Joust U or C Error?

zz0ljf

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I'm having some trouble with my Joust. When it boots up I get the following: Rug Pattern, Initial Tests Indicate All Systems Go, then a flash of a Joust Screen that happens so fast I really can't catch it on my camera, LED briefly displays 0 at this point and then quickly turns to a "U" or a "C" depending on how you want to read it. Any help would be appreciated.
 

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I'm having some trouble with my Joust. When it boots up I get the following: Rug Pattern, Initial Tests Indicate All Systems Go, then a flash of a Joust Screen that happens so fast I really can't catch it on my camera, LED briefly displays 0 at this point and then quickly turns to a "U" or a "C" depending on how you want to read it. Any help would be appreciated.

Sounds like it's working to me. Can you play the game?
 
No, after the Initial Tests Indicate All Systems Go, and then a flash of a Joust Screen everything goes blank and I get a "C" or a "U" on the LED display.
 
Try re-crimping the ribbon cable from the ROM card. I have seen this when some of the wires are not making a complete connection at the connector.

Also, verify the voltages at both the MPU board and the ROM card. This is less common, but can sometimes be a problem.


ken
 
I had a spare ROM card lying around. I took all the chips from the ROM card that was giving me trouble and put them in my spare. Everything is up and running now. I suspected it was the ribbon cable, as occasionally I could get it to clear the "U" can return to 0 on the LED but fiddling with the cable. However it would then run through the boot up sequence and return to "U" on the LED. How exactly to do recrimp a SCSI cable like that? Would you use a vice? Is the "U" intended to represent a cable failure or connection issue? Couldn't find it in the manual.
 
The u is just a funky state that the PIA gets put into when the CPU can't address it correctly. That happens when one or more of the addressing lines is not conducting correctly.

Here is a link that will show how to recompress the connectors: http://www.arcadesolution.com/ribbon.html

I normally use a pair of pliers that are adjustable. I can set the jaws so that they are parallel with the connector, but I have been doing similar things for a number of years. If you are not comfortable with that, then using a vise can be a safer procedure.

ken
 
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