Golden Tee 2K Repair Help

TheEyeTGuy

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Hi all,

I recently was lucky to snag a Golden Tee 2K Arcade cabinet for free. However, its currently not working and would love to get it working. There is currently no sound or display.

  • I can confirm the display does turn on (high frequency is present as well as static electricity on the screen.
  • I verified voltages ~5.1 v and ~12.2 v are present on the connector.
  • The dip switches are correct. DSw1, closest to connector all 4 are 'on'. DSw2, near the video status LED 1&2 are 'on', 3&4 are 'off'.
  • I re-seated ALL socketed chips, including the GT97 and GT99 chips. Before putting them back in I cleaned sockets with Isopropyl Alcohol.
  • I replaced the battery, only had a 2032 on hand, so I used that.
  • The video status LED blinks every ~2sec.
  • The sound status LED is not on. If I press on a chip, it does turn on briefly, but there is also a click noise that occurs every time it blinks, which sounds like its coming from the coin or bill mechs.
  • I also noticed if I touch the case of the power supply, there is a slight feeling of voltage leaking. Bad PSU or ground?
This is my first arcade machine so I don't really have anything on hand to test the monitor or the board separately. I've also done my best to search before posting.

I am not afraid of soldering and do have a digital multi-meter on hand.

Thanks in advance everyone!
 
Try the obvious stuff first, are there any scratches on the top or bottom of the board? While the board is running, touch the chips to see if any are scorching hot. Also lightly press/tap on areas of the board to see if the board does anything different. What chip did you press to make the sound LED turn on? You could have a bad solder joint and pressing the chip restores connectivity to one or more pins, especially if it's one of the big surface mount chips.

Regarding the power, make sure the cable to the wall has the ground pin and is appropriately wired to the power supply. There is an example at the bottom of this page: AC Wiring
 
Thanks Shess. The ground on the cord is flaky, so I will be replacing it. The chip I pressed seemed to be an EEPROM chip. GT97NR U88. I pulled the board and reflowed the solder joints. That seems to have helped that. No chips are scorching hot, but ITBP-1 gets quite warm, but not scorching hot like I've experienced on circuit boards in the past.

I've uploaded some images and a couple videos here:

Also, for what its worth, I discovered the original manual and it appears it was originally a GT97 machine that was upgraded to GT99 and then 2K
 
It's weird that it still has the GT99 ROMs in there. Did you confirm it ever worked with GT2K before you bought it? Do you have an EPROM reader? I would pull all those chips and make sure they are correct. You can use romident to confirm. The coin meter constantly firing is also concerning...and I swear I've had it happen to me before, but can't remember the fix. For what it's worth, my GT97 was pretty busted up when I got it and one odd problem that I encountered was with broken dip switches that prevented it from booting up.
 
It's weird that it still has the GT99 ROMs in there. Did you confirm it ever worked with GT2K before you bought it? Do you have an EPROM reader? I would pull all those chips and make sure they are correct. You can use romident to confirm. The coin meter constantly firing is also concerning...and I swear I've had it happen to me before, but can't remember the fix. For what it's worth, my GT97 was pretty busted up when I got it and one odd problem that I encountered was with broken dip switches that prevented it from booting up.
I have a CH341A will that work for dumping?

As far as confirming it worked, I have never seen this machine working. This was put on the side of the road in my neighborhood with a note that it was "working when last used". I brought it home and found the neutral on the mains switch was broken and I fixed that. Since then I've been trying to figure out the boot issue.

All that being said, Remember that ITBP-1 i mentioned getting warm but not scorching? Well today she went POP and let out her magic smoke :(
 
Looking at some pictures of that programmer, it doesn't look like it has enough pins to read those ROMs. There is a whole thread dedicated to programmers based on your needs and budget. Sucks about that chip, did you verify it is the culprit and not something near it? Looks like that is one of the PAL chips and could be a challenge to make a new one. However there are people on Ebay selling complete kits with the ROMs, PALs, etc. Although it might just be cheaper/easier to buy a known working board.
 
Looking at some pictures of that programmer, it doesn't look like it has enough pins to read those ROMs. There is a whole thread dedicated to programmers based on your needs and budget. Sucks about that chip, did you verify it is the culprit and not something near it? Looks like that is one of the PAL chips and could be a challenge to make a new one. However there are people on Ebay selling complete kits with the ROMs, PALs, etc. Although it might just be cheaper/easier to buy a known working board.
Yes, a hole was blown through it. The ch341 has some adapters, but probably best to get an actual programmer (just needed an excuse, LOL).

Yeah, I searched eBay briefly but didn't find anything.

Is there a way to test the monitor and confirm its good? This is my first arcade cab and grabbed it as a fun project. I don't have a test pattern generator or any other arcade boards.
 
If I was to buy a board, for GT99 or GT97, could I swap the 2K EPROMS over, as long as the boards are the same part number?
 
It looks like there is a lot of overlap between the boards. I suspect you pull everything that can be removed on the GT99 board and swap over the GT2K ROMs. Except for that blown PAL of course.
 
Good news, new board arrived and I swapped everything over. It boots successfully if the service buttons behind the coin door are disconnected, otherwise it goes straight to operator menu and won't exit (which I suspect those buttons/switches are dirty, so no big deal). However, while attempting to play, it will just reset randomly.
 
Can you start a game up at all or does it reset during gameplay? You should check voltages at some of those chips to make sure there's no power drop. When it resets feel around the chips to make sure nothing is overheating. Also make sure the socketed chip legs are clean as well as the socket. You didn't mention whether the new board worked correctly before you swapped all the parts over. Make sure you are working with a known good board.
 
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