Curiosity (and stupidity) Killed the Spy Hunter

texasmame

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*sigh*

Okay, Spy Hunter was working but having a few sound issues. Started to dick around after having done all the usual things (test voltages, reseat chips, etc.).

Remembered I had pulled off the purple reset wire back before I even started with the project. Thought I remembered where it went and that, somehow, hopefully, this would be the problem with the sound. So, I plugged it back in the hole. . .

or at least I THOUGHT it was the hole it came out of. Nope. It goes in #13 on CONN 4 on the power supply board and I put it in #14 on CONN 5. This produced a loud buzzing noise, which I presumed to be bad news. I checked the schemetic and tried the wire in the right hole to no avail. :(

Now, all I get is a solid white screen with some blocks of text and symbols on it. The PCB reset buttons don't work, 3 stack LED doesn't blink, Cheap Squeek LED does nothing (was playing faint and scratchy before). Nothing.

I'd start by swapping out the Z80 but I don't have a spare.

The power supply is still showing proper voltages at the caps, and the 5 caps on the top of the 3 stack are also showing 5v.

UPDATE:

If I take the 5v from CP47 on the sound I/O board, and tie that to R229 at the end closest to the connectors, the game will function again as it did before with the sound issues and faint Peter Gunn and whatnot. However, the screen is upside down now. Also, when the game is reset using the reset buttons on either PCB, the game hangs as described before until the 5v is removed and reapplied to R229.

Have I fried the reset circuit of the PCB?

What have I done here?!?

*feels shame*
 
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or at least I THOUGHT it was the hole it came out of. Nope. It goes in #13 on CONN 4 on the power supply board and I put it in #14 on CONN 5.
That statement looks wrong. My schematic says violet is RESETn, J4-15 at the power supply, J1-17 at the board. I also don't understand how J5-14 was free because my MCR schematic says that would be wired to coin door lights.

Perhaps you're counting the pin numbers incorrectly? You should double check this before you proceed.

This produced a loud buzzing noise, which I presumed to be bad news. I checked the schemetic and tried the wire in the right hole to no avail. :(

Now, all I get is a solid white screen with some blocks of text and symbols on it. The PCB reset buttons don't work, 3 stack LED doesn't blink, Cheap Squeek LED does nothing (was playing faint and scratchy before). Nothing.
I'm not sure what you did because the numbers above are inconsistent But if you put RESETn on J5-14 which my schematic says is unregulated +12, then sure this has the potential to kill a lot of stuff.

It's signal uRESETn. Look in the lower-left hand corner of the schematic near the reset button. Then look northeast where the signal feeds an OR gate, feeds a 4053 (no idea what that is), and becomes CPU_uRESETn. If the power supply is good then I guess I'd start around there and figure out which chips got blown out.

Remembered I had pulled off the purple reset wire back before I even started with the project. Thought I remembered where it went and that, somehow, hopefully, this would be the problem with the sound.
This was probably a poor decision. Making changes to the power-on reset circuit is unlikely to improve the way your sound works.
 
That statement looks wrong. My schematic says violet is RESETn, J4-15 at the power supply, J1-17 at the board. I also don't understand how J5-14 was free because my MCR schematic says that would be wired to coin door lights.

Perhaps you're counting the pin numbers incorrectly? You should double check this before you proceed.

The online schem was no better than mine - can't make out if it's 13 or 15. Either way, I've yanked it now.




I'm not sure what you did because the numbers above are inconsistent But if you put RESETn on J5-14 which my schematic says is unregulated +12, then sure this has the potential to kill a lot of stuff.

CONN 5 (15 position) on the power supply doesn't show anything on 14 pin.


It's signal uRESETn. Look in the lower-left hand corner of the schematic near the reset button. Then look northeast where the signal feeds an OR gate, feeds a 4053 (no idea what that is), and becomes CPU_uRESETn. If the power supply is good then I guess I'd start around there and figure out which chips got blown out.

I'm none too good at scoping chips to see if they are good or whatnot - never done that. Just have a digital MM, don't I need a scope or whatnot?


This was probably a poor decision (dicking with reset purple wire). Making changes to the power-on reset circuit is unlikely to improve the way your sound works.

Yes, stupid. Tried most all I know except for recapping the AMP and CS so just started shooting in the dark hoping that returning things to "factory" would help. Dumb.
 
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I was originally looking at a generic MCR2/3 schematic PDF that showed +12v (coin door lights, etc) on that pin. Downloaded a second PDF which is Spy Hunter specific. I agree the Spy Hunter wiring diagram doesn't depict anything on J5-14, but it's pretty clear that the pin wasn't empty because your board got fried. I'm sorry to hear a little problem turned into a big problem.

Based on your comments it sounds like it's beyond your skills, so you'll probably need to send the board out for repair. I don't have anywhere to recommend.
 
I was originally looking at a generic MCR2/3 schematic PDF that showed +12v (coin door lights, etc) on that pin. Downloaded a second PDF which is Spy Hunter specific. I agree the Spy Hunter wiring diagram doesn't depict anything on J5-14, but it's pretty clear that the pin wasn't empty because your board got fried. I'm sorry to hear a little problem turned into a big problem.

Based on your comments it sounds like it's beyond your skills, so you'll probably need to send the board out for repair. I don't have anywhere to recommend.

CDJUMP here.

He knows these things inside and out and could fix the sound and other issues as well.
 
Ugh man that's always a crappy feeling when something like that happens. If you do send it off for repair, I believe KLOV member cdjump works on MCR games.
 
There are two AMP boards that deal with the sound one does half the sounds and the other does the the rest. I'd check those first if you have sound but its very faint.
 
There are two AMP boards that deal with the sound one does half the sounds and the other does the the rest. I'd check those first if you have sound but its very faint.

I think you meant amp CHIPS.
 
Maybe he was talking about the amp board and the Cheap Squeak.

There are two chips on the amp board. I think that's what he's talking about.

Cheap squeak makes music only.

At least on an upright there's only one dual amp board.
 
There are two chips on the amp board. I think that's what he's talking about.

Cheap squeak makes music only.

At least on an upright there's only one dual amp board.

Yes.

Those chips look like transistors, or at least they are mounted like them. Haven't looked them up yet since I now have bigger issues. :(
 
There's 2 AY-3-8910 PSG's, maybe that's the chips you're talking about? Most (all?) of the MCR games have them (and many other games as well)
 
Yeah.. those are the ones on the boards that are mounted on heatsinks. I had only half the audio on a Spy hunter and when I re-flowed the solder on one of those chips..the sound was restored. I also put fresh heatsink grease on it as well.
 
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Yeah.. those are the ones on the boards that are mounted on heatsinks. I had only half the audio on a Spy hunter and when I re-flowed the solder on one of those chips..the sound was restored. I also put fresh heatsink grease on it as well.

Had already reflowed the AMP board and the pins of the CS before I blew the rest up. It was no better.
 
The problem is on your SSIO board, if you remove that board, the game boots up upside down like yours is doing. Also of course explains your sound issues.
 
Ground straps

I had a couple of ground straps that were corroded that were causing some of the sound issues on my SH. Check the connections, remove the rust and keep the nuts tight! SH's are very particular machines...
 
The problem is on your SSIO board, if you remove that board, the game boots up upside down like yours is doing. Also of course explains your sound issues.

Yeah, sound issues were there before the Big Zap, tho.

FWIW, Channel 6 would produce no sound and, in the sound tests, about half of the sounds would work.

Funny thing was, if there was a sound produced during gameplay, you could hear all the other appropriate sounds at that point, too.

For instance, if I rode on the side of the road and got that "through the shrubs" sound, I could hear the machine gun when fired and engine roar. Once I pulled off to the road, silence until I bumped a car, shot a car, etc. Weird.

Who thought of the whole MCR setup? Funk you, sir!

FUNK YOU!!!
;p
 
Just send it to CDJump and wait for the return package. :)
 
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