Blitz '99 TMU Memory Test Fail - Help

ss2049

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Hey guys, picked up a Blitz a week ago and getting to restoring it now and when you power it on it runs its tests and gives me a TMU Memory Test Fail (see pic below). It also seems to highlight some PCB chips in red, maybe saying they are bad or something (also see pic). Can't seem to find any info on this error, the game seems to play fine but definitely want this fixed.

Thanks for any help.

PIC:

tmu-memory-error.jpg
 
I had the Exact Same error, Mine was that the Actual TMU had became disconnected on several pins. I sent it to a guy and he re-flowed that TMU. Works great now.
Board flexing crappy handling bumping the Fins on the TMU can cause the pins to de-solder or break loose from the Pads.
 
I had the Exact Same error, Mine was that the Actual TMU had became disconnected on several pins. I sent it to a guy and he re-flowed that TMU. Works great now.
Board flexing crappy handling bumping the Fins on the TMU can cause the pins to de-solder or break loose from the Pads.

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at the roms and TMU to see if anything needs re-soldering or whatnot.
 
it is hard to see the breaks on the TMU there Super tiny wires. But I was told to gently flex the board around the suspect chip and if there broke you will see them move around a bit. Focus on the TMU closest to the Edge (the one in red) on the Test Screen.
 
Darren, well you were right and there must have been a slight break or bad connection on the square TMU memory/chip with the heat sink on it. Luckily for me we had a local arcade repair party today and the famous JROK was in attendance helping people out. I asked him about the board and told him about your solution and he used some desloldering wick and placed it over the pins and then ran the soldering iron over the wick to heat up the solder and use the wick and flux to reset the soldering connections. We restarted the board and the TMU Memory Passed its test!

Hopefully this little trick helps anyone else that comes across this issue, took about 5 seconds and all was fixed :) JROK is an awesome guy, absolute genius working on these machines!
 
I have a Blitz 99 board I had one a shelf for a couple years that lost all video output. I can't remember if it made the power on sound or not. I haven't poked around the surface mount chips on it.
 
Thanks for this thread. I have the same error and will give this a shot. I have 2 working Seattle boards already so this one wasn't a priority. Have 3 or 4 more that the CPU just locks up, those will probably be trashed
 
I was able to find the board at work. with a small flathead I pried up under the outer pins on the surface mount chips and found about 3 sets that were popped. if the legs weren't so fine I'd attempt to fix it myself -- I can only do about the next size bigger with surface mount lol

had a KI2 board at work where the outer corner legs on the CPU popped, I was able to fix that. that's where they seem to break the easiest. stupid ass flexing.
 
Well mine started giving the error again and I tried to fix it again with the method JROK did and I couldn't get it to work and ended up screwing it up more.

I sent the board to Arcade Services (http://www.arcade-service.com/pcb-repair/) and they were able to fix it right up. $75 for labor and then shipping back. These guys used to be a PCB tech at Midway so they know their stuff.

Just some more info in case someone needs their board repaired.
 
When I had mine repaired. I think that person actually removed the Chip. and re-soldered it completely. Mine has been working great so far.

You should nicely ask what the tech thinks of a Board that has the CPU lockup failure. Most of those get turned into donor boards because no-one can seem to figure out how to fix them.
 
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