House of the Dead 1 Freezing on power up

gobsgraham

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I have a Sega Model 2 HOTD freezing on power up. When I first got the cab, it would do it once every third time I would turn it on and a power cycle would fix it. Since then it has gotten to be every time, and then it turned to completely frozen and would not boot.

-Power supply voltage was 5.07 at the PS (sorry I didn't measure on the chips) and it would freeze on start. 10 power cycles and still frozen.

-I left it on while I was measuring voltages and checking the connectors on the filter board. Swapped in a Golden Tee power supply and the game booted right up. It was set at 5.2V.

-Adjusted the original PS to 5.2V and it booted up right away.

-Played a few games shut it off and the next day it wouldn't start again.
power cycle 5 times and nothing. Leave it on and frozen for 10 minutes, power cycle and on.

-I can consistently get it on now by doing leaving it sit for 10 minutes frozen and then power cycle.


Does anyone have any similar experiences? Caps on the board? Bad chips? Can I swap this ROM board onto another model 2 board and see if the problem goes away?

Any help advice is appreciated.
 
we got a deluxe (the 50" model) House of the Dead at work that didn't do what you're talking about, but every few weeks, it would lock up to a white screen.

I had adjusted voltages on it once before, I think I finally got pissed and replaced the power supply with a new one, but I'm sure it still did it (hard to keep track, I'm the sole tech for 60+ games) ... so one day, on a saturday where the place has a million little kids, I got adventurous and pulled the entire boardset out.

upon inspecting the roms, I noticed there were several where I could see the skinny parts of the chip legs sticking out. my next operation was to pull the rom board and pop every rom back out and put them back in. upon doing this, it hasn't locked up again.

you should probably consider, like ours, that it's got a ton of wear and tear on it, so check that first. additionally, after you're done tinkering with the roms, it's kinda tricky, because you can't meter at the roms, but if you look around inside you'll find small driver chips you can meter from to see what the voltage is looking like inside. if you don't want to do that, you can always meter at the yellow (+5) and white (ground) wires on the filter board. set your power supply so you're getting 5.15-5.2V there, and you should be fine with power.

your setup might be different than ours too, ours was already hackjobbed to run a normal power supply, yours might have that little piggyback board the power supply plugs into and then goes to the game board. I don't remember what it looks like, cause ours is a pedestal.
 
Does anyone have any similar experiences? Caps on the board? Bad chips? Can I swap this ROM board onto another model 2 board and see if the problem goes away?

Any help advice is appreciated.

I do have a similar issue, I just got one yesterday it's the classic mirror screen upright. very often the game won't start at all, the led on the filter board is off and the only way to start the game is to jiggle the top black connenctor (yellow and white wires) on the smaller top board.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42991605/Screen shot 2012-04-04 at 5.22.42 PM.png

If I remove the connector the led lights up then when I put it back in the game always starts. seems like there is some kind of protection. I will check my voltage to see if it's 5.2.


another issue I have is a constant background buzz which seems to be a little too loud, if I rise the volume of the game I can overcome the buzz so it doesn't seem related to the audio amp of the game...more like an interference of some sort. maybe it is just normal on model 2 games, no idea it's my first one. here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXqx_P_ZQLo

oh yes, I have a 220V to 100V transformer in the game and it's not grounded...
 
I do have a similar issue, I just got one yesterday it's the classic mirror screen upright. very often the game won't start at all, the led on the filter board is off and the only way to start the game is to jiggle the top black connenctor (yellow and white wires) on the smaller top board.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42991605/Screen shot 2012-04-04 at 5.22.42 PM.png

If I remove the connector the led lights up then when I put it back in the game always starts. seems like there is some kind of protection. I will check my voltage to see if it's 5.2.


another issue I have is a constant background buzz which seems to be a little too loud, if I rise the volume of the game I can overcome the buzz so it doesn't seem related to the audio amp of the game...more like an interference of some sort. maybe it is just normal on model 2 games, no idea it's my first one. here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXqx_P_ZQLo

oh yes, I have a 220V to 100V transformer in the game and it's not grounded...

I hope you realize "the top black connenctor (yellow and white wires)" is your +5 power source to the board that you're freeballing there heh.

that's the equivalent to disconnecting/connecting a JAMMA harness while the game is on.
 
I hope you realize "the top black connenctor (yellow and white wires)" is your +5 power source to the board that you're freeballing there heh.

that's the equivalent to disconnecting/connecting a JAMMA harness while the game is on.

of course I know the yellow is +5, the weird thing is if I switch the game on it won't start, and if I remove and put back the connector it works fine.
 
You might want to explore trying another power supply then if you have one, cause thats not right lol
 
I rised the +5 (was 5.03) to 5.20 and it works perfect now. but I still have that buzz in the speakers...

That problem is easiest to tackle from the amp. Verify the amp is good and not the problem first. Then verify the audio input to the amp is not the problem. Then you can follow the audio out to find the bad missing cap.
 
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