Dig Dug Boots To Garbage ***SOLVED***

this is seriously where a logic probe would be beneficial. easiest place to start is the reset line on the CPU. it should be high. pulsing means it's resetting (watchdog), low means it's not functioning at all. (or at least that's how I interpret this)

as with just about any old game, there could be a formation of corrosion on the legs of the chips. if they're anything but shiny silver, you have corrosion. Dig Dug being of Namco descent has custom chips (the solid black ones with a number in the corner) that have notoriously fragile legs, so cleaning them requires a lot of finesse. otherwise you'll be getting some practice time in fixing the legs you broke off. :) I've only ever sanded them, I guess that opens them up to additional corrosion again later, but even with the plating on them it happened in the first place, so what's the difference?

theoretically couldn't we just dip the things in CLR or something?

the other problem you can encounter is the sockets for the chips. I think Dig Dug had single wipe sockets, which aren't the bane of all evil like people make them out to be, but the way the pins are inside there's always a chance those could rust or corrode and snap right off. I've seen it a ton on Williams boards. obviously your socket is then hosed. the plastic housings for those lift right off, so you could open up the CPU sockets and just verify all the pins are uniform and intact too.

if the game was working before and now it isn't I would doubt that's the problem though. you have to physically move things around to break those.

I'll be trying all of the above once I get a chance. Real life gets in the way of running an arcade most of the time.

It's getting to the point I'll need a logic probe. I've eclipsed 80 machines at this point, with 40 running in my arcade. It's to the point I need some better troubleshooting tools. I've gotten by with my base knowledge and help from klov. But I need to take the next step. I'm very mechanically inclined and fix about 80% of my own stuff. I could prob get to 90%+ if I picked up some more advanced tools.
 
Haven"t had a chance to put any time into it. After I close the arcade tonight I'm gonna go some reseating. Bi blue hasn't showed up yet. I may pull some z80s from some of my otjer pcbs to see if that does anything.
 
I'll be trying all of the above once I get a chance. Real life gets in the way of running an arcade most of the time.

It's getting to the point I'll need a logic probe. I've eclipsed 80 machines at this point, with 40 running in my arcade. It's to the point I need some better troubleshooting tools. I've gotten by with my base knowledge and help from klov. But I need to take the next step. I'm very mechanically inclined and fix about 80% of my own stuff. I could prob get to 90%+ if I picked up some more advanced tools.

that's what's been slowing my Williams side repairs down. lack of time, cause I fix games full time at a place.

if you haven't taken the plunge to temperature controlled soldering tools, that would be a great first step. obviously they cost more but you have far greater control over them and the risks of burning solder pads almost vanishes. I use a Weller WES51 and Hakko FR300.

the logic probe was a tool I bought yeeeeeears ago and only came around to using this past December when doing Williams repairs. with that I can typically find the source of ram failures pretty easily. it's also incredibly beneficial in diagnosing CPUs and whether they're working or not.. as this thread has indicated. :)
 
What do you suggest as a good logic probe to buy? Think I'll order one asap.
 
that's the one I have too. they stiffed me on the tip. so I soldered a piece of tinned wire to it.
 
Here's a quick and dirty way I used to rule out a power supply issue on my dig dug yesterday. My board was loading garbage on the screen.

Unplug everything coming from the ar2 board then get your self 3 lengths of wire with crimp terminals on one end and a standard switching power supply. Attach the wires to +5, +12, and ground on the power supply then put their corresponding crimp terminals on the test plugs on the PCB. 5v to 5v, 12v to 10.8v and ground to ground. When you turn it on if the board works you'll know it's the power supply. My issue was the power supply. Board booted fine.

Here's a pic on my Ghetto fabulous test setup.
 

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Always have been in the camp of big blues dont die. A month ago I bought a board for a Kangaroo.. it didn't work, just booted to garbage like in the pic attached. I was a little upset because the board was supposed to be sold working. I had already checked all the voltages but swapped the ar board just in case. Same thing.

So I purchase another PCB that was also sold working. Got it in the mail yesterday and had been pumped up all day to get home to install it. Same exact thing. Being disappointed I went to bed. Laid there for an hour pissed off as I am trying to get everything working for a party scheduled next month. Based on who the boards were purchased from, I was certain that they should either work or had broke in transport. Then I thought about the big blue, over 25 years of collecting and no less than 50 Atari cabs having gone through my hands I've never had one fail. I chuckle everytime that someone advises check out blue first. I looked at the cab and to my surprise someone had already swapped the big blue out with a great big blue that looked fairly new. It turned out they had reused the terminal screws from the old bigblue which were a little too long. The screw got tight but the wires were still very loose. I had 3.112 volts of AC on the unregulated 10.3 vdc line. Swapped it with an original one from an old centipede, and it worked perfectly. So I still haven't had a big blue failure, but can definately see where the big blue should be checked. Does your garbage screen also have bars?
 

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Here's a quick and dirty way I used to rule out a power supply issue on my dig dug yesterday. My board was loading garbage on the screen.

Unplug everything coming from the ar2 board then get your self 3 lengths of wire with crimp terminals on one end and a standard switching power supply. Attach the wires to +5, +12, and ground on the power supply then put their corresponding crimp terminals on the test plugs on the PCB. 5v to 5v, 12v to 10.8v and ground to ground. When you turn it on if the board works you'll know it's the power supply. My issue was the power supply. Board booted fine.

Here's a pic on my Ghetto fabulous test setup.
Gonna give this a go. I can rig this in 10 minutes.
 
I dug through my old eeprom bin and found 2 Zilog 80's. Did some swaps and found a bad one.

Dig Dug up and running.

Thanks everyone.
 
Always have been in the camp of big blues dont die. A month ago I bought a board for a Kangaroo.. it didn't work, just booted to garbage like in the pic attached. I was a little upset because the board was supposed to be sold working. I had already checked all the voltages but swapped the ar board just in case. Same thing.

So I purchase another PCB that was also sold working. Got it in the mail yesterday and had been pumped up all day to get home to install it. Same exact thing. Being disappointed I went to bed. Laid there for an hour pissed off as I am trying to get everything working for a party scheduled next month. Based on who the boards were purchased from, I was certain that they should either work or had broke in transport. Then I thought about the big blue, over 25 years of collecting and no less than 50 Atari cabs having gone through my hands I've never had one fail. I chuckle everytime that someone advises check out blue first. I looked at the cab and to my surprise someone had already swapped the big blue out with a great big blue that looked fairly new. It turned out they had reused the terminal screws from the old bigblue which were a little too long. The screw got tight but the wires were still very loose. I had 3.112 volts of AC on the unregulated 10.3 vdc line. Swapped it with an original one from an old centipede, and it worked perfectly. So I still haven't had a big blue failure, but can definately see where the big blue should be checked. Does your garbage screen also have bars?

A fresh Big Blue cured my Lunar Lander problems some years ago.

I know that's not my current issue(pun not intended), as I've swapped it out for a known working one, plus put the one that was in it into another cabinet that works fine with it.
 
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