Blitz 2000/NBA Showtime 4-Player Startup Help

Halcyon

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Hello all - I have a Blitz 2000/NBA Showtime 4-player dedicated cabinet that has started acting weird in the last couple of days. When I power the game up, I can see the diagnostic messages appear on the screen, followed by what looks like a screen color test (vertical bars in varying colors the length of the screen), followed by a large triangle of multiple colors in the middle of the screen, followed by the POST tones - then a black screen and the game appears to stop there.

As far as I know, no one has messed with any of the DIP switch settings and I've verified them in a PDF manual I downloaded - does anyone know why this would start happening? It's almost as if the game is running through start up tests and then stopping. Any help is much appreciated!
 
Hard Drive failure? what are the codes on the board? does it continue to reboot after black screen? can you get into test and check Hard Drive ?
 
No - it doesn't continue to reboot afterwards, it just remains on the black screen. There is a "Test Mode" button inside of the coin door that I can usually press to enter the game diagnostics/menus, but since the game doesn't boot completely I can't get into those - what hard drive tests are you referring to? Is there a DIP switch I need to change to get into that menu?
 
you cant press the test button whilst its initially loading? not being too techy, but I think I had one like that before, and just reburnt a Hard Drive, what version of Sportstation have you got? will tell you on chips/pcb
 
I don't think I tried doing it right after I power it on - I'll give that a shot tonight. It's version 3.0 according to the chips. I tried burning a new image to another hard drive I had a long time ago, but I wasn't ever able to find the correct image files.
 
I don't know about the Vegas games, but the Seattles had an obnoxious long POST with the color bars and such you describe in a near seizure-inducing manner. lol

if you have hard drive failure you will be unable to get into Test Mode. hard drive failure's kind of broad though, could be low +12 voltage (created by low +5), corrupt file system, or the drive itself is just toast.

check your +5 just for fun, make sure it's around 5.10V at the JAMMA edge. additionally, you can meter the red and yellow pins at the hard drive power connector (+5 on red, +12 on yellow) making sure you have a solid 12 volts there.

finding disk images for these is a pain. I don't think I have your version otherwise I'd copy mine.

additionally, since I don't think you've tried doing so, continuously mash the Test button when you turn it on lol
 
Thanks - I'll give the test button mashing a shot tonight when I get home, lol. The POST isn't usually very long on this Vegas boardset - and almost immediately after I get the loud POST tones the game would start up.

I'll let you guys know what I find if I have any more issues. Thanks!
 
I have 3.0 Gold Images along with the Dev Kit Image & Chips, as mech said test your PSU first as if thats low then will cause issues
 
Mick/Mecha - Hopefully you 2 will see the update to this as I havent had time in the last couple of weeks to troubleshoot any further...

When I powered up the game tonight, after the screen tests that it cycles through, there are a series of power on tests that I noticed that scroll on the screen. One of them indicates that the CMOS Battery Check "Failed" - would this prevent the game from booting?
 
I PMed Halycon, I recommended replacing the battery, just cause it's easy to do, and to keep an ear out on the hard drive to see if it's got the click of death or if it's shutting on and off randomly (to monitor voltages during the power-up phase as well). could be it works long enough for the POST but there might be some kind of power draw somewhere that's interrupting the power to the drive.

also, are you running the hard drive using the Vegas power connector or one direct off the power supply?

I had someone come in our arcade last week looking for a local tech to look at his Megatouch, lol, never messed with one before but I know computers pretty thoroughly. turns out his hard drive has an electrical failure where it turns on and off. I personally had a hard drive I RMAed back in 2002 for that very reason, when you consider the age of these video game drives and the hit or miss quality control era it's probably not out of the ordinary.

does the drive sound like an electric razor too?
 
Reviving this thread. Any fix for this?

I have the same damn thing happening on a Showtime. Hard drive was replaced about a year ago and it's been working fine since.

I can't get it to boot to diagnostic screen via dip switch. Pushing or holding the test button on boot-up doesn't help.

Game starts booting up, gets to "Initializing Game..." then reboots. Power supply is good. Power is good at board and hard drive. New IDE cable.

During the Active Power Test, I do get the same "CMOS Battery - LOW" in red, and sometimes I get the "Watchdog Timer - FAIL" in red also, but sometimes it passes. Either way, the game keeps resetting.

Now, the battery says "Timekeeper" on it, so I don't know if this failing could cause this issue? It's not a "simple" replacement, as the Lithium battery seems to be surface mount with about 18 legs. :rolleyes:

Who's got an idea?
 
we don't like JAMMA games at KLOV, remember? ;)

maybe ask the same question, but say it's for a Circus Charlie, then maybe you'll get some replies.

j/k

my Sportstation was resetting too. wouldn't boot into Showtime, etc., turned out a couple of my fans just went poof. I had one of those high powered Sunon jobs from my comps that I jacked in instead. game works excellent again.

I forget who it was, was another guy asking about converting a Gauntlet to a Sportstation I thought or something along those lines asked me about where the battery's at on a Vegas board and I'm staring at the pictures and drawing a blank.

is it seriously that 18 leg contraption?
 
no the battery is a rectangular little thing just pops off, might be black, or yellow? and the problem does sound like that issue, first thing to try is remove battery and boot it, then see, as I had it with same error, removed and plugged battery back in and was fine!?!?!?
 
It might have more than 18 legs.

I can't find a hi-res pic of the board online, and the game is at work. I circled it below in this pic:

SHOWTIMESETpcbset.jpg


It is not listed in the manual's 'Field Replaceable Parts"...
 
BTW - while looking up "Timekeeper" batteries, it appears this is some sort of NVRAM with an onboard battery, and if the battery dies, it can cause all kinds of issues. It also has a crystal inside.

Here is an article about timekeeper issues with a CD player:

http://cdii.blogspot.com/2007/04/cd-i-defective-nv-ram-timekeeper.html

I wonder if this could be causing my problem?
 
I recently picked up sportstation vegas board setup and have it working on the bench. Howver, I get several errors on POST test for SSIO board. CMOS Batter Low, Watchdog (sometimes), Sound FIFO Fail, etc.

Despite the errors both blitz and showtime are working. Does the lithium battery charge? Any one figure out something on the above?

video of post

 
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I recently picked up sportstation vegas board setup and have it working on the bench. Howver, I get several errors on POST test for SSIO board. CMOS Batter Low, Watchdog (sometimes), Sound FIFO Fail, etc.

Despite the errors both blitz and showtime are working. Does the lithium battery charge? Any one figure out something on the above?

no, its not a rechargeable. You can buy a replacement. arcade services I sells them(they sell CF upgrades, replacement HDD, and sportstation wiring harness).

http://www.arcade-service.com/parts/eproms-components/

I posted a while back when I found someone selling them for less, so look around and you might save a few bucks.
 
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