Joust no sound, but we got a picture!

TRICKDRAGON

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Hello,
Picked up a Joust game that is a little rough. At first I looked in the back of the cab and the back of the monitor was broken off. Easy fix! Had a working WG monitor. Then I got the carpet screen. With the 1 3 1 error. No problem replaced the ram still no picture. Got new ribbon cables no help. Re flowed all the pins and bingo! Got a picture back. Pinpointed a bad ram. Changed it and now I have a working joust game, but! No sound. Looks like I have the right voltage to the board. I did push the switch on the sound board. It started making noise like a firing star wars blaster:). And then it won't stop unless you turn the game off and restart it. Caps? Roms? Chips? Any help would kick ass. Has been fun so far just want to play this bad boy with sound. Thanks friends!
 
Re-flow the connector pins on you main board and your sound board. It's very possible you have cold solder joints in these 2 areas. As I remember it Jousts sound board acts in the manner you describe, when the button is pushed. Good to here it is still working.
Best of luck on getting it going.
 
Yes the Williams sound boads will do a single sound on a loop to make sure the sound itself is working. It will keep doing it until either you turn off the game or jam pointy things in your eyes. :D

You're on the right path! Keep us posted!
 
1. Reflow solder on header pins on MPU board and sound board...if no love then...
2. Replace Williams connectors with Molex connectors and pins on sound board wires to MPU...if still no love...
3. Check the PIA on the soundboard, it may have failed.
 
Ok! Re flowed all the head pins re capped the sound board. Still no love. Now going to fix all of the molex plugs, but I think it's the PAL chip. I was able to get some used roms off of EBay for cheap. So now the game plays good. That was lucky. I did try to jump the lines to get sound, but no love. Still get that sound over and over when I push the button down. Going to try the molex plugs. Anyone know what the number or cross reference number is for the pal chip? Anyone want to trade all of the boards and the wire harness for a new 19 in one board. LOL. Still working on it ;)
 
Ok! Re flowed all the head pins re capped the sound board. Still no love. Now going to fix all of the molex plugs, but I think it's the PAL chip. I was able to get some used roms off of EBay for cheap. So now the game plays good. That was lucky. I did try to jump the lines to get sound, but no love. Still get that sound over and over when I push the button down. Going to try the molex plugs. Anyone know what the number or cross reference number is for the pal chip? Anyone want to trade all of the boards and the wire harness for a new 19 in one board. LOL. Still working on it ;)

sounds much like my Defender. but difference in my case is the game does play sounds in game, but they're the wrong sounds. I can't jumper the sounds, and I tried the Sound Test and it plays nothing, so I have to change my PIA chip I guess.

just waiting for more items I need before I place the order with Bob lol
 
Ok! Re flowed all the head pins re capped the sound board. Still no love. Now going to fix all of the molex plugs, but I think it's the PAL chip. I was able to get some used roms off of EBay for cheap. So now the game plays good. That was lucky. I did try to jump the lines to get sound, but no love. Still get that sound over and over when I push the button down. Going to try the molex plugs. Anyone know what the number or cross reference number is for the pal chip? Anyone want to trade all of the boards and the wire harness for a new 19 in one board. LOL. Still working on it ;)

It's most likely the 40-pin PIA chip that is not socketted. The CPU (which is socketed) is probably working just fine since the sound test works off of the switch. If you have another CPU to swap in, it wouldn't hurt to try it since they are easily switched. You can unsolder and remove the 40-pin PIA and solder in a 40-pin socket to replace it and then install a new PIA chip. This is *usually* the problem in this situation. Bob Roberts should have the PIA, if not - I've bought them locally from Jameco as well. I assume that you have tried the sound tests from the bookeeping screen and it failed? You should be able to ground each of the data pins on the sound board and it will produce a sound.

If you don't feel comfotable working on the board, YellowDog here on KLOV repairs them for a reasonable fee - I think he may also have some for sale as well. You can also post in the 'wanted' section of KLOV to see if anyone has one to sell you. They also pop on fleaBay all the time.

Don't swap out your original boards for a 19-in-1 - please!!

-Muel
 
That was a joke. I don't want a 19 in one. Just want to fix the game. Yes I see Yellow dog a bunch every time I look up anything joust. :). No I will try a pal chip first and then go from that point. When I got it it was DOA. I hate to give up now.
 
The most common problem other than crappy sockets is the ROM going bad, then 6810 RAM, Then 6821 PIA. There is no PAL that I know of on that sound board.
 
I just got a rough Joust and the sound would come and go. For mine, it was an issue with the fuse connectors on the sound board. The test switch worked intermittantly as well. If I pushed on the fuse with the game running, it would kick the sound in. I cleaned the connectors for the fuses and reflowed the solder. I have sound now.
 
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If pressing the switch works, that verifies that atleast some portion of the sound subsystem is working - sound CPU, ROM, PIA, DAC, amp, speakers, and other related logic are all required to get any sound at all.

If the sound tests don't produce any sound (or grounding the test pads by the connector on the ROM board, which is doing the same thing more directly), I would next check the ribbon cable connection between the ROM and sound boards. You could rule this out by doing the grounding test on the sound board side of the connector. If that produces sound, the PIA is working and your ribbon cable is not.

If none of the sound lines work by grounding on the sound board, I would suspect the input channel on the PIA is busted. It's possible that the NAND gate (IC6) is busted too, and the PIA is never seeing the lines toggle, but I believe the PIA is a more common failure.

LeChuck
 
Sorry o forgot to say I replaced the ribbon cable. Thanks for all the help and advice. Will update soon!
 
I just got a rough Joust and the sound would come and go. For mine, it was an issue with the fuse connectors on the sound board. The test switch worked intermittantly as well. If I pushed on the fuse with the game running, it would kick the sound in. I cleaned the connectors for the fuses and reflowed the solder. I have sound now.

this was one sound fix that's do able.
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread...if the OP is still around, did replacement of the ribbon cable fix the problem? I'm having the exact same issue. No sound in game or from diagnostic menus, but, I will get sound when using the test button and by grounding out each one of the pins to play the different sounds.

Edit to add: I went ahead and checked continuity of the wiring between the sound and ROM board...no open lines anywhere.
 
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I thought I addressed this. the rom board PIA is probably bad.

the sound board is completely independent. it has no output back to the MPU or rom board. the rom board just issues sound calls to play out of the sound board.

VectorCollector won't see this because I said months ago that him commenting on topics exactly like this wasn't helping, so he ignored me.

please be sure to pass my message along to him.

if your sound board test tone works and you have no sound output, it means the rom board PIA is bad because it can't issue the playback calls to the sound board. if you need this fixed, I fix these. or you and the rest of this site can continue to just ignore me. your choice.
 
Thanks. I've lost track of what was said where. PIA is a 6821, correct? I've seen two different ones in my searches -- one that runs at 1MHz and the other at 2MHz. Which speed should I use, as the BOM in the drawings doesn't specify.
 
This is kind of weird. Today I installed an isolation transformer into the cabinet for the monitor, as well as an AC line filter and fuse (previous owner removed the original PSU and installed a switcher, and did not replace the iso). I also removed the switch that the previous owner installed onto the coin door to power the machine on and off, and relocated it back to where it belonged. I turned on the cab to verify all was working, then decided to play a game. To my shock, when I coined up, there was sound! I played a few games, powered off, then half an hour later, powered back on and the sound was still there. I've got some PIAs on order, just in case, but, I'm thrilled to hear the game working 100% for now.
 
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