Hard Drivin' - WTF power issue

MrDoots

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I am attempting to troubleshoot this on my own, but I'd thought that I'd post the issue here to see if anyone could shed some light on it.

Heres is how it all went down chronologically;
1. Hard Drivin' game was working fine. Only thing that was not working was the marquee light. No big deal, right?

2. I open up the marquee. I find a single fluorescent bulb and a fluorescent bulb starter.
I figure the bulb is burned out. Buy an exact replacement at Lowe's. Install replacement, but still no light.

3. I figure it's the starter and plan an buying a replacement. Curiosity get to me. Last night while doing some research on the interwebs I find a post (not on KLOV) that suggests the contacts have closed in the starter due to age. They say all you need to do is slam the starter on the floor or a table to open up the contacts. I do this and hear a loud pop and see a small flash from the starter. It also looked like a little glass fell out of the holes in the top of the starter. I put the starter back in the marquee and now nothing works. The monitor powers on, the lights on the coin door come one but that's it. I open the back and check the PCB, which does not appear to have any power. When I power-cycle the game one of the small LEDs on the PCB comes on then goes out. It also does this when I power off the machine.

4. Dumb me figures maybe 'opening' the contacts on the starter wasn't such a hot idea. On my way home from work I buy two new starters.

5. I put the new starter in the marquee and flip the power switch. The starter and the bulb flicker for about 15-20 seconds and die out. The monitor comes on, but no picture. The same LED on the PCB illuminates for a few seconds then goes off. The coin door light comes one. Still no lights on the marquee.

WTF did I do, that I now have a 475lb paperweight in my house? I've read that many fluorescent lights from before 20 years ago have fluorescent bulbs starters and well as the bulbs. Can using a bad/broken starter fry the whole works? At no point did I hear any crackling or smell anything burning. I'm hoping I just blew a fuse somewhere.

Doots
 
I hope for your sake that it's not a paperweight because it would be a heavy one :(

I'm no expert but I would suggest checking the obvious being the fuses. You are definitely not getting DC power to the board by the sounds of it and I doubt the board would've fried before a fuse popping.

I myself am not a fan of the flourescent set up so I have removed them on all my cabs and replaced them with a simple light fixture bub holder from the innexpensive ceiling fixtures you can find at a local hardware store.

Good luck. I hope you figure the issue out. I love Hard Driving and wish I had room for one.
 
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Get a multimeter and tests all the fuses and report back. I have a Race Drivin so ill try to help anyway i can
 
Get a multimeter and tests all the fuses and report back. I have a Race Drivin so ill try to help anyway i can

Thanks for the suggestions guys...

I'll pickup a multimeter on my way home from work. I had one a few years ago but ended up giving it away.

Do you have an upright or cockpit Race Drivin? From my recollection when I was looking in the back door / service area of the machine, I only saw one fuse. It was on the right hand side above the power supply (I think), but I wasnt looking for fuses at the time so their might be more.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys...

I'll pickup a multimeter on my way home from work. I had one a few years ago but ended up giving it away.

Do you have an upright or cockpit Race Drivin? From my recollection when I was looking in the back door / service area of the machine, I only saw one fuse. It was on the right hand side above the power supply (I think), but I wasnt looking for fuses at the time so their might be more.


I have the upright one. Ill have to look at mine and see what fuses mine has.
 
At the risk of being obvious, you did remove the dead starter, right? Chalk this as an expensive lesson learned. You just cost yourself a lot of time (and potentially money) to save $1.29.


I myself am not a fan of the flourescent set up so I have removed them on all my cabs and replaced them with a simple light fixture bub holder from the innexpensive ceiling fixtures you can find at a local hardware store.

That sounds like a lot of heat for a closed cabinet and old hardware...
 
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At the risk of being obvious, you did remove the dead starter, right? Chalk this as an expensive lesson learned. You just cost yourself a lot of time (and potentially money) to save $1.29.

That sounds like a lot of heat for a closed cabinet and old hardware...

Not sure if you are referring to myself or silvereagle here, but yes mine is removed now.
 
I have the upright one. Ill have to look at mine and see what fuses mine has.

Picked up a multimeter yesterday, but I need a refresher course in checking voltages. I checked the fuses by sight and they looked o.k.

What is the proper procedure for checking the voltages? and is there any danger in touching the wrong thing and throwing myself against the back wall, or cooking the machine?

The fuses are labeled F1 F2 F3 F4. F1 is a 3A 250v fuse. The rest are 2A 250V fuses.
 

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Checked continuity in the fuses with the multimeter. I got continuity on each one, but some were a bit fussy. If the multimeter leads were not placed in the right place on the fuse contact there there would not be continuity. In those places where continuity was not reached it looks as if the metal has worn or burned away from the fuse.

Im off to the RS to buy more fuses.
 
Ok, here's another option. While poking around in the cabinet I noticed there is a ballast for the fluorescent light. It sits, physically screwed into a shelf, and logically between the power supply and the light fixture.

Since all my problems started when I was trying to get the lights on. I wonder if that is the source of my issues?

Has anyone ever seen a ballast go bad before?
 
Replaced the four main fuses and no change to the machine. Same results at power-up, monitor comes on and single LED on PCB illuminates for a second then goes out.

I couldn't find a replacement for the light ballast at the hardware store. Not sure if they are even still manufactured.

Any suggestions?
 
Try Bob Roberts. He might still have replacements.

Is there anyway you can get your hands on another board? I wonder if yours might be toast.
 
Try Bob Roberts. He might still have replacements.

Is there anyway you can get your hands on another board? I wonder if yours might be toast.

I'll have a look at Bob Robert's site. I noticed my power suppy was a Peter Chou F102141288.

I'll go down the power supply route first, then see about replacing the board.

Although now that I am thinking about it; I might pull out the board(s), blow the dust out of the connections and reseat them. Last week I had pulled it out to replace the Timekeeper RAM, and although the machine ran fine for several days after that maybe something is now making a bad connection.

Another idea came to me earlier today. We are in the midst of a 'heat wave' with high humidity here in Ohio, getting into the high 80's low 90's most day. My machine is sitting on the first floor in a non-air conditioned area. I wonder if this is out of the operational range for the machine and it's not letting itself power on due to the heat in the air.
 
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After a lot of reading on the interwebs I decided to try some basic troubleshooting techniques and see if I couldn't get to the source of the issue. Since it seemed to be power related i decided to go with troubleshooting potential power issues.

Words of Warning: Before I even get into all of what I did I thought I should inform everyone of this. I bought a 30$ multimeter from RS. What a POS. It did continuity tests on my fuses just fine, but all other readings were way off the charts. Then read I read the product reviews on RS site, and many said what a junk product this was. Some say all you need to do is replace the fuse inside the multimeter and that is the fix. I have yet to try that. The model in question is a "RS 29-Range Digital Multimeter 22-813"
Stupid me remembers I have my Dad's old multimeter in the basement. It's 40+ years old. Older than me probably. He used it to restore an old Aircoupe airplane 20 years ago. Guess what. It worked like a charm. Gave me accurate readings right off the bat. Like the saying goes, they don't make them like they used to.

Part 1; the power supply. Disconnected all components from the power supply. Zero reading at all the connections.

Part 2; the power switch. Traced the connections from the power supply to the power switch. Disconnected the power switch from the coupler. Connected the meter to the coupler and flipped the switch. Ah-Ha! Guess what, very low power readings at the coupler. If I fiddled with the power switch with my finger the power would go up and down but never to 120v. Now I think I know what's wrong. I need to find one of those switches and replace my bad one.

Check out the pictures. Those are the voltage readings from each side of the coupler (just on the other side of the power switch). The coupler has 3 connections. A positive on the left and right and a ground in the middle. That's obviously my Dad's old meter i'm using.
 

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That could be your issue. Another thing is you should put a new cord on that machine, its tarting to be exposed
 
yes ive seen ballasts go bad but ive never seen it cause your issue. if the ballast was bad it just wouldnt work or it would be dead shorted causing fuses to blow.

s possible something got unplugged while you were poking around....

however i suspect someting different.

Unplug the marquee light( should be a connectgor, just follow the wires out of the light)

does the thing power on now?

if so, your wall voltage coming into the cabinet is weak. You could also have weak wall power.

if thats your issue( weak power) suspect a krappy plug end or cord issue.


Its possible that this is just a new issue that happened at the same time.. meter the ac power at your power supply and remort back. Should be around 120vac.


edit: looks like your ont he right path. replace that switch and see whatcha get!!

too bad your not local, id come poke around for ya.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions guys. I appreciate it.

Tested the voltage at the wall and that was o.k.

Replaced the power toggle switch and got good voltage at the coupler, but when I plugged it back into the power supply I still got nothing on the power supply. So now I'm thinking the PS is the source of the issue. Bob Roberts was kind enough to hook me up with one, now I just have to break open the piggy bank.

The sheeting around the power cord is worn away, but the wires dont appear to be exposed. Looks like it was torn open when someone tried to drag the machine up a down a set of stairs while on it's back. I'll have to give it a hillbilly-fix before replacing the entire cord.
 
Success at last! My Hard Drivin' is back up and running. Turns out the wonky power supply was the main culprit. I was able to get the marquee light working again.

I bought the replacement PS from Bob Roberts. All other supplies were courteous Lowe's. I apologize for the pics. I dont own a real camera and only have my phone to take pictures.
 

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Success at last! My Hard Drivin' is back up and running. Turns out the wonky power supply was the main culprit. I was able to get the marquee light working again.

I bought the replacement PS from Bob Roberts. All other supplies were courteous Lowe's. I apologize for the pics. I dont own a real camera and only have my phone to take pictures.

COngrats! Happy to hear
 
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