for that sound mod? id love to have it done eventually, or just a board only built and sent. my main focus is getting that nes running and i really dont want to build tiidos mod right now.

could you do it on an x eye?

i wouldnt want it on anything else cause i just cant deal with the slower loading on them.

btw, have you ever noticed how the scd monkey island takes so awfully long to load? its almost as bad on the x eye. piss poor optimization on that game, for me it just makes it unplayable compared to the pc version.

Which sound mod are you asking about? I've never played monkeys island, I only just bought my first sega cd on ebay last night and I'm waiting for it to ship.