Donkey Kong UR - Speaker hum/pop/crackle

lifereboot

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Hi all,

Been playing on my DK every night this week with no issues. Tonight around 30 minutes into a game there was suddenly some distracting audio popping from my speaker that got progressively worse really fast. I stopped playing to turn the game off and back on again, but the popping was just as bad.

I checked the cabling quickly to see if anything was taught or loose, it seemed fine.

I adjusted the volume pot all the way silent and back to a normal volume, and now it seems to be much better, but there is still some minor, infrequent popping and crackling.

The underlying hum is "normal" to me as it's been like that since I've owned it. Also I've read other KLOV members talking about a notorious "Nintendo hum" where it's essentially impossible to get rid of completely, so I never did anything about it.

Anyhow, I've never had any audio issues like this before. Is anyone familiar with what might be going on with the sudden occasional popping noises, and how to fix it?

Thanks,

-Shaun
 
O.K., when it pops and cracks, does it just seem to be at random, and 'noise' that has nothing to do with the game, or are certain sounds popping and cracking instead of making their normal noise? Like for instance, when you jump a barrel, does it sometimes screw up the sound, or does it just pop and crack at various times regardless of what noise is being made?
 
O.K., when it pops and cracks, does it just seem to be at random, and 'noise' that has nothing to do with the game, or are certain sounds popping and cracking instead of making their normal noise? Like for instance, when you jump a barrel, does it sometimes screw up the sound, or does it just pop and crack at various times regardless of what noise is being made?

Definitely random. For the most part all game sounds are fine, but every minute or so there is a pop or series of pops regardless of the noise being made. In fact the popping is happening during the silent attract mode too.
 
I would guess that it's a cap related issue, either on the main pcb or more likely on the audio amp on the monitor board. It's a pretty simple capkit to do, I think on that little amp board there's only 4 or 5 caps. You could also buy a tested working one from somebody if you didn't want to cap it yourself.
 
more likely on the audio amp on the monitor board. It's a pretty simple capkit to do, I think on that little amp board there's only 4 or 5 caps. You could also buy a tested working one from somebody if you didn't want to cap it yourself.

If I'm understanding you correctly, it's the small board above the one with the pots on it for volume, etc. I found this image map on BobRoberts.net

na1.jpg


I've never done a cap kit before, but I do have experience with some light soldering. What do I have to know?

I believe that I just have to remove the board, then swap out the capacitors using a soldering iron. I need to make sure I'm aligning the polarities correctly, and that the "NP" in the image is a non-polarized capacitor.

What about working so closely with the monitor? Should I be discharging it before monkeying around with tools inside there to remove the board? If I do need to discharge the monitor, how is it done?
 
You don't need to discharge the monitor for this, just be careful and remove that board from the frame. It's held in place with 1 screw. Be very careful that after you do it you plug the two connectors that are identical, into the right spot.

You'll probably get rid of a lot of your 'hum' if you do it too. If you have light soldering experience you'll be able to do it no problem, and this will be a good first one for you to do since it's so small.

Good luck!
 
I think that will fix it, but if it doesn't will look at some stuff on the board next. Either way that hum you're talking about will likely be reduced at least! It's true they all hum, but it's not very noticeable after you rebuild the amp.
 
I may have been a bit overzealous thinking I could recap this myself. Several of the old caps I was able to get out without a problem, but some of them I had trouble and I kept the iron near the PCB long enough to blacken it a bit.

With the newly capped board back in my DK, the hum popping and crackle is gone, but so is all of the music and many of the sounds. When jumpman dies, there's a high pitched squeal that doesn't go away until you power off the machine.

The walking sounds, and Donkey Kong's "smash" sound when he pounds his chest or jumps on the platforms are still present. Everything else is pretty much gone.

I'm not sure how available these audio amps are but I'm gonna post something in the wanted section to see if someone will sell a working one to me.
 
Bought a replacement DK audio board from KLOV member "dj dns"

Swapped in the new board and all sounds are working again, no snap-crackle-pop noises.

I am confident that I botched the soldering job on the cap kit for my original board, but I sent my non-working board to dj dns in exchange for the working one. Hopefully he'll be able to repair mine to use in another DK someday.

Loving that my DK is 100% working again. Now I'm off to play it!
 
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