Galaga has an orange ship

Tenn_pin

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The remaining ships in the bottom corner are fine, but the ship in play is orange. Also, the blue wings from the bees are missing and the red middle targets are purple. The Large targets are off color too. I have another board and I changed chips that are socketed, with no change. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Randel
 
Is there anything in the test mode that will help you narrow it down?

Pics might help too. Can't figure out from your description whether you are missing one of the colors (RGB) or if this is a logic problem on the PCBs.
 
Pictures uploaded

Sorry, I was waiting on my son to bring back my camera. Here are some pics.
 

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Step one: grab an empty mason jar and cut a slot in the lid- like you did as a child to make a piggy bank- this is your "swear- jar". Everytime you curse the Galaga board's stubborn ways, put the money in. Now, it's time to dive in... Are you positive none of the pins on any of the chips aren't broken/ missing? They are brittle as hell. Also, you will notice some are probably black and oxidized. I just went through my Galaga board for 6 hours over 2 days... The stars in the background were missing, and I also had missing wings. I noticed some of my pins were broken off of the chips, and no matter how careful I was pulling the chips, more would break as I pulled them. I pain-stakenly soldered single filament wire to the chips to replace the broken pins. What a pain in the arse!!! Also you need to clean the INTERIOR side of each pin. This is difficult on the smaller chips, and i guarantee you will break more as you clean, but necessary due to the fact that on this old of a pcb, the connection from chip to board is made on the inside of the pin. Take your time/ be careful/ good luck. If this doesn't fix it, take all of the money you now have in your swear jar (it should be full), and send the pcb off for professional repair.
 
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Having the same issue with mine. I did notice a few of the chips on the video pcb have the last leg broke off, at 6J, 6M, 6L, can't tell if it is on purpose.
 
I'll start with repairing them first and see what comes of it. Thanks.
 
I've cleaned most of the chips, and found one of the 2114 rams with a leg about to break off. Most of the chips are really clean, but I went ahead and cleaned them all. I plan to replace the 2114's one is already replaced with an NEC. Still having the problem with the ship being orange, but the intermittant grid that would pop up is now gone. The game plays perfect otherwise, it just doesn't look right graphically. Resistor packs all looked very good (super clean board overall).
 
Update: I looked at the video board, and I can see why the rams are clipped. Whoever had the board installed 2148 ram at 6H and 6B, and then clipped the legs on the 2147 rams, apparantly they decided not to unsolder them all as only two of the 2147 rams are removed, the rest have the last leg clipped. The 2148 rams are socketed, so I will try to pull them and clean them up a little, although I'm not expecting any changes.
 
Pin 11 is Data Input and 7 is Data Output. Those should be clipped on the 2147s also. Any short on those pins can drag down the signals to the 2148s.

RJ
 
Update: I looked at the video board, and I can see why the rams are clipped. Whoever had the board installed 2148 ram at 6H and 6B, and then clipped the legs on the 2147 rams, apparantly they decided not to unsolder them all as only two of the 2147 rams are removed, the rest have the last leg clipped. The 2148 rams are socketed, so I will try to pull them and clean them up a little, although I'm not expecting any changes.

Old post.. but I was wondering if you had any updates or progress?

I'm experiencing the same problem. The bugs and active ship appear to be missing or have the wrong color. The extra ships at the bottom are fine, star field is fine, game plays fine. Just the color problem on the active sprites.

I took Riptor's advice and replaced all of 2147 rams but it didn't change...
 
Old post.. but I was wondering if you had any updates or progress?

I'm experiencing the same problem. The bugs and active ship appear to be missing or have the wrong color. The extra ships at the bottom are fine, star field is fine, game plays fine. Just the color problem on the active sprites.

I took Riptor's advice and replaced all of 2147 rams but it didn't change...

Maybe just need a new color prom, at least look at the proms. May or may not be the problem.
 
Bringing back an old post - but was curious what the fix was for this. I have a board with the same problems. Static sprites are fine - but all of the moving sprites have color issues - player ship is purple, enemy ships are purple/orange with missing wings.
 

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Old post.. but I was wondering if you had any updates or progress?

I'm experiencing the same problem. The bugs and active ship appear to be missing or have the wrong color. The extra ships at the bottom are fine, star field is fine, game plays fine. Just the color problem on the active sprites.

I took Riptor's advice and replaced all of 2147 rams but it didn't change...

have you guys looked at the color proms? I have a board that had issues and was a color prom. Not saying that is your issue just was a fix for one of my pcb's.
 
have you guys looked at the color proms? I have a board that had issues and was a color prom. Not saying that is your issue just was a fix for one of my pcb's.

Have not - been will check that tonight - thanks!
 
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