FACTOIDS: Messiah class install/behaviour issues & Fuse list

[charlie_ps2]

Update 04-Sep-02
www.china-magic.com have posted this on their web site: For marketing reasons and to stop confusion we have decided to seperate the v5/6 (R type) and V7 magic chips. Please use only the "R" for the version 5 and 6, and the "V7" for the version7. Future magic2 V7 chips will not support v5/6 machines.

Update 03-Sep-02
In relation to the story below, when we installed a PAL Messiah into the PAL v5 in question, everything worked perfectly.

We learn as we go (with thanks to Aerick for refinements) - namely:

2. DVD booting is distinct from DVD-R booting
3. Pressing EJECT after Red Screen and EJECT to close tray invokes disk authentication which is not caught by Magic 2
4. Removing the RESET wire is the easiest way of turning Magic 2 off (already known)

This is what happened in a v5 PAL install today. We tried both the BROWN V7 chip and the RED V7 chip with the same negative results. The Z point was not connected.

1. DVD-R booted perfectly. First time every time.
   
2. PAL DVD game would not boot normally. It would go to Red Screen. We pressed EJECT twice to get the tray out/in and it went to the browser. At the browser we pressed X and let it find the PS2 disk. We pointed to the PS2 disk and it booted. This method worked without fail.
   
3. Import DVD original game failed after the EJECT stage with the red screen.
   
4. We detached RESET from the Magic 2 and the PAL DVD booted first time instantly.

So, without knowing if there is a flaw in Magic 2 (bearing in mind that the non-underline V7 was not subject to the PS2 bug and also that Mr. Magic 2 had sent me the RED V7) we have concluded (possibly wrongly!) the following from this:

1. Because a DVD original was rejected on first boot to Red Screen, there is a failure to properly handle the BIOS call. This could be in the particular Magic 2 chips because we actually chipped a second PAL v5 with a RED R chip with complete success. Or there could be a problem with the BIOS but the two PS2s were identical.
   
2. An in region DVD original game actually goes through the PS2's region check and having passed, goes through a different path than a DVD-R which obviously fails the region check. Because it is in-region and at Red Screen, pressing Eject with no Z wire tells the Magic 2 nothing; so it stays in PS2 mode and passes the region test.
   
3. An out-of-region DVD original game also goes through the region check but, having actually complied in so far as having the wobble in the groove, again goes through a different piece of BIOS code from a DVD-R which has no such wobble. Because it is out-of-region and at Red Screen, pressing Eject with no Z wire tells the Magic 2 nothing; so it stays in PS2 mode and fails the region test.
   
4. A DVD-R has no wobble in the groove and some sort of patch to PS2 behaviour must be applied when this disk is rejected. So here the Magic 2 takes over and happens to correctly patch the BIOS (or whatever it does) at this time.
   
5. Update: Messiah does things differently.

Tomorrow we will connect Z and see what happens. Update: Made no difference. If it still doesn't work, then we will whack a Messiah in! Update: Which we did and it worked.

There will be some of you who will lap this stuff up and others who will yawn or wonder what all this twaddle means. I love it!