Joust died mid game and won't boot

ShacklersRevenge

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So, trying to figure out this problem with Joust and I'm determined to get this going again as it's slated for restoration. Here is the story on it.

Was playing one night last summer with a friend. We got to level ten and the game just froze. I turned it off and then about ten seconds later I turned it back on to find it still frozen instantly at level 10- strange. I again powered it down, and came across scrambled junk.

After figuring nothing out, ( I gave up easily) I sold it to someone in a package deal, had seller regret and was able to get it back tonight. (thank you to them, because I love this ridiculous game)

The boards look good, there is no corrosion or anything like that. The 3 leds are on, on the power supply. I tested the test point 5 at 14 volts and change, and the one near the top under the connector (forget the TP number) reads nothing. The large capacitor on the power supply has a slice like crack on one end (looks to be the original cap) Other caps look newer.

Solder has been re-fllowed on the connectors and the connectors are not burned here or anywhere, they look to all be in really good shape. All fuses check out good out of circuit. At power up, it just faintly flickers the 7 segment for a split second on the rom board. The screen shows a bar patern, and that's it.

Anyone have any thoughts? The only other thing is there is a thin blue jumper hanging off a prom, that is on the rom board, and I'm not sure what this is but it's from a previous owner. Not sure how crucial this ''wire' is or isn't.

I also tested the volts at the chips on the rom board and I'm getting 4.96- Doesn't this need to be over 5 to boot up?

Any help is greatly appreciated,
thanks, James
 
power supply probably needs to be rebuilt with new capacitors, cold solder joints reflowed with new solder and then +5 verified ON THE GAME BOARD
 
that's a logic failure. if the large cap is going you'll lose the reset circuit however. :)

the rest is probably very crusty and needs help though.
 
Let me know what the problem and fix was.

I going to collect all these and place them up on Joustmaster.com as a reference tool
 
So, trying to figure out this problem with Joust and I'm determined to get this going again as it's slated for restoration. Here is the story on it.

Was playing one night last summer with a friend. We got to level ten and the game just froze. I turned it off and then about ten seconds later I turned it back on to find it still frozen instantly at level 10- strange. I again powered it down, and came across scrambled junk.

After figuring nothing out, ( I gave up easily) I sold it to someone in a package deal, had seller regret and was able to get it back tonight. (thank you to them, because I love this ridiculous game)

The boards look good, there is no corrosion or anything like that. The 3 leds are on, on the power supply. I tested the test point 5 at 14 volts and change, and the one near the top under the connector (forget the TP number) reads nothing. The large capacitor on the power supply has a slice like crack on one end (looks to be the original cap) Other caps look newer.

Solder has been re-fllowed on the connectors and the connectors are not burned here or anywhere, they look to all be in really good shape. All fuses check out good out of circuit. At power up, it just faintly flickers the 7 segment for a split second on the rom board. The screen shows a bar patern, and that's it.

Anyone have any thoughts? The only other thing is there is a thin blue jumper hanging off a prom, that is on the rom board, and I'm not sure what this is but it's from a previous owner. Not sure how crucial this ''wire' is or isn't.

I also tested the volts at the chips on the rom board and I'm getting 4.96- Doesn't this need to be over 5 to boot up?

Any help is greatly appreciated,
thanks, James


if you need parts i have them for this power supply including cap kit and complete rebuild kits. i have the axial 18,000uf cap too if you need which you can buy separate or you get it in the cap kit.
 
I tested the volts at the rom board and they're 4.97 at the chips,
On the game board/cpu, the chips test out at 4.88...
 
need the error code off the rom display. if you're getting 1-3-1 for instance, that means your ram isn't working anymore. if you have 4164 ram, that low of +5 will cause you some problems.

don't worry about the voltage loss, if you're running original 4116 ram I'd like to know the voltages on the grey-yellow (regulated +12) and orange (-5) wires, and the very important one at grey-white (unregulated +12)
 
yes, got your message

there is no reading on the segment, it just flashes on power up but is dead and reads nothing. I'm thinking the power supply needs a rebuild.
 
is your rom ribbon original? the +5 is actually plenty high enough to run that, as crazy as it sounds.
 
I don't think the ribbon is original.
I hooked this up to a switching power supply and same results, can't get the segment to light up.
 
I fix them. I intend on posting my other repair logs sometime tonight for Lonnie. I flipped you my contact info if you're available for awhile.
 
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