1) There is something strange with xtal near thr main chip.
2) Try to reseat and clean the contacts of ROM chip

Thanks for the tips.
You are right. It does look like something swiped the oscillator and marked the main chip. When looking on retro web for pictures you can see the difference. The mark on the main chip seems superficial to the touch. I don't feel any scratches there but maybe the oscillator got damaged? I will reseat the ROM as well.
Cheers

Babasha wrote on 2026-05-17, 16:37:

1) There is something strange with xtal near thr main chip.
2) Try to reseat and clean the contacts of ROM chip

There's something going on, on the other side of the chip to the crystal, dented or solder blobbed pins, not quite enough detail to make it out.

That 14.31818MHz crystal looks to have been pushed hard enough that it has its pins rip out of its casing, and whatever caused it, left a skidmark on the Cirrus chip afterwards...

These crystals are mounted flush on all boards I have seen and there is no wiggle room to get such an orientation. My money is on the crystal being destroyed, rest of the card looks pretty good.

I have some cards where they put some kind of "spacer" between the crystal and the board, maybe to protect it from heat during wave soldering phase? This one appears to have been knocked though.

Tiido wrote on 2026-05-17, 20:23:

That 14.31818MHz crystal looks to have been pushed hard enough that it has its pins rip out of its casing, and whatever caused it, left a skidmark on the Cirrus chip afterwards...

These crystals are mounted flush on all boards I have seen and there is no wiggle room to get such an orientation. My money is on the crystal being destroyed, rest of the card looks pretty good.

It certainly seems damaged to me after looking close. I've found the crystal part online for less than a buck. Do you think it would be a straightforward solder job?

It should be. I would personally use an "Engineer" hand pump solder sucker and a syringe of no-clean rosin flux to desolder it.

Did you check pin 2 of the GD5428 chip to see if it's still firmly soldered (visual inspection is useless, use a thin needle or hobby knife blade to see if it moves)?
Pin 2 is /EROM, which enables the ROM socket. The scrape on the chip looks like it hovers perilously close to the pin, as well as pin 3 (D15) - might want to check that as well.

As Eep386 noticed already whatever swiped crystal also ripped pins off the pcb pads on main chip corner near crystal