Joust VideoGame Repair log

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Good evening

Please use this thread to post issues you have had with Joust and the repair to correct it.

The goal is to collect all these and place them on Joustmaster.com as a reference tool.
 
Repair - Williams Joust - PCB Repair #3 - Player Start Crash
7K/7J (no output on Pin 5, hex inverter) 74ls04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_b7IcSiS1M

your Hakko sounds sick in this video. you use that blue screwdriver cleaning tool inside the shaft of it too right? I picked all kinds of fairy dust out of my FR300 with that. :p I also had a lot of problems with my tips clogging. I later discovered I was effectively using the tool wrong. when I placed my last parts order last week or maybe it was 2 weeks ago (working late, I lose track of time easy) I actually conferred with them about the temperature setting and they say they only use 2 (about 700 or 750 degrees). I note this because I read in a thread on here I think about clogging tips and you want 2 because 1 the solder cools off too fast. the other thing I did wrong was I didn't hold the button long enough to allow it to suck everything, so it was collecting in the tip and cooling off.

I also run my Weller station at 650-700 most of the time too. I haven't damaged anything doing this. in fact, the higher temperature has a benefit in that you don't have to touch the parts as long. I've gotten a lot of practice over the years and work way faster than I did when I was about 2-3 years into doing this repair stuff. I can't believe I've been fixing games for almost 10 years already.

yours sounds sludgy, if you haven't already you'll need to take apart that black plastic box inside the yellow cover and soak the plastics, the valve plate inside it, and the hose in alcohol. I went a very long time not doing this and actually went back to the manual and sure enough that was part of the maintenance process.

mine burns a lot of paper filters now, I suspect the tube that holds the solder needs to be replaced now as I've changed everything else. unfortunately that part was on backorder, so I'm waiting for it still. I've actually been breaking out my old shack bulb for the little weak jobs where I don't have to pop ICs and it's been ok.

I need to start unleashing my repair logs soon.
 
the abridged collection of my repair logs

game: Williams Defender, R8570 (Later Series)
symptom: RAM error 11; can't exit bookkeeping

fix:
RAM:
-found floating pins on 74LS374N chips for banks 1 and 2
-desoldered 74LS374N chips out, tested continuity on traces; found number of open traces and patched accordingly
-resoldered 74LS374N chips back in
-additionally replaced 4116 ram with 4164s
CMOS:
-jumper was required from 4071 to 5101 CMOS to trick it into thinking the coin door was open (suspect bad 4071, but the hack will do for now)

game: Williams Stargate, Rev. -
symptom: no sound

fix:
-speaker connection from sound board had a broken wire to the breakout molex plug in-between. recrimped a new pin on and sound! (easy fix mentioned because sometimes it's better to think of the easy stuff)

game: Williams Joust, Rev. D
symptom: infinite rug pattern

cause:
-upgraded 4116 ram to 4164; game no longer booted
fix:
-suspected low +5 (even though other games behave normal below 4.85V with 4164s -- must be a Rev. D thing); thoroughly rebuilt linear power supply and it's worked fine ever since.
-a switcher was installed briefly just to have an operational game until I amassed the necessary parts to rebuild the linears

game: Williams Sinistar, Rev. D
symptom: factory settings restored times infinity

fix:
-board was heavily plastered with alkaline leakage and outgassing damage. the diode components nearest to the + on the battery holder were corroded bad enough that battery power wasn't reaching the CMOS. removed all components and sanded to re-establish connections. battery power was restored to the CMOS and the factory settings restored message went away.
-additional sanding open of traces was done to the rest of the board where green bubbling alkaline was trapped under the mask. looks really ugly but don't have to worry about it spreading anymore.

game: Williams Joust, Rev. D
symptom: ticking sounds / sounds cutting out

fix:
-replaced plugs to interconnect harness between rom and sound boards; no change.
-reflowed header pins on both rom and sound boards; sound restored... for now.
-sound went out again a few months later; turned out one of the fuse holder clips was loose! so I suppose you can add that to your checklist.
 
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