Area 51 Site 4 - Waiting for HDD - Reboots

morphis72

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My Area 51 Site 4 crashed last night. It will try about 4 or 5 times to boot up now each time it goes through the POST and gets to the, 'Waiting for HDD..." then reboots. After it tries a few times it stops doing anything. All the voltages seem to check out and the hard drive is active. I upped the voltage from 5.0 to 5.1 with no help so dropped it back down to 5.0. Any ideas here? Physical inspection all looks fine. I don't have a spare HDD to try but based on what it's doing I have a feeling it's not the HDD.
 
Two things to check. Does the pcb have two green caps near the CPU? These are notorious for leaking and causing reboot issues. Check and replace these if need be. Also if the original fireball hard drive is still being used it could also be failing.
 
I had the same problem with mine. Make sure the power section of the JAMMA connector is getting a good connection. I carefully bent the pins inward about 5 months ago and it survived a move and still going great without a problem. And make sure the power is about 5.1VDC on the PCB.
 
Two things to check. Does the pcb have two green caps near the CPU? These are notorious for leaking and causing reboot issues. Check and replace these if need be. Also if the original fireball hard drive is still being used it could also be failing.

One of my two green caps had already been replaced by a previous owner. I pulled the second one and checked it with my meter. It read right but it also looked like it was ever so slightly budging. I replaced it with a spare I had sitting around which physically just barely fit in place. It's actually touching the heat sink that was next to it so I am not sure if that will be a problem or not. However, the game boots now and played all night. I left it on for about five hours and played test games off and on throughout. So, you were spot on with the cap. The question I have left is should I get one that is a better form factor? What I put in there was a 35v 1000uf cap. The original I think was 6.3v or something like that so small enough to not touch the heatsink.
 
I had mine at about 5.2V.
Also make sure the hard drive is powered from the power supply, not the power spot on the PCB.
Converting to a IDE to SD card adapter works wonders too.
 
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I had mine at about 5.2V.
Also make sure the hard drive is powered from the power supply, not the power spot on the PCB.
Converting to a CF drive works wonders too.

I have tired multiple cards/brands to convert Site 4 to CF. If you have a source I can get a compatible CF from please let me know. I actually have a thread from a couple years ago where I was searching for help with that and everyone else was having the same issue. It's the only game I have had problems doing this with. No issues with the original area 51 or Gauntlet Legends. My HD is plugged into the board though like it was from the factory. I could change that pretty easy.
 
Sorry. Not the CF drive, the IDE to SD card converter.

IMG_2974.jpg
 
I have tired multiple cards/brands to convert Site 4 to CF. If you have a source I can get a compatible CF from please let me know. I actually have a thread from a couple years ago where I was searching for help with that and everyone else was having the same issue. It's the only game I have had problems doing this with. No issues with the original area 51 or Gauntlet Legends. My HD is plugged into the board though like it was from the factory. I could change that pretty easy.

Yeah, it was a PAIN to convert to CF/SD for me.

Thread here:
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=293916&page=8

It has to do with the chip on the adapter. Area 51 site 4 just doesn't like most of them. I ordered one that worked from South Korea. Another poster tried that and had no luck later on.
 
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