Hi All,
Been away from the vids for a while, but getting back into them a little. About 10 years ago I had a small collection of 10-12, but ended up selling all but three to make room for pins and other hobbies. The 3 I kept are Mad Planets, Tempest, and a Sinistar cab with Clay's multi-williams kit on a set of Joust boards.
I think I put Clay's kit in about 7 -8 years ago and everything has been just fine until a few weeks ago. At the same time I installed the kit, I had also rebuilt the original wms PS with one of Bob Roberts kits.
A few weeks ago, I turned on the Williams Multigame and about 10 minutes later, the screen had turned all blue and had strange hash marks across it. Here is a pic:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yaCSOUPOGhGsfnHjeSPS0w?feat=directlink
If I turn the game off and right back on, it looks just the same. If I turn it off and turn the game back on say a day later, it comes up normally for about 10 minutes, then I get the same strange screen.
Here is what else happens when the screen goes out:
- The alpha LED blanks out. There is no error code when the game boots, it goes right to a "0". But when the screen goes blue with the hashes, the LED digit goes blank.
- Resetting the game menu by pressing P1 & P2 buttons together just blanks the screen for second while the buttons are pressed, but comes right back to the blue screen as pictured as soon as I let up on them.
Here's what I've done so far:
- Reseat all connectors & ribbon cable
- Replaced the 9-pin .156" power header on the main CPU board
- Just the basic "wiggle wires around" while watching the screen, checking for anything loose or any changes
- Took voltage readings on the PS and at the spot where the CPU expansion daughter card +5V and GND wires solder to the mainboard.
Voltage readings at PS TP1: 5.0V, TP3: 11.9
Voltage reading at CPU expansion card: 4.8V
Voltages do not change before & after the screen "blues out".
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Id2BVYXBXmcIREbi1FivMw?feat=directlink
Any ideas what else to check? Does this seem like a power issue? I am comfortable using a DMM and soldering iron, and I'm not afraid to troubleshoot, I'm just not that familiar what to look for here. I do have the old RS logic probe, but I will have to try to remember how to use it again, been a while...
Thanks!
Been away from the vids for a while, but getting back into them a little. About 10 years ago I had a small collection of 10-12, but ended up selling all but three to make room for pins and other hobbies. The 3 I kept are Mad Planets, Tempest, and a Sinistar cab with Clay's multi-williams kit on a set of Joust boards.
I think I put Clay's kit in about 7 -8 years ago and everything has been just fine until a few weeks ago. At the same time I installed the kit, I had also rebuilt the original wms PS with one of Bob Roberts kits.
A few weeks ago, I turned on the Williams Multigame and about 10 minutes later, the screen had turned all blue and had strange hash marks across it. Here is a pic:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yaCSOUPOGhGsfnHjeSPS0w?feat=directlink
If I turn the game off and right back on, it looks just the same. If I turn it off and turn the game back on say a day later, it comes up normally for about 10 minutes, then I get the same strange screen.
Here is what else happens when the screen goes out:
- The alpha LED blanks out. There is no error code when the game boots, it goes right to a "0". But when the screen goes blue with the hashes, the LED digit goes blank.
- Resetting the game menu by pressing P1 & P2 buttons together just blanks the screen for second while the buttons are pressed, but comes right back to the blue screen as pictured as soon as I let up on them.
Here's what I've done so far:
- Reseat all connectors & ribbon cable
- Replaced the 9-pin .156" power header on the main CPU board
- Just the basic "wiggle wires around" while watching the screen, checking for anything loose or any changes
- Took voltage readings on the PS and at the spot where the CPU expansion daughter card +5V and GND wires solder to the mainboard.
Voltage readings at PS TP1: 5.0V, TP3: 11.9
Voltage reading at CPU expansion card: 4.8V
Voltages do not change before & after the screen "blues out".
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Id2BVYXBXmcIREbi1FivMw?feat=directlink
Any ideas what else to check? Does this seem like a power issue? I am comfortable using a DMM and soldering iron, and I'm not afraid to troubleshoot, I'm just not that familiar what to look for here. I do have the old RS logic probe, but I will have to try to remember how to use it again, been a while...
Thanks!

