Atari Football, Start of Restoration. Melted 44 pin connector, Look out!

Officepot

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As the title states, I got my hands on a barn fresh Atari Football. I actually already have an Atari Football in my arcade and hope to use my working one as a template to fix this one. First strange thing I noticed, my working one doesn't seem to have this massive "RF shield" and RF Shield BD circuit board at all! Wonder if they just made some without it or it was removed at some time...

Anyways, this board looks toasty on one of the pins, from looking at the manual it is the +10V UNREG line. Actually melted the 44 pin connector in half! I attached the schematic so tell me if I am wrong. I will for sure be taking the power supply out, replacing the big blue, and the bridge rectifier. Since this is on the unregulated line, should I look at replacing my transformer too? I guess I should start by checking all the voltages coming out of the transformer. Just wanted to start this repair by asking the masses if this is a issue seen before, and getting tips on where to start.

I have attached all the great pictures I can to show you how toasty this got! Looks like it was patched before, and this board is FULL of jumpers.

As always, thank you all for your help.
 

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Ladies and gentlemen it has been a long time, but I come back with fantastic news. I have gotten the game to boot. 🥳 I went ahead and got a new big blue in the power supply right off the bat. I then got a new 44 pin connector and repinned all the connections. This was a must since the old one was completely melted in half...

I then turned my attention to WHY it was melted. What had melted was the 10V unregulated line. This line comes in and instantly goes into a voltage regulator (LM323) with a resistor across it. I assume this resistor is some sort of crude current booster for the 5V line? Anyways here is this circuit in the schematic:

1762647487917.png

I noticed that my resistor was a 2 ohm 20W resistor. This would make my current MUCH higher through that resistor. I wonder if this was causing my overheating and leading to the 44 pin connector melting? Anyways I replaced it with a 4 ohm 10W as stated in this schematic. That resistor still gets wicked hot, way too hot to touch after 5 minutes of being on. I have the resistor suspended in air to hopefully give it some room to dissipate heat. Assuming this is normal?

IMG_3190.JPG

Anyways here is what the cabinet looks like in its current state, I tweaked the settings on the monitor and it looks crystal clear now. YIPPIE!

IMG_3193.JPG


P.S. TO MY SURPRISE THIS ATARI FOOTBALL HAS THE ATARI LOGO AND FOOTBALL AT CENTER FIELD!!!! MY VERY CLEAN ATARI FOOTBALL IN MY MAN CAVE DOES NOT HAVE THIS. IT HAS NOTHING AT CENTER FIELD. WHY IS THIS??? I tried to find some info but cannot find anything on how to get the Atari logo at center field, I figured it was a dip switch setting or something? No info in the manual

IMG_3191.JPGIMG_3192.JPG
 
I really want to know why my two boards seem to have the variation of Atari logo at centerfield and one with nothing? Very interesting.
 
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