I've been to the mountain and visited THE Sega Guru Ken Westerfield.

PrairieDillo

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I've been to the mountain and visited THE Sega Guru Ken Westerfield.

So I just got my VC2 machine over the weekend and had previously purchased a HOTD board from a newer KLOV guy so that I could run it in this new cab.

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Little did I know that it wasn't a straight drop into VC2. These boards are usually caged and have filter boards on the cage. I contacted Ken Westerfield last week and he said that he could adapt a filter board and provide me a cage so that I could properly house my HOTD board for simple cage swaps in the full machine.

http://www.irepairsega.com/

This guy is straight up awesome. He's got a 3 month backlog of work to fix high end Sega stuff. He has all of the major accounts like D&B CEC etc since he's one of a kind.

This is my board on his test bench.

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The board booted on his setup but had an error code via an LED. He found the issue and changed two socketed chips.

I had 2 STV boards for him to fix which were stuff like reflowing the SH2 and an audio amp chip in the other one. It usually was too simple of work for him but he was cool in just fixing them for me since I was talking shop with him and everything.

It was just an awesome experience visiting and learning (what little I could understand) from a guy that is at the top of anything that we do in terms of repair.

Thanks for those guys that had pointed me to Ken W. I didn't want to take too many pics of his setup to respect his privacy but if you guys need something newer sega to repair... he is totally the guy to do it. I'm just really lucky that he is 6 miles from my work.
 

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Too organized for my taste. Not even one beer/soda can anywhere? Pfft....professionals.....

I do love the eprom holder on the right. Spiffy.

I'll give him a try if I ever need a Sega game fixed. Cool that he helped you out.
 
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Awesome. Glad there are still guys around that specialize in a specific area/company. If I ever pick up any Sega games in the future (SWT hopefully!), I know where to go for board work.
 
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Ken is a first-class guy all the way. I owe him a lot. I would recommend his services to anyone; he is both a gracious and efficient communicator.
 
I just had the chance to meet Ken today for the first time. Brought him a Harley Davidson board to test and some Naomi 2 stuff for initial D3. He's willing to answer questions anyone may have to help troubleshoot machines before sending in parts for repair.
 
Well PD, I just may have to send you my Sega Indy 500 boards, to get them to Ken. I've emailed Ken a few times, but if he's that backlogged with work, he may not answer for a long long time, lol.

I've heard nothing but great things about Ken, and I'm trying to send him more work :D

The Indy Car race season is almost over, I'll need something to tie me over until next season.
 
Ken does great work. He worked on both of my Virtual On boards a few years back and they are still running rock solid.
 
Well PD, I just may have to send you my Sega Indy 500 boards, to get them to Ken. I've emailed Ken a few times, but if he's that backlogged with work, he may not answer for a long long time, lol.

I've heard nothing but great things about Ken, and I'm trying to send him more work :D

The Indy Car race season is almost over, I'll need something to tie me over until next season.

You should email him. He'll probably respond quickly with his current status. Or call him. His number is on his website.
 
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