area 51/max force hard drive issue or?

cadillacman

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My area 51/maximum force duo has been flaky lately. It would run cold then start freezing in attract mode hot, freezing during gameplay, etc. If i gently rocked the cab, it would unfreeze and keep playing for awhile. FYI this was the last duo kit arcade services had for the single board(this was originally a maximum force)


Since reorganizing my gameroom now it comes up says setting defaults then goes to a blank screen, reboots and watchdogs due to ide? Im assuming its talking about the drive. Alot of the time i dont feel or hear the drive spinning up. Voltages check ok. I have replaced the ide cable already.

What are my chances i just have a bad drive? Id like to upgrade it so something more robust something solid state but i dont want to spend that money untill im sure its just a drive issue.
 
I believe you are correct sir.

This partucular drive has a through-connector for the hdd motor instead of being hard weired. I loosened the circuit board and plugged/unplugged it a few times. Been working fine now lol.. so at least i know thats my issue.

Does topless z still do cf kits for these?
 
I'd strongly suggest that you pull the drive NOW and make a backup of it using CHDMAN. That way if the drive fails later you've got a solid image of the drive to transfer elsewhere.
 
Ive never mastered the art of drive burning(or heve yet to try lol) but with as many games as i've been tinkering with the past couple of years mabye i should start.
 
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it's very simple -- get the latest version of chdman,hook the ide drive up and one command will create an image on your computer's hard drive of your game hd.

then whenever you get a new drive one command will restore the image to the new drive and you won't have to screw around trying to find the right image elsewhere or from mame.
 
I have a the A51/max force combo as well and made a flash card for it and it works great. I have extra ide to flash adapters and can pick up a flash card if you want me to create one for you... and I can test it before I ship it :)

Let me know
 
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