Learning Board Repair, 2114 Rams, 6116 Rams, Etc.

jonnyb

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Hello All:

I've been thinking about delving into board repair for the last 5 years so I can start fixing some of the non-working boards I get in bulk buys, off Ebay, etc. I currently have several sets of Ms Pac's and regular Pacs (Midway's and bootlegs), Galaxians, Mr. Do's, Rally X's, Centipedes, Bally Midway MCR's, Nintendo's, probably a total of 125 or more desirable boards that show signs of life and may be worth fixing. From what I've been reading over the last several months, most problems in boards that produce incorrect or corrupted video and some that don't involve RAM chips (although I have cleaned and re-seated the chips and replaced CPU's and got some to work). And it seems the most popular are 2114's, 6116's, and an SL46-Something or other. Any experts out there that can give tips to guide me in the right direction? I'm going to start by ordering some 2114's off the net to see if I can get some of the Pac boards, (Midway and bootleg) running. Then if succesful, I'm going to the Galaxian's, and so on. I probably have a long road ahead of me, so any useful suggestions, advice, comments, or other input appreciated.
 
Start by organizing the boards and taking inventory. First by board type, then by working status. Make the working status very detailed so you know exactly which ones have blank video, dead sound, RAM errors, all of the above.

When you are inventoring, give each one a unique number and track the symptoms by that number. When I had a handful of boards, it was easy to know which were goo and which weren't. Now I have no idea and the "needs repair" sticker on 20 boards doesn't help.

Having a good inventory control system also makes it easier when you do manage to fix one, just go look up the others with the same symptom. It gives you a point of reference to start on similar problems.

It also helps prevents misfiling fixed boards with the broken ones.

One other hint, practice with the search feature here. There are an awful lot of good threads on just about any board imaginable.

ken
 
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