1983 Star Wars Game won't initialize (not playing blind)

gt7766c

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1983 Star Wars Game won't initialize (not playing blind)

I bought a non-working 1983 Star Wars stand-up from a friend of mine. It was all working at one time but hasn't in several years. It was not playing blind.

All red-leds on the main PCB, Sound, and AVG boards lit solid, as well as the spot-killer.

I shot-gunned the ARII board with a kit from arcadepartsandrepair.com that replaced the following (from their web-site):

"This kit has Axial Capacitors for C1, C4, C9, C10, C12, C13 includes new transistors for Q2, Q3 new resistors for R5, R29, R30, New diodes for CR1, CR4 and new mica insulators for Q2, Q3 and non conductive thermal compound paste all included in this kit. We have also increased the original Wattage of the resistors on R29 and R30 to 1/2 Watt."


When I put it all back together the game, didn't turn on at first but then I remember hearing in one of the older arcade-repair tips podcasts about how finicky the 5V is. I adjusted the 5V up to a little over 5 at the pcb and the game turned-on.

All the ROMS seemed good on the screen and I heard the 16 beeps indicating they were good. The monitor needed some adjustments to align the vector graphics but I was able to successfully play a game.

I then turned off the game to bullet-proof the monitor (WGK6100) given the alignment issues I saw before trying to align the screen images. I also replaced big-blue as it was original. The voice synthesizer chip had rusted away with broken legs so I replaced it as well.

When I put it all back together it wouldn't initialize again.

I checked the following voltages at the ARII:
• Getting 36V in.
• The +12V I'm getting exactly +12V.
• +/-22V I'm getting 28V under no load, which is fine as I understand it.
• The -5v I'm getting exactly -5V.
• I dialed in the +5V sense circuit to 5.05 at the PCB.

Game wouldn't initialize with all 3 red leds at CR4,5,6 lit solid on the main pcb. I for the life of me can't figure out what that's supposed to indicate. I do know that when the game ran successfully, these were not lit solid. I tried various +5V ranges from 4.8 up to 5.2 and the game wouldn't turn on with the 3 red leds still lit.

At the 12V on the main PCB I'm getting 11.8. Is this within tolerance and would this cause the game not to turn on?

I then attempted to follow the Star Wars Troubleshooting guide. I checked the Reset circuit and it's holding steady at 4.6V and not pulsing. This makes me believe that the Reset and Watchdog are working normally but these are new to me so I'm unsure if this is the correct voltage. I even grounded the WDDIS test point to prevent any resets but still nothing. CR4,5,6 still lit solid and the game won't go into self-test…

I'm at a loss as what to do next. Could it be the low 12V at the board? Thoughts??? Thank you!

Kris
 
voltages

It seems like you are doing good work here. The only thing I might add right now is that you are measuring the voltages on the ARII not on the game PCB. The reason that you measure on the game PC is that you may have a bad connector for example that is dropping the voltages from the PS to the game PCB.

You need to verify the voltages are correct on the game PCB itself and you probably want 4.98 - 5.02 and about 12.04 DC
 
Thank you for the encouragement as I'm getting pretty discouraged. I took the boards apart and cleaned the edge connectors really well with isopropyl alcohol. Put it all back together and now reading a good 12V all the way through. I tested at the ARII test point, the back of the molex connector, the main pcb edge connector, and at the board test point. All are reading 12.01V.

When I turned the game on I thought I had fixed it as the 3 red leds at cr4,5,and6 all went out for about 2 seconds and then came back on solid. The 5V reading was 5.05, I adjusted it up and down within the range you suggested and nothing happened. Set it at 5.02, turned the game off and back on and still nothing. Red legs cr4,5,and 6 lit solid as soon as I flip the switch...
 
Remove, clean, and re-seat all socketed chips on all boards. Get a fiberglass pen and a can of DeOxit, which are useful for lots of electronics work. Here you go. These are good prices and sellers for both:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271103840617

http://www.ebay.com/itm/401280029130


Then, boot the board into test mode (by powering on with the test mode switch enabled, versus switching it on after power-up, which can get you different results).

Also, read the manual to understand more about how test mode works:

https://www.arcade-museum.com/manuals-videogames/S/StarWars.pdf


Also, see my guide about testing and properly bringing up your 6100. I would suggest testing the board with the monitor disconnected, until you can get it playing blind (or at least verify the XY output voltages), as if there are board issues, you could potentially fry a perfectly working monitor:

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=404600
 
If the three diagnostic LEDs on the main PCB stay lit, that means the CPU is not executing the code that turns them off, which is normally one of the first things it does.

Since the only change you made to the PCB stack was on the sound board, I would see if that may be causing trouble (speech chip in backwards?). Remove the entire sound board and test the game with just the main and AVG boards hooked up.

Other thoughts:
-the voltage on the reset line seems low... a logic high should be very nearly the same ad the +5v supply. Is it still 4.6v without the sound board?
-SW among others needs the 10.3v unregulated voltage in order to do the initial reset to get the CPU going. Make sure it is present at the test point between the three LEDs and the edge connector.
-try a manual reset by momentarily connecting the two reset points in the far upper right corner of the main board.
-make sure your CPU is good (swap with the one from the sound board).
-if you removed them to clean their legs, make sure the ROMs were put back in the correct sockets.
-when in self-test, the LEDs take about 5-8 seconds to go out.
 
Thank you everyone for the advice, as I got it working thanks to you all!!! I'll read through that article as well as order the deoxit and brush for future work.

I took the edge connector and bent the molex pins in towards the center to ensure a better contact with the EMI shield PCB. I also pushed down on all socketed chips to ensure connection (didn't want to remove them in case this worked). The game started right up.

I was able to play a couple games and now just need to adjust the yoke pots and monitor, but that'll be another post for another day!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
 
I learned the hard way that you should first repin the edge connector on any game with an AR board. Sounds like you learned it to. Bending the pins is only a temp fix. Get those replaced or the sense circuit is going to jack up your voltage until it burns out the AR board.
 
As N8smith suggested, it's giving me problems. I've tried band-aiding the edge connector but just needs to be redone. I know I need a 15/30 and 22/44. A little bit of research makes it seem that these crimp push in terminals are hard to come by and expensive.

Here's what Newark has:
http://www.newark.com/amp-te-connec...ku=false&ddkey=http:en-US/Element14_US/search

I need both the edge connectors and push terminals or a solder on connection I believe.

Suggestions? Thank you.
 
You don't need to repin the whole connector. The problem that develops is typically only on the+5V and ground pins, which carry relatively high current. Most of the other pins carry very little current, and don't develop problems.

The lines that carry high current heat up as the edge connector gets corroded and dirty over time. The dirt and corrosion increases the resistance of the connection, and increased resistance results in more heat being generated. The heat cycling fatigues the pins over time, and they lose their spring. As they get hot, they also corrode further, which snowballs the cycle. Eventually, if they stop making contact, you will end up frying the R29 and/or R30 resistors on the AR (which you can replace, as they're just 10 ohm, 1/4 watt resistors), as the AR tries to push current to the board through the sense resistors, which are normally supposed to carry very little current.

The break in contact can be because the pins physically stretch out, but also because they are just excessively dirty. Either way, the first thing to do is burnish the PCB edge connector, to remove 30+ years of oxidation. Get the fiberglass brush and DeOxit mentioned above, which is how I restore the edge connectors on all of the boards I refurbish. Burnish each finger until they're nice and shiny, and then put a thin coat of DeOxit on them with a small brush. (There's no need to spray the whole board, as the can is way too powerful.) If any of the fingers are really burned, they must be repaired, with copper tape and a soldering iron.

I've never had to replace the pins on an edge connector on any game I've owned. I just remove and bend the +5V and ground pins, and burnish and treat the PCB edge connector fingers. Replacing the pins won't fully solve the problem long-term, if you don't clean the PCB fingers as well, as that's where much of the corrosion is, and once the fingers are clean, they won't have much resistance, and won't heat up and bend out again.

If you do still want to repin the connector, you only have to do the 5V and ground pins. Replacing the others, and the connector housing, isn't going to benefit anything further, and honestly increases the chances of causing new problems, as it's very easy to mess up the connections. You're just spending time and money, destroying the original connector, and risking introducing new (and bigger) issues.
 
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Thanks all. I'm going to try the clean-up approach first. Just ordered the deoxit and fiberglass pen.

To clarify the issues more, the Yoke wasn't getting 5 volts, I adjusted the pins and then it got 5 volts but started having video issues. Adjusted the pins and the video came back but then lost the yoke voltage again. Didn't have either of those issues until I started messing with the edge connector. Seems finicky.

Also, I'm going through the EMI shield PCB but did see some other Star Wars photos online where people plugged in straight to the main PCB and AVG PCBs. Thoughts on one approach versus the other?
 
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