Thanks Marc, I hope my explanations will encourage other people to get into it, maybe if they're UK based I can hire a couple of extra people in over time. Board repairs can take days sometimes but there's only so much customers will pay as some boards aren't worth saving.
I've heard those can be a swine to fix. I follow Johns Arcade on youtube as well. One of his mates is doing an FPGA replacement board for pole position. I don't have the necessary skills or tools to do these repairs, but I find them fascinating to watch.
Once you get your head around where the signal stops being good on the board its fairly easy to sort out. This Pole Position board has been really helpful at telling me what's wrong. RAM 1 RAM 0 RAM 8 ROM 1 RAM 26 RAM 24 RAM 0 The RAM 0 error I think is now being caused by a bad 04 custom chip on the video board but if that passes its tests then at least its getting further along its tests.
Enjoy these Williams PCB repairs. Any customers ever request adding a new NVRAM chip so they can get rid of the batteries? I'm thinking of adding one to my boards.
Thanks. I think every one makes the next a little easier. I just wish I could come up with a really good bench layout. I have limited eyesight so everything has to be fairly close which means sometimes the frustration of wires wrapping round wires.
Thanks dude. The more of us that fix this old stuff, the more knowledgeable we become. Understanding this old stuff is how you understand all the modern gear as well and the world needs electronics designers and engineers.
great vid james but it always seems to quiet looking at cabs with no noise. i would have to have a soundtrack playing with arcade sounds while i was working on them lol
Cheers Tony, I do keep the workshop quiet. We're in a commercial building, if i'm in on a Saturday I can put the radio on my iPad or something but during the week when the phone's ringing etc we can't unless we pay a stupid high fee to PPL/PRS - in the week there's plenty of noise going on.
Try grounding the "High Score" pin on the coin door connector. The CMOS RAM error may go away. (Star Rider has a coin door switch that suppresses writes to the CMOS RAM while you have the door open; perhaps Sinistar does something similar.) Love the repair vids.
Interesting, although the high score pin is used to go backwards through the menus or options, however, if i'm reading you right then you're talking about the other pin (memory protect) but that may only stop writes to certain parts of CMOS. I wonder if its backwards though. With closed meaning write enable and open meaning write protect? Is those whole purpose of the coin door switch to ensure memory sanity or to prevent some kind of tampering etc if the coin door is not open?
Yes, I meant the MEM PROT switch, sorry. I can say for sure that Star Rider throws CMOS RAM errors unless you ground this pin. Sinistar may be different, but it's worth a try before pulling chips. I'm not sure of its exact purpose, either. I guess corruption-inducing resets and glitches are more likely when the coin door is open, so it blocks writes at that time.
I suppose it's any interaction is good interaction, I just know it's only started since an argument I had with this particular customer. It's been a very long repair I took on as a favour before I was actually doing customer repairs as such. You can't spend literally every moment on it or you don't get anything done and get repairer's block and don't want to do anything else.
I must confess, I don't have a clue about the technical side of this :$ But, I love to see someone bring these old beauties back to life :)
Recent subscriber, especially like it when you explain how the system works or reason through how to determine the location of a fault. Thanx.
Thanks Marc, I hope my explanations will encourage other people to get into it, maybe if they're UK based I can hire a couple of extra people in over time. Board repairs can take days sometimes but there's only so much customers will pay as some boards aren't worth saving.
@@retrogamesparty They are good for some of us in the United States as well ! ;)
I really enjoy these videos mate, very interesting watching you track down a problem.
Mr Oakley thank you. I'm struggling with a Pole Position at the moment but haven't had time to film it sadly but its being a real b******d
I've heard those can be a swine to fix. I follow Johns Arcade on youtube as well. One of his mates is doing an FPGA replacement board for pole position. I don't have the necessary skills or tools to do these repairs, but I find them fascinating to watch.
Once you get your head around where the signal stops being good on the board its fairly easy to sort out. This Pole Position board has been really helpful at telling me what's wrong.
RAM 1
RAM 0
RAM 8
ROM 1
RAM 26
RAM 24
RAM 0
The RAM 0 error I think is now being caused by a bad 04 custom chip on the video board but if that passes its tests then at least its getting further along its tests.
"Seven fuck fuck fuck" :D
Enjoy these Williams PCB repairs. Any customers ever request adding a new NVRAM chip so they can get rid of the batteries? I'm thinking of adding one to my boards.
This is an excellent video!
Top job mate! Still loving these videos. Good level of detail and a great knowledge displayed. Thanks again and looking forward to the next :)
Thank you :) Although some of them are really challenging and i've lost most of my hair over it, I do like the challenge.
Nice work
Thanks. I think every one makes the next a little easier. I just wish I could come up with a really good bench layout. I have limited eyesight so everything has to be fairly close which means sometimes the frustration of wires wrapping round wires.
Awesome job, interesting as usual =D
Thanks dude. The more of us that fix this old stuff, the more knowledgeable we become. Understanding this old stuff is how you understand all the modern gear as well and the world needs electronics designers and engineers.
It's been 3 years since your last video hope all is well.
as always, great work :)
Gotta love all that glue logic.
Sionyn Jones surprising how little there actually is to do so much. Fascinates me.
great vid james but it always seems to quiet looking at cabs with no noise. i would have to have a soundtrack playing with arcade sounds while i was working on them lol
Cheers Tony, I do keep the workshop quiet. We're in a commercial building, if i'm in on a Saturday I can put the radio on my iPad or something but during the week when the phone's ringing etc we can't unless we pay a stupid high fee to PPL/PRS - in the week there's plenty of noise going on.
Another great video - Cheers James :) I am gonna have to pop up and actually see how its done at some point! :)
Try grounding the "High Score" pin on the coin door connector. The CMOS RAM error may go away.
(Star Rider has a coin door switch that suppresses writes to the CMOS RAM while you have the door open; perhaps Sinistar does something similar.)
Love the repair vids.
Interesting, although the high score pin is used to go backwards through the menus or options, however, if i'm reading you right then you're talking about the other pin (memory protect) but that may only stop writes to certain parts of CMOS. I wonder if its backwards though. With closed meaning write enable and open meaning write protect? Is those whole purpose of the coin door switch to ensure memory sanity or to prevent some kind of tampering etc if the coin door is not open?
Yes, I meant the MEM PROT switch, sorry. I can say for sure that Star Rider throws CMOS RAM errors unless you ground this pin. Sinistar may be different, but it's worth a try before pulling chips.
I'm not sure of its exact purpose, either. I guess corruption-inducing resets and glitches are more likely when the coin door is open, so it blocks writes at that time.
I don't mind the Haze.....
Downvotes equate to 'action taken' and actually help a channel, don't they?
I suppose it's any interaction is good interaction, I just know it's only started since an argument I had with this particular customer. It's been a very long repair I took on as a favour before I was actually doing customer repairs as such. You can't spend literally every moment on it or you don't get anything done and get repairer's block and don't want to do anything else.
God that voice would scare you the first time if you weren't aware of it.