Armor attack help after shipping game - led on

goffs

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I bought an armor attack and had it shipped 2000 miles. The game will power up and play for a few seconds, then it looks like it is constantly resetting. When I give it credits I can see the credit registering on screen and then immediately going to from one to zero. Also looks like screen is flickering/blinking. Only troubleshooting I've done is to check 5 volts on pcb, which was good. Any ideas to fix before I send away board?
 
reading dc tells dc plus ac. if ac is too high then dc is lower. also check rom and ram legs cleaned
 
I took a modern 5v power supply and connected to pcb. Led came on for about 1 second and then no led after that. The reading I'm doing online states that no led is a good indicator pcb is good and pointing to power supply. I believe wugly is telling me to check for a ripple on dc line. "Thanks by the way". I will do that when I get a better multimeter.

Am I correct the power supply is looking like the problem?
 
When you used the original PS and the game locked up did the LED stay on then? If so and it boots now, then yes, it's probably the PS. The CCPU can boot but still play blind under certain circumstances, but you don't need to worry about that now.
 
when connected to original power supply the game would play for about 10 seconds then go into the red led on
 
I think I have a lot of ac ripple. The needle jumped significantly when I set the meter to ac
 
ac voltage above .5 and you have a lot of ac present so at times if you read 5 with dc you might only have 4.5. was giveing you the preliminary tests.
 
Got it. Looking to rebuild power supply

Do you think this would work?
 

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Any game that was shipped 2000 miles likely will have some parts loosened here and there.
That includes socketed parts on the CCPU logic board and the monitor chassis. Also, the ribbon connectors and all power MOLEX etc.
And those breakers on the power supply can be problematic - should reset them to make sure the flickering is not associated with the monitor power rails.

All that said, the CCPU logic test only needs the +5VDC to validate the board working and the LED to turn off.
The CONDOR type power supplies don't usually report issues from collectors that they have excessive AC ripple on the 5V rail. Mainly bad breakers as mentioned.
The supply also sends a simple SPOT KILLER signal (voltage) to the monitor. Keep that in mind.

On most CCPU (without the HSS mod) the 5101 RAM is typically not socketed; They're soldered into the board. The ROMs are socketed. Similarly on the monitor chassis some parts are socketed. All should be reviewed.

The OPs description does not really help define if the cabinet is "playing blind". That's one place to start (with monitor disconnected and game credited, playing and making correct game sounds etc). Take it slowly and do proper step-by-step test method to find the issue.

As always -> YMMV. :)
 
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