New Life Games Tech Forums

Fixed: Suzuka 8 Hours 2
Symptom: Missing background graphics

Fixed bent pins on 2 ROMs and reset the dip switches on the video board. Now the road shows up. The DIP switches on the video board can be turned on and off to activate/deactivate the different video layers - road, background, player, etc, and someone had changed them in their attempt to find the problem.

Can't fully test it as I don't have the wiring harness and controls to test the motorcycle controls.

Game: Galaga3 (Gaplus)
Symptom: Dead

The power supply board had 2 problems. First battery on the power supply board had leaked and corroded quite a few components. The second was a blown 3/8 amp slo-blo fuse that someone had replaced with a 7 amp (!!!) fuse that blew as well. Replaced a cracked 10 ohm 5 watt resistor, 1N4001 diode, a shorted 4.7uf tantalum capacitor, and the shorted LM305 voltage regulator. Cleaned the circuit board and replaced the corroded components as well. Set the 5v line to 5.15v and tested the game.

Model: Galaga3
Symptom: Garbled title on the screen

Checked the ROMs and PROMs on the board for proper checksums. Programmed 2 new 82S131/63S241 PROMs to replace 2 PROMs that were for the Gaplus game and not the Galaga3. The title was Galaga3 but the colored outlines were for Gaplus.

Model: Tekken 2
Symptom: Corrupt foreground and background grapics.

The main graphics generator chip on the top board had 4 bent pins touching on one corner, 2 bent pins touching on another corner, and 2 bent pins touching on the middle of one side of the chip. Carefully straightened the pins and resoldered them. Problem was better but still existed.

Resoldered 4 SMT RAM chips to fix the rest of the graphics corruption.

Model: Tekken 2
Symptom: Lines in foreground graphics. Blocky graphics overall.

When the main graphics chip was tapped the game would freak out. Resoldered the IC and the lines in the foreground graphics were fixed. Resoldered 4 surface mount SRAM ICs to fix the blocky graphics problem. One of the lower address lines were not making good connection on the SRAM.

Model: Namco Classics Collection Vol. 2
Symptom: Dead. An IC and capacitor was broken off the board.

The IC and capacitor was included in a bag with the board.

The chip was an MB3771 and controlled the reset line. The capacitor was tied to that chip. Only 2 pads (power and ground) remained for the surface mount MB3771 chip. Cleaned the board, ran continuity checks, and referred to the data sheet to determine how the chip was wired into the circuit. Tacked down the IC, soldered it to the pads, and ran 30ga Kynar wires to connect the remaining pins.

Tested the capacitor then resoldered it to the board. Ran the last jumper wire connection to the capacitor and played a few games to test it.

Model: Namco Classics Volume 1
Symptom: Streaking video

Video was streaking badly. Solid colors looked striped and smeared down the screen. Replaced leaking surface mount caps C13, C14, and C15. Tested.

Model: Namco Classics Volume 1
Symptom: Reboots at random

Board would reboot if jostled or tapped. Reflowed the surface mount IC at 3E and tested.

Model: Namco Classics Vol 2
Symptom: Player 2 will not move down or left

Tested the buttons connections at the JAMMA edge connector. They properly were held at +5v and would go to ground when the controls for player one and player two were activated. Tested the Murata EMI filters. Checked the logic levels at the 74HC257 chips as the buttons and sticks were tested and they were all proper. Replaced the surface mount 74HC257 at 10A to fix the game. Tested.

Model: Namco Classics, Vol 2
Symptom: Dead. Missing parts.

Board came in a box of misc boards. Installed 3 missing EPROMs and 7 missing capacitors. Patched a bad trace between the CPU and the program ROMs. Tested.

Model: System 246 I/O board
Symptom: No sync

Board had severe burn damage and was in a cabinet that had improper wiring/grounding. The filter chokes were good but the trace coming off the filter choke and going to the HD-15 VGA connector was burned through. Jumpered burnt trace.

Model: Namco Classics Vol 1
Symptom: Player 2 will not start. Garbled audio

Board will also reboot when test switch input pin on 10A is touched with a logic probe.

Replaced bad IC at 10A and 11A to fix player 2 inputs. Patched a bad plated thru hole to fix test switch issue. Replaced bad audio amp IC (LA4705) to fix audio issue. Tested.

Model: Numan Athletics
Symptom: Randomly dies

Removed a short from the daughter board connector. Replaced all surface mount electrolytics as they were leaking and failed ESR tests. Resoldered custom surface mount IC C218 and tested.

Model: Namco Classics Vol. 1
Symptom: Streaks in video, missing inputs for player 2

Replaced 6 leaking surface mount electrolytic caps in the video output section. Replaced a bad input filter on the player 2 buttons circuit. Tested.

Model: Namco Classics Vol. 1
Symptom: Low output on red signal

Replaced 6 bad capacitors in the video output circuit. Tested.

Model: Galaga (newer rev board)
Symptom: Constant reboot

Board would go through the self tests, start the 2nd/3rd CPUs then immediately reset.

Replaced bad 74LS259 and bad ROM 5. The electrolytic caps were leaking and corroded their solder connections on top of the board and 1 nearby trace. Replaced all 7 electrolytic caps and patched the damaged trace. Tested.

Model: Galaga (newer rev board)
Symptom: Dead. Missing CPU

Installed missing CPU. The electrolytic caps were leaking and corroded their solder connections on top of the board. Replaced all 7 electrolytic caps and patched the damaged trace. Tested.

Model: Galaga
Symptom: Dead. Garbage on screen.

Installed Renew Kit (new sockets & resistor packs), cleaned the custom chip legs, and repaired 2 broken pins on the 54XX chip. Board would boot but all moving characters had incorrect colors and boxes around them. Replaced bad PROM 3 on the video board. Tested.

Model: Galaga
Symptom: Dead. Garbage on screen

Replaced all of the old 24/28/40/42 pin sockets and all the old style resistor packs on the CPU and Video board. Cleaned custom chip pins. Replaced bad 74107 and bad cap to fix the reset circuit on the CPU board. Board would randomly attempt to boot but otherwise was dead with a white screen. Replaced bad 74LS32 at 4C to fix the R/W circuit on the CPU board. Board would then boot but had corrupt player graphics. Replaced bad 2147 RAM chip at 6M to finish the repair. Tested.

Model: Galaga
Symptom: Dead

Replaced all 24/28/40/42 pin sockets and old style resistor packs. Cleaned the custom chip legs and repaired one leg on the 51xx chip. Recapped the audio section and replaced 1 cap in the reset section. Tested.

Model: Soul Calibur II
Symptom: Dead

Reseated video cable between PS2 board and I/O board. Cleaned ROM card. Replaced bad DVD drive and cleaned the DVD. Tested.

Model: Soul Calibur II
Symptom: No controls

Replaced ribbon cable between the I/O board and the System 246 unit. Tested.

The ribbon cable is NOT twisted on this unit - Pin 1 must match up with Pin 1. If not, the system will "see" the I/O and boot, but none of the controls will work.

Model: Ms Pac Man
Symptom: Dead

Repaired burnt edge connector with copper trace tape. Replaced bad ribbon cable between main board and CPU daughterboard. Tested.

Model: Ms. Pac Man
Symptom: Dead

Removed excess solder from the edge connector and cleaned the flux from it. Replaced missing Z80 Sync Buss Controller. Tested.

Model: Bosconian
Symptom: Dead. Garbage on screen.

Replaced all the old style resistor packs on both the CPU and Video boards. Replaced all the 24/28/42 pin sockets on the Video board. Discovered corrosion on one of the 6116 SRAMs. Cleaned the pins on the SRAM and cleaned the tarnish from all the silver plated pins on the custom ICs. Reinstalled the ICs and tested.

Replaced all the 24/28/40/42 pin sockets on the CPU board. Cleaned the tarnished silver plated pins on all the custom ICs on the CPU board. Reinstalled the ICs and retested.

Model: Bosconian
Symptom: No music or speech.

Replaced all the old style resistor packs on both the CPU and Video boards. Replaced all the 24/28/42 pin sockets on the Video board and CPU board. Cleaned the tarnish from all the silver plated pins on the custom ICs. Fixed a broken pin on the 54xx IC. Reinstalled the ICs and tested. Replaced 1 7489 SRAM on the CPU board to fix the music and 1 transistor on the video board to fix the speech.

Model: Bosconian
Symptom: ROM 2 error

Replaced all the old style resistor packs on both the CPU and Video boards. Replaced all the 24/28/42 pin sockets on the Video board and CPU board. Cleaned the tarnish from all the silver plated pins on the custom ICs. Fixed a broken pin on the 50xx and one of the 8xx ICs. Straightened a bent pin on the 3rd EPROM to fix the ROM 2 error. Reinstalled the ICs and tested.

Model: Grobda
Symptom: Dead

Replaced CPU and tested

Model: Galaga
Symptom: Dead

Board had attempted repair damage on the ROMs on row 3 on the CPU board.

Replaced all the 24, 28, 40, and 42 pin sockets on the board. The sockets had been replaced once before, but with defective single wipe sockets and 8 damaged/patched traces. Several of the old sockets had fractured pins that were making intermittent contact with the board. Re-jumpered 7 damaged traces as two of the existing patches under the ROM sockets were intermittent.

Cleaned the custom chips and repaired a pin on each of the 06xx, 54xx, and the 00xx chips. Tested.

Model: Bosconian
Symptom: Unknown. Wanted board rebuilt.

Board powered up an ran, but had no audio. Replaced 2 older style resistor packs, all of the 24/28/40/42 pin sockets in use (one extra, unused socket was not replaced), all of the axial electrolytic caps, and a bad MB3730 audio amp chip. Tested.

Model: Gaplus
Symptom: Dead

Cleaned corroded ROM legs, Custom IC 34 had several broken legs. Cleaned the remaining legs, placed it in a machine pin socket, and soldered it to the socket. Replaced the 28 pin socket on the board and reinserted it. Resoldered poor solder joints on the crystal oscillator and tested.

Model: Galaga 88
Symptom: Poor colors and no sync.

Cleaned edge connector and tested.

Model: Gaplus
Symptom: Missing chips. Dead.

Replaced 3 missing CPUs and 1 corroded 64 pin socket. Cleaned the pins on the 64 custom and tested. Game would try to boot. Tested and replaced 4 bad EPROMs. Tested Game.

Model: Assault
Symptom: Missing every other vertical line in player graphics

Replaced bad 2018 SRAM chip at 7J on the bottom board. Tested.

Model: Point Blank 2
Symptom: Random crashes and garbage on screen

Cleaned top board. Reflowed the Flash ROM, ROMs on the daughterboard, and reseated the KEYCUS chip. Tested.

Model: JVS to JAMMA adapter
Symptom: No video

Replaced physically broken surface mount RC filter.