Data East Sound problems - Rocky & Bullwinkle

Zcar

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As soon as the game boots up into atract mode you haer a stuttering sound. I am thinking it may be about 15 notes of background music over and over. It does it in attract mode and in game mode.
Also in game mode anytime a switch contact is closed instead of making its normal sounds it says (bullwinkle says) "It's Showtime" over and over for every sound.

Anyone have any ideas or had a similar problem with there DE machines?
And just in case... Does anyone here on the forum repair them?

Thanks in advance! Lance
 
before you send your sound card to
http://www.ksarcade.net/optos.html
for repair, make sure your grounds are clean and tight and its screwed down tight too

you might want to reflow with solder any header pins where the connectors slide onto
me? id get my ESR meter and test any electrolytic capacitors that are there. when they fail all kinds of screwy things can happen

also

http://www.pinrepair.com/de/index1.htm#list
check this guide out too. there might be some things there you can do like pulling socketed chips, carefully cleaning the legs and re-installing them very carefully

if all fails try sending it to keith at ksarcade if you dont have any other leads. i havent used him although i have talked to him on the phone and he seemed knowledgeable and nice

good luck and report back how ksarcade was
 
before you send your sound card to
http://www.ksarcade.net/optos.html
for repair, make sure your grounds are clean and tight and its screwed down tight too

you might want to reflow with solder any header pins where the connectors slide onto
me? id get my ESR meter and test any electrolytic capacitors that are there. when they fail all kinds of screwy things can happen

also

http://www.pinrepair.com/de/index1.htm#list
check this guide out too. there might be some things there you can do like pulling socketed chips, carefully cleaning the legs and re-installing them very carefully

if all fails try sending it to keith at ksarcade if you dont have any other leads. i havent used him although i have talked to him on the phone and he seemed knowledgeable and nice

good luck and report back how ksarcade was

Ok....I removed the sound board, re seated all the chips, reflowed the header pins solder, reinstalled it with all screws, repaired various ground straps in the head and cab. Still the same problem. No ESR so I can check the caps.

But.. With the game in attract modeI found that if I unplug the ribbon cable to the sound board the sound stops stuttering and plays a complete tune over and over. Its like the main PCB is sending a signal to play that tune over and over rapidly.
I am starting to wonder if maybe there is a MPU problem and the sound board is ok.

The MPU does send signals or bits of information that control the sound board and sounds right???
 
ribbon cable to the sound board...

The MPU does send signals or bits of information that control the sound board and sounds right???

yes.

test the ribbon cable
i put my DMM on beep mode and walk my probes so as to test for continuity from one wire to the one next to it. then i test for continuity from wire end to end

are there any boot problems with the CPU? look for LED lights not blinking right or are blinking telling you of a failure of some kind(sound card). go to manual for correct LED lighting key

sometimes when i wear my wrist ground strap i can discover a bad chip if its really hot with my finger(i use the back of my finger) or even if it feels cold compared to others could be an indication of problem "upstream"
before you start replacing chips that way you need to verify with a logic probe or an oscilliscope if the inputs and outputs are correct.
knowing what the inputs and outputs should be is the tough part. sometimes the schematic can help decipher what "state" the inputs and outputs should be.
 
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