OLED panel weird problem - HELP!

[badlanding]

Greetings All!


So I have a nice BB2 which has been serving me well. I decided to try Goldfish 2 in the thing and the OLED panel is giving me fits! I read all the NLG threads that covered the topic of OLED panel problems but none seem to cover this problem.


Originally it looked like the “When I downgrade the firmware the OLED panel quits working after a power cycle” problem and that is in essence what happens. I let the H9.27 OS downgrade the OLED software and everything works fine.  But if cycle the power then the OLED buttons quit responding and I get the “OLED fw mismatch” error.  Fair enough.  So I tried loading OLED version 2.03 using the WMS firmware loader and it works fine, I can query the panel and see that 2.03 is loaded in both the controller and buttons until I cycle power to the OLED board.  When I reapply power and query the thing for version numbers the buttons are silent and the controller responds with 2.03.  Same problem with 3.02. After a power cycle the buttons are mute and the controller responds with 3.02.


So I’m thinking, bad OLED.  But I loaded version 3.09 software into the OLED using the H13.37 OS card and when I query the OLED board using the WMS software tool, the controller replies with 3.09 and each of the buttons replies with A3.03.  AND I can cycle the OLED power as many times as I want and the thing always replies correctly with those version numbers.  What gives?  Why does version A3.03 stick in the buttons while versions 3.02 and 2.03 don’t?


Thank you
Mike

[rickhunter]

I tried to answer your PM, but your inbox is full.  Here's the story.  Certain OS version will firmware lock your OLED panel.  The way to get around it is to use an OS that does not do that.  1696 for sure will load a firmware that is not locked, and 1490 will let you downgrade it.  So whenever you switch between H9.x games and H13.x games use those os cards.  16F0 also works for sure if you don't have or can't use 1696.

[idesign]

16F0 is not compatible with some of the previous games so be careful with that OS.  He is using 16BF which works fine for me going back and forth to/from 1490.  16CJ was touted to be compatible too.  I think maybe he has a flaky OLED deck since 1490 flashes the deck fine and it plays but when he shuts down it causes the error.  If the OS was not compatible and locked the deck he would not be able to flash it with 1490 to begin with.

[badlanding]

OK so I conclusively solved the problem.  In my case, and probably many others, the issue of “OLED fw mismatch” following a power cycle is related to the OLED button bootloader. The old version of the button bootloader apparently has trouble with “downgrading” firmware and the firmware doesn’t “stick” following a power cycle.

The solution is to install button bootloader version 1.02 which is accomplished by either using the lastest version of the OLED test program per the related WMS service instruction (available on scribd.com) or by installing your favorite game such as Airplane! with OS 16CJ (H13.471) and the operating system will do the upgrade to the button bootloader.  Then when another OS “downgrades” the firmware in the buttons, the firmware will “stick” and not be lost when cycling power.