Asteroids! No video

harrisontx

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Asteroids! No video *FIXED*

Brought home a machine tonight. It worked years ago, but has been sitting on a shelf for about a decade. It was put on the shelf when the monitor no longer worked.

I plug the machine in, the lights come on (coins, player 1-2 LEDs), and the speaker hums. The volume knob will control the level of the hum.

There is absolutely no video. Nothing on the screen happens at all.
I just don't know where to start.
What scares me is, even with the video out, I should be able to play the game and hear sounds, correct? The player 1&2 LEDs stay solid, which I believe indicate zero credits. I open the front door, and there is a little arm that a coin would hit. I tap it a few times, thinking it would give a credit, but the LEDs stay solid

I have two options. I can attempt to trouble shoot it myself, or take it to a place in Austin, TX called Pinballz. It's about 100 miles from me, and would obviously require 2 round trips. 400 miles adds up.
http://www.pinballzarcade.com/services/pinball-and-arcade-game-repair

I'm in a tech school studying electricity. I've had AC and DC classes. I've even built a small power supply. I know electrical components, caps, transistors, resistors. I can solder as well, but only have a little experience (basically a semesters worth building this small 2A DC power supply). I have a Fluke 77 and plenty of tools. I wouldn't mind attempting to fix this, and avoiding a hefty repair bill (remember- broke college kid), but at the same time, I maybe better off taking it to someone who knows what they're doing.

Any advice? I hope this is okay for my first post. I donated and everything. I'm really excited about this machine!

Here it is!
IMAG0095.jpg
 
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I'm not an expert, so my knowledge is limited, but I do own an Asteroids deluxe and I fixed a broken monitor chassis once.

Flip it over to test mode and see what it does there. You should hear beeps when you press the buttons.

Check the monitor for neck glow and for the spot killer. Neck glow is just what it sounds: orange glow in the CRT tube neck. You may need to turn off the lights to see it if the neck is dirty. The spot killer keeps the monitor from burning a hole in the phosphors when there's no input to the deflection board. If it's on you'll see a steady red LED on the deflection board of the monitor. It should flick on briefly when you first power the machine too. Don't poke around under suction cup thingie on the CRT or you'll regret it. High voltage. Can maim or kill.

You may want to try cleaning the edge connector on the main PCB too, but I'd try the other stuff first. Look for burnt pins.

Depending on what you find depends on where to go next!
 
I'm not an expert, so my knowledge is limited, but I do own an Asteroids deluxe and I fixed a broken monitor chassis once.

Flip it over to test mode and see what it does there. You should hear beeps when you press the buttons.

Check the monitor for neck glow and for the spot killer. Neck glow is just what it sounds: orange glow in the CRT tube neck. You may need to turn off the lights to see it if the neck is dirty. The spot killer keeps the monitor from burning a hole in the phosphors when there's no input to the deflection board. If it's on you'll see a steady red LED on the deflection board of the monitor. It should flick on briefly when you first power the machine too. Don't poke around under suction cup thingie on the CRT or you'll regret it. High voltage. Can maim or kill.

You may want to try cleaning the edge connector on the main PCB too, but I'd try the other stuff first. Look for burnt pins.

Depending on what you find depends on where to go next!

The machine had been off for about an hour. I walk out there, turn it on and the next glow was pretty bright and obvious. I also have a steady red LED on the upper most board, next to the monitor which I assume is the deflection board.

Neck glow - glowing
spot killer - steady red LED
The longer the machine was on, the more faint the neck glow got. After a few minutes it wasnt visible. After turning it off for 2 minutes and back on, the neck glow was visible, but very dim.

In test - no change. The buttons produce no beeps when pressed in test mode.

edge connector on main PCB - PCB is what? Printed Circuit Board? Edge connector? The 3.5' long connector on the huge board? I slid it off and the connector could use a little attention. All the connection points are a bit brown/rust color (but not burnt) What would work well to clean this?

Please forgive my ignorance. I have zero knowledge with these video games.
To see a burnt pin do I disconnect all the connections, or will a burn show through the plastic?
 
The neck glow is weird. I am 100% positive it was on. I didnt touch anything other than the main power switch, and now.. no neck glow. Even after sitting for 20 minutes, and turning the machine back on, no neck glow.
 
Yes, PCB is printed circuit board. The main PCB has the CPU, RAM, program logic, etc. It's the *BIG* one. The Atari games are notorious for problems with the edge connector. You can google it for all the theory.

I'd check here for some more info on Asteroids debugging: http://arcarc.xmission.com/Tech/Asteroid Tech/asteroidsrepair.html

And find a copy of the manual and read it:
http://www.arcade-museum.com/manuals-videogames/A/Asteroids.pdf


In my (non expert) opinion, I'd ignore the monitor for the moment and focus on why the game appears to not be running. Even without a monitor plugged in, it should still play blind. Get it in test mode and see if it does anything different. Check the manual for where the switch is (I have a cocktail so mine is different).

Failing that check the edge connector and maybe wipe it down lightly, and take a look at the AR (audio regulator) board (aka the one with the big heat sink) and see if anything is burned up. I'd also check to make sure you're getting 5V on the board. There are test points on the main PCB (I think near the LED?). If it's not 5V you have a problem.

Sounds to me like you have some kind of power issue. The neck should stay glowing even if the PCB board is bad - do the coin reject button lights stay lit up too? They run off that same voltage. If it were just the monitor, I'd tell you to flow the headers on the deflection board, but I think you have bigger issues. No sense fixing the monitor if the main PCB is hosed since you won't be able to tell if you fixed it!

But again, I'm not an expert so I'm just relaying basics here. Get that machine into test mode though and see what happens. Actually, now that I think of it, it may already be IN test mode since I believe both player buttons stay on in test mode. I want to say the switch is either on or behind the coin door.
 
I would unplug the big connector going to the monitor from the game harness, just leave it powered off for the moment. Set your dip switches to free play, then you should be able to just hit start and hear sounds if it booted up right.

For the edge connectors, i usually rub em with a pencil eraser, then tin a bit of new solder on them. An extremely thin layer is all you need, to much will just cause problems. Looks over the harness pinout, check all your incoming voltages out of the power supply. Those old power supplies fail fairly often. from there, with the connector touched up and voltages verified, id boot it up again with the monitor unplugged, and see if you can hit start to begin a game and hear any sounds.

If you have access to a good ol o-scope with xy mode, you could get that to replace the monitor to focus on 1 thing at a time.
 
The player cone buttons should not be lit - when there is credits (or free play) they blink. Best to follow the troubleshooting guide posted above (forget the monitor right now). Could be a bad PROM, but I would also suspect the EPROMS and RAM.

I would also first verify the power supply is working correctly and outputting the correct voltage - do this first before anything else.

There are people that will fix the board for you if you like (remove it from the game and ship it off to them.
 
You have a power supply problem. I have seen bad big blue caps cause this exact problem.

Meter all your PS voltages and make sure they're good. Check for AC voltage in the +5VDC line. If you find AC there, your big blue is toast.
 
Check fuses.
Check for +5 volts DC at main board.

You have a power supply problem. I have seen bad big blue caps cause this exact problem.

Meter all your PS voltages and make sure they're good. Check for AC voltage in the +5VDC line. If you find AC there, your big blue is toast.

On the main board - Found a spot that said GND and one that said 5V. Assuming these are test points, I found 4.64VDC, and .8VAC.

On the board directly above the main PCB I found another GND, as well as a 5V point and a 10.3VDC
5VDC reading was 4.8VDC (.93VAC)
10.3VAC reading was 8.98VCD

Ieure When you say meter all my power supply voltages, where else other than the two 5V points, and the one 10.3V points can I check?
 
Ok, so you have 4.8 at your power supply and 4.6 at your main board. You need to turn the adjustment on the power supply board up so you have 5.0 to 5.15 on your main board where you now have 4.6 , be careful, it's not hard to turn it up too much and damage your main board.

Edit: Keep it simple. Start with the basics. Forget all the other stuff. First thing to always check is your +5 . Get your 4.6 up to 5 volts. If the game still does not work, Gently, and one at a time, take out your socketed chips and re-seat them. If the game still does not work, put it in test and see if you get anything. Start with that.
 
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Ok, so you have 4.8 at your power supply and 4.6 at your main board. You need to turn the adjustment on the power supply board up so you have 5.0 to 5.15 on your main board where you now have 4.6 , be careful, it's not hard to turn it up too much and damage your main board.

Edit: Keep it simple. Start with the basics. Forget all the other stuff. First thing to always check is your +5 . Get your 4.6 up to 5 volts. If the game still does not work, Gently, and one at a time, take out your socketed chips and re-seat them. If the game still does not work, put it in test and see if you get anything. Start with that.

I have no clue how to turn up the voltage. I just looked all over the boards and I dont see it.

The main board is the gigantic one, and the PS board is the smaller one with the huge heat sinks, correct?
 
Ok, so you have 4.8 at your power supply and 4.6 at your main board. You need to turn the adjustment on the power supply board up so you have 5.0 to 5.15 on your main board where you now have 4.6 , be careful, it's not hard to turn it up too much and damage your main board.

Edit: Keep it simple. Start with the basics. Forget all the other stuff. First thing to always check is your +5 . Get your 4.6 up to 5 volts. If the game still does not work, Gently, and one at a time, take out your socketed chips and re-seat them. If the game still does not work, put it in test and see if you get anything. Start with that.

Awesome link.
I put my meter on the 5V and attempted to make an adjustment. It was already at nearly the maximum. Taking the pot as high as it could go only got me 4.74 VDC. That was at it's absolute max...
 
Awesome link.
I put my meter on the 5V and attempted to make an adjustment. It was already at nearly the maximum. Taking the pot as high as it could go only got me 4.74 VDC. That was at it's absolute max...

You have a power supply problem. Replace your big blue and rebuild your AR2.
 
You have a power supply problem. Replace your big blue and rebuild your AR2.

I went to http://www.therealbobroberts.net/parts.html#atari

Looks like big blue is $12.50. I'm not sure what AR2 means.
Is it this?
"Atari A/R II-02 to -06 Repair Kit (Caps+Q2/3/8/9+R30)"
If so there is quite a few Ar2 things. Is the "repair kit" all I need?
If so, I'll order today.
 
Yup, audio / regulator 2. That repair kit should do the trick.

Just double checking, NOT
Atari A/R or A/R II-01 Repair Kit (Caps+Q2/3+R29)
But indeed
Atari A/R II-02 to -06 Repair Kit (Caps+Q2/3/8/9+R30)
 
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