Watchdog

The watchdog is an anti lock-up/protection feature: A resettable down counter located in the NEO-B1 chip resets the system if it underflows.

It must be therefor "kicked" regularly to reset the counter to its highest value, this is done by writing any byte to register REG_DIPSW ($300001). VBlank routines often take care of this task.

Constantly resetting systems produce a typical clicking sound (YM3016 resetting ?), giving a clue for solving boot issues.

The NeoGeo CD 2 has a watchdog timer.

(Sound file ?)