Area 51- Site 4

thetruthjc

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
66
Reaction score
0
Location
Florida
So I recently bought an area 51 site 4 arcade game off CL. It powers on and starts up but then at random times itll just reboot and say "keyboard failure." Its never at any certain point in the game, sometimes it happens right away, other times I can play a whole level before it reboots. Im new to these machines with this being my first one so im not sure what to do. I checked all the voltages and they were all correct, so thats really the only thing I know isnt the problem. I thought it was the hard drive but I was told it was recently replaced and that didnt fix the problem. Im guessing pcb board then? Anybody have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
 
Yeah I answered you there too, haha.. hopefully we can just continue it in this thread!
 
Yeah one of the first things I actually did was use air duster to clean out that fan and it seemed to run fine. Im gonna pull that plate off now and check again. Do you think I should replace the fan even if it runs? Also the humming noise ive never encountered before. Normally the sound worked fine once the actual game started.
 
I kinda remember a humming sound so I don't think thats a big deal. Basically this system is literally a computer board with a jamma interface board attached (the jammit). It is a juice hungry game so voltages have to be pretty good for it.

You can also try re-seating the ram simms on the computer board as well - can't hurt.
 
Im a newbie to all this, so if you dont mind youd have to explain that to me. Thanks!
 
That particular boardset is a little different from your typical arcade boards, because its literally a regular computer motherboard and another board that interfaces it to the guns, arcade cabinet, etc. The half under the hard drive is the computer side, and the other board that says "jammit" on it is the interface.

On the computer side there's memory sticks that lock into slots, they're sticking straight up. If you carefully spread the little clips that hold them in, they'll lay down. Just pop them, then stand them back up again to snap back into place.
 
Alright tried that and still no success.. But I feel better about this machine then when I woke up in the morning. I appreciate you taking the time so far to try and help me figure out whats going on with this machine. Anything else you can suggest illl try for sure. You obviously know what you are talking about. Im a complete newbie to this, but I see it becoming a life long hobby
 
boot the game up without the metal plate on under the hard drive and feel around the board. i have a board set that gets very hot on the two black heat sinks under the plate. the game worked no problem but about 5 min into game play it would reset. the two heat sinks were burning hot to touch. see if this could be your problem. i added a fan next to the two heat sinks and no problems since.
 
everything looks good there too, doesnt seem to be overheating or anything. took a flashlight and magnifying glass over everything and didnt see any obvious issues, it all looked in working order
 
pull the board with the CPU IC out of the game and take a look at the backside of it. If it appears to be brown or darker then the CPU IC is probably bad or had bad solder joints underneath it. Its a BGA (ball grid array) IC so theres no fixing it without the right tools.

I agree with others here that say that its probably heat related and/or bad caps on the CPU board. Adding extra cooling to the CPU wouldnt be a bad thing...

Matt
 
Ok so I went and started messin with it again. Noticed everytime I touched the yellow/orange cable that goes from the hard drive to the board, the hard drive would stop, then go again. So normally I only get a "keyboard failure" error but this time it was a little different so I decided to take a picture and see if thatll help anybody help me with this. Thanks
 

Attachments

  • 51error.jpg
    51error.jpg
    95.2 KB · Views: 25
I'd start by changing that cable. Keyboard error is normal BTW.

Matt
 
oh really so the keyboard error has just been sending me on a wild goose chase? haha. Any idea where I could buy these wires to replace them? I know one is called a ribbon cable right? What would the orange/yellow wire that went from the HD to board be called, if anything?
 
oh really so the keyboard error has just been sending me on a wild goose chase? haha. Any idea where I could buy these wires to replace them? I know one is called a ribbon cable right? What would the orange/yellow wire that went from the HD to board be called, if anything?

Yeah, wild goose chase. That cable is just a male to male power extension cable. You should be able to tighten the pins though. Pull the cable out of the machine and squeeze each female pin ever so slightly so that they will end up with a tighter grip on the male pins on the board and the hard drive.

Matt
 
Well after trying that im almost positive it is a hard drive issue. Not sure if its the hard drive itself or the wires, or both. This is the wire i suspect is having issues, does anybody know where I could buy a replacement?
 

Attachments

  • 51wire.jpg
    51wire.jpg
    91.9 KB · Views: 9
  • 51wire2.jpg
    51wire2.jpg
    99.3 KB · Views: 10
Last edited:
Computer stores may have em, although its uncommon to go from a drive plug to a drive plug, but I've seen them before. I can also tell you the old Macintoshes (the little 9in ones) have something like that in them.

Before suspecting the cable, check the plug on the drive itself, and or the board. See if you can figure out if its one end or the other.
 
I really feel like its a bad hard drive. I think I will try replacing that first. Just boggles my mind because ive been told that this machine has had 2 new hard drives in it and neither one fixed this issue.
 
Back
Top Bottom