ManCaveArcade
Member
ARCTIC THUNDER TROUBLESHOOTING NOTES:
I just went through the repair job from Hell with a pair of Arctic Thunders that I picked up cheap and thought they would be an easy fix. I have been working on them for about a week straight and almost got them ready for the Arcade. During this process I was searching this forum and the web for information to help me figure this out and couldn't find much so I decided to document my troubleshooting notes to help others that may have these problems. I had to replace both monitors, fix the steering feedback on both, calibration, repair damaged wires, replace both power supplies, Replace CPU battery and adjust BIOS settings, replace both network cards and some other stuff…. So with that being said here are my notes:
GAME BOOT SEQUENCE:
• Top power toggle switch on
• Motherboard detects power at computer power supply input and turns on power to computer.
• You should see the CPU fan and case fans spin and led's on motherboard
• Motherboard boots up and goes through its normal checks according to the BIOS settings.
• HD boots into windows 2000 and goes through normal boot procedure
• Game program begins and displays a "MIDWAY" screen
• I/O check Game checks for communications with the substitute I/O board
• If communication is established then the game goes into a "TESTING" screen and starts counting down. During this test I know it is testing for network connection but still unsure about what else it is testing.
• * NOTE: If you try to make a backup copy of the HD then it will get to this screen and display white bars on the screen where the testing words should be and freezes the game. I believe the HD code is somehow married to the hard code serial number on the drive and can't be duplicated.
• If all testing checks are good, then it proceeds into the "Attract Mode" of the game
GAME DOESN'T BOOT:
• Did the computer turn on (case fan & CPU fan spin, audible tone)?
o YES: Proceed to next step
o NO: Try to push the power button on case and/or directly jump PWR pins on motherboard. Did it boot up?
YES: Motherboard battery is dead or low and BIOS settings went back to default settings. Replace battery, plug in a keyboard, boot into the BIOS settings and change the power management to boot on after power failure. You will also need to change the setting to "HAULT ON: NO ERRORS" so it will ignore the keyboard not present or any other errors.
NO: Replace power supply
• Make sure your monitor is not bad by unplugging VGA cable from monitor and test on a standard computer monitor for video. If you see motherboard boot up sequence but doesn't boot, check HD.
WILL NOT SELECT PLAYER OR STAGE:
When you start a game, you are asked to select a player/stage with the steering and hit the throttle to confirm selection. If it doesn't confirm your selection and time out then most likely your throttle pot is out of adjustment and will need to me calibrated. Go to the test menu and select calibrate feedback. You can't just adjust the throttle; you are forced to do the entire calibration. The first step it will ask you to press and release throttle and then it goes into the steering calibration by itself. * Note: If your feedback doesn't work then calibration will fail (See Steering feedback section)
STEERING FEEDBACK DOES NOT WORK:
If your steering feedback stops working then DO NOT TRY AND CALIBRATE! If you do then it will fail calibration and when you reboot the game it will display an error "CALIBRATION FAILED" and will not start the game until you can successfully complete the calibration. Now that you are in this situation (like I was) you are forced to fix the feedback.
• Start with the driver board located in the back of the cab on the left side. Check all fuses with a meter. I got lucky on one and was just a bad fuse. I always get nervous when there is a bad fuse because most of the time there is another problem that caused that fuse to pop but in this case it seems to be holding.
• If fuse is good then go into test mode and select test feedback left or right. This should send power to the motor so you can test voltage at the Molex connector at the motor. If voltage is present and motor doesn't move then it is a bad motor.
• If there is no power at the motor connector then disconnect the brown wire at the driver board and test voltage directly at the board to rule out the wire connection.
• No power leaving the board? Check power coming into the board. If you have power coming in but no power going out then either the board is bad or it is not receiving the command to send power to the motor. I had one game that had this issue and someone put the connector on wrong from the substitute board to the driver board. Make sure the Red line is on the right side of the harness at the connector on the substitute board and facing the top of the driver board (I'm going off memory so I hope I said that right)
• No power coming into the driver board? Check your power board on the left side of the cab at the very top. Refer to the manual for voltage values and LED indicator lights.
I just went through the repair job from Hell with a pair of Arctic Thunders that I picked up cheap and thought they would be an easy fix. I have been working on them for about a week straight and almost got them ready for the Arcade. During this process I was searching this forum and the web for information to help me figure this out and couldn't find much so I decided to document my troubleshooting notes to help others that may have these problems. I had to replace both monitors, fix the steering feedback on both, calibration, repair damaged wires, replace both power supplies, Replace CPU battery and adjust BIOS settings, replace both network cards and some other stuff…. So with that being said here are my notes:
GAME BOOT SEQUENCE:
• Top power toggle switch on
• Motherboard detects power at computer power supply input and turns on power to computer.
• You should see the CPU fan and case fans spin and led's on motherboard
• Motherboard boots up and goes through its normal checks according to the BIOS settings.
• HD boots into windows 2000 and goes through normal boot procedure
• Game program begins and displays a "MIDWAY" screen
• I/O check Game checks for communications with the substitute I/O board
• If communication is established then the game goes into a "TESTING" screen and starts counting down. During this test I know it is testing for network connection but still unsure about what else it is testing.
• * NOTE: If you try to make a backup copy of the HD then it will get to this screen and display white bars on the screen where the testing words should be and freezes the game. I believe the HD code is somehow married to the hard code serial number on the drive and can't be duplicated.
• If all testing checks are good, then it proceeds into the "Attract Mode" of the game
GAME DOESN'T BOOT:
• Did the computer turn on (case fan & CPU fan spin, audible tone)?
o YES: Proceed to next step
o NO: Try to push the power button on case and/or directly jump PWR pins on motherboard. Did it boot up?
YES: Motherboard battery is dead or low and BIOS settings went back to default settings. Replace battery, plug in a keyboard, boot into the BIOS settings and change the power management to boot on after power failure. You will also need to change the setting to "HAULT ON: NO ERRORS" so it will ignore the keyboard not present or any other errors.
NO: Replace power supply
• Make sure your monitor is not bad by unplugging VGA cable from monitor and test on a standard computer monitor for video. If you see motherboard boot up sequence but doesn't boot, check HD.
WILL NOT SELECT PLAYER OR STAGE:
When you start a game, you are asked to select a player/stage with the steering and hit the throttle to confirm selection. If it doesn't confirm your selection and time out then most likely your throttle pot is out of adjustment and will need to me calibrated. Go to the test menu and select calibrate feedback. You can't just adjust the throttle; you are forced to do the entire calibration. The first step it will ask you to press and release throttle and then it goes into the steering calibration by itself. * Note: If your feedback doesn't work then calibration will fail (See Steering feedback section)
STEERING FEEDBACK DOES NOT WORK:
If your steering feedback stops working then DO NOT TRY AND CALIBRATE! If you do then it will fail calibration and when you reboot the game it will display an error "CALIBRATION FAILED" and will not start the game until you can successfully complete the calibration. Now that you are in this situation (like I was) you are forced to fix the feedback.
• Start with the driver board located in the back of the cab on the left side. Check all fuses with a meter. I got lucky on one and was just a bad fuse. I always get nervous when there is a bad fuse because most of the time there is another problem that caused that fuse to pop but in this case it seems to be holding.
• If fuse is good then go into test mode and select test feedback left or right. This should send power to the motor so you can test voltage at the Molex connector at the motor. If voltage is present and motor doesn't move then it is a bad motor.
• If there is no power at the motor connector then disconnect the brown wire at the driver board and test voltage directly at the board to rule out the wire connection.
• No power leaving the board? Check power coming into the board. If you have power coming in but no power going out then either the board is bad or it is not receiving the command to send power to the motor. I had one game that had this issue and someone put the connector on wrong from the substitute board to the driver board. Make sure the Red line is on the right side of the harness at the connector on the substitute board and facing the top of the driver board (I'm going off memory so I hope I said that right)
• No power coming into the driver board? Check your power board on the left side of the cab at the very top. Refer to the manual for voltage values and LED indicator lights.
