Galaga melting the connector on power supply!!!

gabesdad1981

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So I powered up my galaga a couple times this week and was working inside the back of it and kept smelling melting plastic / burned electronic smell...
My Galaga is in decent original shape, but the connector to the power supply has burnt pins, as in black. and plastic where the two yellow wires come in is MELTED. What causes this???????? How do I correct this problem???
 
So I powered up my galaga a couple times this week and was working inside the back of it and kept smelling melting plastic / burned electronic smell...
My Galaga is in decent original shape, but the connector to the power supply has burnt pins, as in black. and plastic where the two yellow wires come in is MELTED. What causes this???????? How do I correct this problem???

Does it look like this:

indygiissue.jpg


I assume you are talking about the Molex connectors. You need to replace the Molex Connector and the header on the PCB.
 
I realize I need to replace but what is causing it.. I could sit there and watch it melt!!!!!!

As it was explained to me by a friend who is a talented arcade tech...

The pins in the Molex connector get weak (lose tension) over time. As they do so they don't make contact as well anymore. It can get to the point where there is no contact, just a tiny air gap between the pin and the header. As the electricity makes the jump across this gap the higher voltage (or is it current?) that results produces heat. Over time it will burn the pins on the headers in addition to burning the Molex connector itself.

Replacing both the burned header and the burned Molex connector (with new pins) and then dialing in the voltages again should fix the problem for another 20+ years or so.

After running into this problem on more than one of my games I'm convinced that the first thing you should do when acquiring a new game is check for any signs of burn on the power supply headers and rebuild the PS, Molex connectors, and any edge connectors, and then verify all your voltages to make sure they're correct and rock solid stable. This seems to eliminate 75% of the problems with these old games. After that it's mostly monitor chassis rebuilds and replacing the fuse holder and fuse that the last dumbass owner jumpered around with a screw or a coat hanger.
 
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I realize I need to replace but what is causing it.. I could sit there and watch it melt!!!!!!

Well, the solution to the problem is to replace both connectors.

There are a couple causes to it, one was mentioned above, the other is the pins on the header and the pins on the Molex connector can get a film on them, which generates a lot of resistance, which in turn generates heat.
 
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