Anybody do Atari generation 1 board repair here?

Crazy Climber

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Hello
I have an Atari Gen 1 machine (middle earth) that we are pretty sure has a bad CPU board. Once we determine it is infact the board I was wondering if anyone repairs them here for a decent price? I heard there is a guy in Canada that works on them, but my cousin mentioned he is VERY expensive and we would be looking at around $200 plus shipping both ways (shipping to canada is pretty expensive also), pretty pricey for a machine that is probably only valued at around $300 working. Anybody here able to tackle it? I'm not trying to get free work of course, I will pay a fair price, just seeing if I have any cheaper options before I drop the big bucks on the Canada guy. Let me know if this is something any of you guys can do, Thanks! :)
- Brian
 
I would offer but as you mentioned shipping to Canada is a pain... and I'm already sitting on a backlog of KLOVer repairs. That is a large board too.

What is happening with the board? I have a few spares and might be able to sell one. Assuming I'm able to bench test it.
 
I would offer but as you mentioned shipping to Canada is a pain... and I'm already sitting on a backlog of KLOVer repairs. That is a large board too.

What is happening with the board? I have a few spares and might be able to sell one. Assuming I'm able to bench test it.

Yeah, I would be interested in purchasing a tested one from you if it wasn't too crazy expensive :) I just emailed my Cousin to have him type up an explanation of whats wrong with it (he is way better at this stuff then me) once he gets back to me I'll copy and paste it here, Thanks man! - Brian
 
Okay, here is what he described the problem as....

The first thing to do is check fuses. Then the power supply (voltages throughout the game). Unfortunately a basic repair guide for that pinball system isn't readily available so you're stuck using the schematic to check through the power supply. Once you verify that you've got the voltages you need at the MPU you can assume it's got some kind of problem if it's not booting. From there you get into basic Motorola 680x based system troubleshooting and branch out into the weird crap Atari has interfaced with the CPU.

Atari pins are really not that much different from other pins of that era. They have the same problems with connectors, sockets, power supplies, etc... that other games have. Conceptually they're very similar. The same systematic approach to troubleshooting can be used. They get a well earned reputation as being difficult to repair because they're not that common and there are not a lot of people restoring them. As a consequence there's not a lot of information out there on repairing them so it's difficult for people to find canned solutions to their problems. A fundamental understanding of the concepts that make a pinball machine work will go a long way in repairing Atari pins.
 
Okay, we are going to check the voltages this weekend to confirm it is a board issue :) Having a little trouble finding any online schematics though, anybody know of any off hand?
Thanks! - Brian
 
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