I think my SD card has a problem. I have two WOZ in my house right now so I was able to swap crystal balls and at least determine that something is wrong with one of them. Initially it started out as the displayed image only showing the "SKILL" skill shot logo (not animated) no matter what was going on in the game. Then, eventually the ball stopped showing anything.

Once I swapped in a known good ball it worked. So I know the IO board and the cable are ok. On the other machine, the "bad" ball showed some diagnostics information (screen version, RGB logo, etc) and sort of displayed some of the right video, but not completely. So it seems like the SD card is either bad or corrupt as from what I know the screen gets control signals as to which clip to display. The display issues followed the ball, so it is something with the screen/card.

I suppose I could swap cards, but that means unscrewing both screens which I was sort of hesitant to do until I knew more. I probably have a spare SD card sitting around but wasn't sure if I can just copy files from a known good card. What format the card needs to be in, etc. Is there a download with the files somewhere? Card requirements (size, etc)?

It looks like this is the display: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/4D-Systems/uOLED-96-G2?qs=72ObqG5T4UYobDDQ80ITTQ%3D%3D o https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11315

The company site is down right now, but I think this is the link: https://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/uOLED_96_G2/

Oh, can I hot swap the screens (plug and unplug)?... takes a good amount of time to keep powering on and off the machines.

LTG any insight?

Thanks! How did you deal with the files? Were you able to just copy from another card?

Yeah, mine won't go away. I am going to find my SD card adapter and try and grab the files off the good card and reformat the bad one and see if that helps. Otherwise I will just have to replace the screen, I think it's like $50.

Yeah, I was hoping it's the card too. The screen is also the MPU and processor that runs all the code to display the videos (it's an all in one kind of thing) so if it's not the SD card then it's maybe some small issue with the SD card reader or decoding stuff on the display board and I'll just replace it.

Going to find my adapter now. Gotta unscrew the screens too, just barely can't get the SD card out all the way.

I don't know what filesystem is on the card, but it isn't readable by my Macbook. Tried two different adapters, PC thinks it isn't formatted. As far as I know Mac can read most major filesystems, especially if they are *nix based. I am going to see if I can find data on what the 4D device needs as far as card format, but still looking for any help. I emailed Stephen @ JJP to see if he had any input. Only thing I can do now is swap cards between the two balls and see if that fixes anything to try and eliminate the card being the issue.

Ok, got Mac disk utility to create images for both cards. I need to go verify again (I got a bit confused) but it looks like it is the 4D screen and not the card. I believe if you are in the menu and you plug in a screen then it will show the 1/2/3 animation. It's weird, the trough optos report an issue right off the bat (when you plug the screen in) and then it goes away. The witch goes up and down... it's like something in the IO board resets when the screen is detected. Odd.

So, guess I'll try to find another screen.

Ok, so I was able to backup the older 2GB card (that was working) by making a disk image through terminal. Disk util doesn't know what kind of format either card is and it can't write the img to either card. I was able to format and write the image to the 8GB (newer) card through terminal as well. Still can't see what is on either card, nor can I open the img.

Either way, both cards have the same img on them now. Both screens seemingly work as if I plug either screen, with either card, in to the system while it is in menu the 1/2/3 loading screen comes up. So they ostensibly work, but when I played a game the "bad" screen it ended up doing the same thing (sitting on "SKILL" when it should be doing other things). So looks like the screen is bad.

Well, in any case I have the img now if anyone else needs it.

Btw, $45 for the screen at mouser.

Thanks for the details @pinball_keefer. The raw sector copy seemed to have taken care of it and it looks like the 4D screen is the issue, so now I know how to backup the crystal ball, lol.

I was secretly hoping I could just swap in some of my own videos.

Easy to just reformat and flash the image on the same or a new card to test. My issue was the screen.. it's very strange, it only works on some of the videos and triggers, wish JJP would release the code so I could re-flash it. But a new screen solved it.

The screen has to come from JJP. They have the code and they won't share it. So the only option is to buy from them. I have the programming cable but after repeated attempts to be able to flash it myself I had to end up buying one from them.

You might call/email, the website isn't always correct.