got em free. need repairs. I'm clueless.

jeffmccune

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hey guys, I'm new here to the forums and am pretty much a clean slate when it comes to arcade knowledge.

after some online research I decided the biggest wealth of knowledge is located here with you guys so after my donation to the "IAM" here I am, hoping to find my answers with your combined brain power :)

recently I acquired 4 arcade games including Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken 3, Rage of the Dragon, and Mad Dog Mccree.

All of them have their problems, with each needing repair.
but I wanted to start with what seems to be the easiest project and go from there.

Virtua Fighter 2 is mostly in working condition save for one major problem.

when turned on all seems fine. the monitor and sound works well, but then as the game boots on past the Sega logo all the actual graphics of the game are very distorted. the type and cell frames seem to be fine but actual gameplay graphics are garbage.

so at this point I've concluded that its not a monitor issue but perhaps a graphics card problem, or could it just be the dirt and dust thats accumulated inside the cab onto the components.

I'm including a link to the video of the boot up and into gameplay to better show you the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuH-MYp_MPY

any advice would be VERY appreciated!

I can send in any pictures of the inside of the cab if needed to better help find the problem, im just wondering if anyones run into this problem before.

thanks guys and hopefully when all is said and done i will have an exciting start to an already obsessive new hobby!

-Jeff McCune
Fort Worth, TX
 
You actually picked the hardest project, bro. Graphics corruption on newer hardware is a royal bitch to work out, if it's fixable at all. Hope you have a hot air rework station, because I see a lot of SMT work in your future...

Let's ease you in, what are the other two doing?
 
roothorick, thanks for the speedy reply!

although I cant say I'm too thrilled with your response haha.

I have a friend with a heat gun, but thats about as close as I can get save for hitting up the local arcade game repair shop, but therein lies some unwanted expenses.

as far as canned air goes, would it be safe to get a few cans and raise hell inside the cab or should I actually disassemble it first? with my novice skills I'm worried that I may fail to reassemble it without ending up with some "extra" screws.

As for the other rigs. i left them at my shop as my garage is filled with junk at the moment and only had room for one project at a time.
as far as i can remember the others just had monitor issues. sound came on, buttons were responsive. just no video what so ever. so I dont know if I would just need some new caps or all new monitors to get em playable. and with Mad Dog Mccree being a laser disk game, Im nervous to even attempt at it just yet.
 
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When I get a new cab, it always starts out in the garage. I blow it out with something a bit more extreme, an electric leaf blower. Works great at getting the dust out.

Once that is done, go over the bottom of the cab and pick everything up and save it. You'll find that screws, nuts, and washers usually go to parts of the game. Usually the game will pay you for the effort in loose change, sometimes quarters, sometimes penny's, nickles, or dimes. Well worth it to get anything loose and metallic out of there.

After that, reseat all connectors, paying careful attention to orientation, going one by one so you don't make a mistake. See if that fixes your issues.

Sometimes, if you are lucky, the logic board problems you describe can be fixed by mashing down/reseating all socketed chips. To reseat a socketed chip, take a tiny screw driver and pry up each end until it comes out. Re-install just like it came out, being very careful not to bend an EPROM leg. If you get lucky, maybe you will find a leg that was bent under the socket that is causing the problem. Logic board issues are the hardest thing to fix in this hobby. Unless it is rare (and VF2 is not rare), it may be worth your time to track down a replacement board vs. repairing it. If a replacement is only $50 and it gets your game running, then it is a good purchase.

Logic boards can get expensive, prices start at $30 shipped for just about any common game PCB.

My Turbo Outrun boardset was acting dead when I got the game. I pulled the two board stack apart, and mashed on each socketed chip and it has worked fine ever since. Heat cycles cause the chips to creep out of the sockets over the years.
 
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ifkz, GREAT advice, thank you guys so much! ill give the leaf blower a go then move on from there. Im pretty sure i read somewhere about being VERY careful about the monitor as it holds a huge charge after being unpugged. does anyone know of a good video source to show how to do this safely?
 
The picture tube of game monitor (well, and TV set, computer monitor, etc) will store a charge even when it's off. Unless you need to work on the monitor, you should not have to worry about it - general rule of thumb, stay away from the thick wire with the suction cup that connects to the bell of the tube. That's the anode connection, and will carry ~25KV when the monitor is on, and the tube will retain some charge when it's off. We have an entire section dedicated to monitors here, and you can read the sticky threads for information on how to safely service the monitor.

Personally, I usually just remove the game boards and vacuum the cabinet out with a shop vac. The inside of the game does not have to be spotless, it's just easier to work on when everything isn't all dusty. Dusty boards can be cleaned in various ways depending on how comfortable you are with electronics... I'd suggest just canned air and a soft bristled paint brush.

The monitor can be blown out with an air compressor or something, big dust brushed off with a paintbrush. The games you've listed aren't very old, so I would not expect the monitors to be a disaster, I'd just leave them alone, especially if you're not comfortable with electronics/monitors yet. A little dust doesn't hurt anything. For really filthy monitors I've been known to pull them out of the cabinet and hose them down in the driveway with the garden hose. Remove the chassis, and put that in the dishwasher. (Dry in the oven at ~150 degrees for a while). A clean monitor chassis is much easier to work on, since you can actually see all the components and markings. Again, I don't recommend this for most people or most situations, but a monitor that's been in a game that lived in a smokey bar for 20 years, and the board is pretty well coated with crud and needs some serious cleaning before I can even work on it.

-Ian
 
I have a friend with a heat gun, but thats about as close as I can get save for hitting up the local arcade game repair shop, but therein lies some unwanted expenses.

Don't try it. Your traditional heat gun is way too blunt of an instrument and you'll cook something, every time.

as far as canned air goes, would it be safe to get a few cans and raise hell inside the cab or should I actually disassemble it first? with my novice skills I'm worried that I may fail to reassemble it without ending up with some "extra" screws.

Don't take it apart per se, but take off any dust covers or metal casings and carefully sweep for anything loose. Especially anything metallic, like screws or coins. Otherwise, a rogue screw may get blown into an unfortunate location, short out something, and cause you much bigger problems. Take special note of any connectors that aren't mated with something -- maybe they're not used for that particular game or left over from a conversion, but they're just as likely to have fallen off and actually be important.

Once you've gotten that far, go nuts with the canned air, but you'll soon become frustrated with just how quickly a can runs out...

As for the other rigs. i left them at my shop as my garage is filled with junk at the moment and only had room for one project at a time.
as far as i can remember the others just had monitor issues. sound came on, buttons were responsive. just no video what so ever. so I dont know if I would just need some new caps or all new monitors to get em playable. and with Mad Dog Mccree being a laser disk game, Im nervous to even attempt at it just yet.

It's probably too late now, but if you wanted to start off slow, you definitely should have started with one of the machines playing blind. Monitors are SO much easier than board repair, despite the greater danger.
 
awesome, thanks guys!

ill be posting my progress and hopefully learn some stuff along the way.
im sure all new questions will arise with the other cabs.

ill look around on the site for the best parts dealer online, but do you guys have a perferred vendor for new buttons, coin mechanics and the like?
 
ok so I got a hold of a friends leaf blower and gave it a good twice over at 250mph winds. a LOT of dust came out, the previous owner had kept it in his barn/garage arcade conversion for his kids. I also went though all the chips and pushed them down firmly and heard a bit of crackeling underneath so i figured they were coming a bit loose as they had a bit of space to move. mind you i didnt pull them out then reset them so maybe i should try that next as i just pushed them all down.

and after everything,im still stuck at the same issue.

i guess im just going to have to pony up and buy some new boards unless someone else has an idea to try.

thanks for the help guys.
 
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