mrmekon
New member
I just got a non-working Area 51 upright that I'm trying to diagnose. I know *nothing* about coin-ops but quite a bit about the hardware (I'm an embedded systems engineer), so if you have any tips please be specific. Googling hasn't turned up anything relevant.
The first few times I powered it up I got a watchdog reset error, that dumped all the registers and showed them all as 00000000, and said "THREE TAPS AND YOU'RE OUT". I eventually figured out that 3 taps of the start button reset it, and after doing that 2 or 3 times it actually did load the game. It reset again during the intro. I've had it start a few times successfully, and even played the game for a few minutes, but it keeps resetting, and always at a different time. Sometimes it turns on and doesn't do anything, doesn't even show the watchdog reset.
I don't know what its history is, or if this is an original or some hack. The mainboard has a big daughter board with 4 ROMs and a Xilinx on it. The HDD light blinks, as does a light on the daughterboard. The power light on the mainboard is on, and the "low power" LED flickers a tiny bit every once in a while. I checked the +5V and it's solid at 4.95, but it could be an instantaneous drop under load I suppose.
Any tips on what to look for, or how to trace out the problem? Thanks in advance!
The first few times I powered it up I got a watchdog reset error, that dumped all the registers and showed them all as 00000000, and said "THREE TAPS AND YOU'RE OUT". I eventually figured out that 3 taps of the start button reset it, and after doing that 2 or 3 times it actually did load the game. It reset again during the intro. I've had it start a few times successfully, and even played the game for a few minutes, but it keeps resetting, and always at a different time. Sometimes it turns on and doesn't do anything, doesn't even show the watchdog reset.
I don't know what its history is, or if this is an original or some hack. The mainboard has a big daughter board with 4 ROMs and a Xilinx on it. The HDD light blinks, as does a light on the daughterboard. The power light on the mainboard is on, and the "low power" LED flickers a tiny bit every once in a while. I checked the +5V and it's solid at 4.95, but it could be an instantaneous drop under load I suppose.
Any tips on what to look for, or how to trace out the problem? Thanks in advance!
