Afterburner upright - randomly cuts off & freezes

SegaAgesBryan

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Hello All,

I recently picked up an afterburner upright. The first day I had it, it worked really well I played it for about 2-3 hours. The next few days weird issues started occurring like the game glitching and then freezing(animation stuck on screen, last note of whatever sound was playing stuck). It appeared to be happening when the stick shaker was activated but also occurred during barrel rolls (also just randomly as well). Once in a while the screen will glitch out and get stuck but not freeze (for example the tomcat will be stuck in a glitched movement with the sound effects for the thrusters still going). I was able to get into the diagnostic during one of these occurrences. During the RAM test it said IC23 and IC52 are bad. However whenever I do a RAM test normally all ICs pass.

In addition to the random glitching. The machine will also just randomly shut off during play. This monitor looks like its on but the whole game just dies and needs to be restarted for it to play again.

Some more notes. Who ever owned this before me did not believe in molex all the work is done with blue electrical tape and is somewhat concerning. I am sure bad continuity in any number of wires could cause issues. Probably have a lot of work ahead of me. Beyond that it looks like the original monitor was replaced with a k4600. The Monitor has an issue where it isnt holding vertically but that's the least of my worries at this point.

Was wondering how you all think I should proceed. I was thinking about looking for a known good replacement harness for the system online just to eliminate the possibility of this being caused by faulty wiring.

thanks for any advice!
 
Hello All,

I recently picked up an afterburner upright. The first day I had it, it worked really well I played it for about 2-3 hours. The next few days weird issues started occurring like the game glitching and then freezing(animation stuck on screen, last note of whatever sound was playing stuck). It appeared to be happening when the stick shaker was activated but also occurred during barrel rolls (also just randomly as well). Once in a while the screen will glitch out and get stuck but not freeze (for example the tomcat will be stuck in a glitched movement with the sound effects for the thrusters still going). I was able to get into the diagnostic during one of these occurrences. During the RAM test it said IC23 and IC52 are bad. However whenever I do a RAM test normally all ICs pass.

In addition to the random glitching. The machine will also just randomly shut off during play. This monitor looks like its on but the whole game just dies and needs to be restarted for it to play again.

Some more notes. Who ever owned this before me did not believe in molex all the work is done with blue electrical tape and is somewhat concerning. I am sure bad continuity in any number of wires could cause issues. Probably have a lot of work ahead of me. Beyond that it looks like the original monitor was replaced with a k4600. The Monitor has an issue where it isnt holding vertically but that's the least of my worries at this point.

Was wondering how you all think I should proceed. I was thinking about looking for a known good replacement harness for the system online just to eliminate the possibility of this being caused by faulty wiring.

thanks for any advice!
For stuff like this, it sounds like you are losing power. When the stick shaker kicks in particular.

Disconnect the stick shaker and try it. If that works, you'll need to look into the power supply.

Does the game have a ground plug? Is it grounded?
 
I'd make sure the voltage is spot on at 5V on the harness to the pcb, you may need to open the cage and carefully measure the voltage on the pcb headers or any TTL IC. Other than that, cleanup the power connector job the previous owner may have done. Then worry about any other hack jobs to the harness.

p
 
Good call, I will try to see if removing the stick shaker from the equation helps the issue at all. One thing to note, didn't realize the stick shaker fuse was a fuse initially and I twisted it out. I am wondering if I ever got it to engage properly again, because I think some of this stuff started happening after I removed that fuse and tried to put it back. I'll check this as well while I am at it.

I will also have to check if its grounded. The power has definitely been modified. The game doesn't have a switch, it just turns on when you plug it in. I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't grounded. I'll look and take some photos if I am unable to determine if it is in fact grounded.

I will also start measuring voltage on the board, definitely will have to remove the case. Will report back!

Random Question: Are these system X boards drastically different than say like Hang-on boards? Just trying to get an idea of how working on these is in case I have to go there.
 
Random Question: Are these system X boards drastically different than say like Hang-on boards? Just trying to get an idea of how working on these is in case I have to go there.
The X boards appear simple because they are single boards but are a royal pain to work on because of the hairline traces that are easy to damage/lift.

p
 
Ah good to know about the x boards. Well got an update and some good news. It looks like the the wires for the display were hitting the shaker and possibly causing a short. I secured the cables back away from the shaker and its playing pretty well. This even solved the vertical hold issue too. There is still some slight shaking but nothing too bad.

The power cable is not ground. I will have to fix that. Also I would like to make a better display cable, seems like this one is contributing to my problems. Also it looks like the power switch was disconnected, I can see where one was on the inside. Did After Burner typically not have the power switch on the outside like hangon & super hang on?

Anyway very promising, I was able to run it for about an hour and play through it twice without an issue!
 
That is great news, I am glad this is sorted.

Afterburner has a side power switch, same as Outrun and Super Hang On. Is there one in your game?

p
 
It looks like the button was removed and replaced with a screw. Then they replaced with a button inside the cab. There are no wires going to this button though so I guess it was removed from the equation at some point. Now the game looks like its just connected directly to the power. Will have to clean this up a little bit.

here is a photo of what it's currently looking like in there.
 

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Good call, I will try to see if removing the stick shaker from the equation helps the issue at all. One thing to note, didn't realize the stick shaker fuse was a fuse initially and I twisted it out. I am wondering if I ever got it to engage properly again, because I think some of this stuff started happening after I removed that fuse and tried to put it back. I'll check this as well while I am at it.

I will also have to check if its grounded. The power has definitely been modified. The game doesn't have a switch, it just turns on when you plug it in. I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't grounded. I'll look and take some photos if I am unable to determine if it is in fact grounded.

I will also start measuring voltage on the board, definitely will have to remove the case. Will report back!

Random Question: Are these system X boards drastically different than say like Hang-on boards? Just trying to get an idea of how working on these is in case I have to go there.
For the fuse, did it have a black cap on the fuse? If it did, look at the cap - it should have two ears on the metal part the fuse end goes into. If they are knocked down, you can use needle nose pliers to bring them out again.
 
You have the bracket and a non original red button. I think I have a replacement for the button if you ever need one

p.
 
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