Hydro Thunder Diego Board issues?

ArcadeCited

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I am having multiple issues with my Hydro Thunder, first off, occasionally when turning on the machine, the game refuses to boot, and gives me 6 beeps, after some research it tells me that 6 beeps means the Diego board is having issues and the computer can't reach it.

If it does boot successfully, the controls are intermittent, the controls will freeze then reset during gameplay, sometimes it will freeze when the machine is doing nothing, when inserting a quarter, there is a small chance that it will hiccup and stop giving me credits no matter how many coins I inserting, eventually it will work again...

I have checked the fuses, and have replaced all of the fuses with the correct types, and still, it continues to have issues.

This tells me that this is a Diego board issue, all signs lead to it. The problem is, what do I do now? Does anybody repair these boards, or am I screwed? I am not looking to buy a whole new board for $100 when it is probably an easy repair for someone. All the chips look surface mount and I am not good with surface mount chips, and I don't think a soldering iron would work very well.

Any suggestions?
 
I am having multiple issues with my Hydro Thunder, first off, occasionally when turning on the machine, the game refuses to boot, and gives me 6 beeps, after some research it tells me that 6 beeps means the Diego board is having issues and the computer can't reach it.

If it does boot successfully, the controls are intermittent, the controls will freeze then reset during gameplay, sometimes it will freeze when the machine is doing nothing, when inserting a quarter, there is a small chance that it will hiccup and stop giving me credits no matter how many coins I inserting, eventually it will work again...

I have checked the fuses, and have replaced all of the fuses with the correct types, and still, it continues to have issues.

This tells me that this is a Diego board issue, all signs lead to it. The problem is, what do I do now? Does anybody repair these boards, or am I screwed? I am not looking to buy a whole new board for $100 when it is probably an easy repair for someone. All the chips look surface mount and I am not good with surface mount chips, and I don't think a soldering iron would work very well.

Any suggestions?

Yes, so the 6 beeps is usually a communication issues with Diego. Further, when you say the controls "Freeze", when they don't work, do all the lights on the front of the machine flash on and off slowly?
 
Yes, so the 6 beeps is usually a communication issues with Diego. Further, when you say the controls "Freeze", when they don't work, do all the lights on the front of the machine flash on and off slowly?
Yes, first the controls stop working (freeze) then after a second or 2, they reset like they do when the machine boots (flashing buttons) then the controls are back on, but it happens intermittently...
 
Haven't you posted basically this same thing three times now... this thread, plus: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/552344/ and https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/553571/ ? Then for some reason change the title on the original post when you think you're done with it?

As noted in the other threads, it's almost certainly a comms issue between the PC and the Diego... maybe a bad Diego, but could also be a bad serial cable, bad serial port, bad power, bad video card (Diego security goes through the video card), etc. I don't know of anyone that repairs Diego boards, so if you can buy a new/working one for $100, that's almost certainly cheaper than anyone's going to charge to attempt repair of yours. But of course if your Diego board itself isn't bad, that's not going to solve your problem.

DogP
 
Haven't you posted basically this same thing three times now... this thread, plus: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/552344/ and https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/553571/ ? Then for some reason change the title on the original post when you think you're done with it?

As noted in the other threads, it's almost certainly a comms issue between the PC and the Diego... maybe a bad Diego, but could also be a bad serial cable, bad serial port, bad power, bad video card (Diego security goes through the video card), etc. I don't know of anyone that repairs Diego boards, so if you can buy a new/working one for $100, that's almost certainly cheaper than anyone's going to charge to attempt repair of yours. But of course if your Diego board itself isn't bad, that's not going to solve your problem.

DogP
I forgot about those post tbh, the whole moving situation has made me forget about the arcade hobby for a bit now, guess I'll have to save some money
 
Cheapest option would be to try a new serial cable/clean the ports on PC/Diego. The reset is probably being cause by a communication issue (the cable), the Diego board, or the motherboard. Buying a Diego board on eBay might not be a bad next option.
 
Cheapest option would be to try a new serial cable/clean the ports on PC/Diego. The reset is probably being cause by a communication issue (the cable), the Diego board, or the motherboard. Buying a Diego board on eBay might not be a bad next option.
I think I finally found the problem, while playing the machine, the board completely quit on me the screen went blank, I went to check the board and saw there was no power, I wiggled the power connection and it came back...

Funny enough, I just got a new board in today so I have swapped it with that one, so far it seems to be fine, maybe the old one had a bad solder joint? Or maybe the poor conditions this machine was in caused damage to the board. I don't know but the newer board is staying either way.
 

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