Looks like another Tron sound post lol

bradp56

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Ok so I FINALLY picked up my first Tron yesterday. Everything worked fine when I got it and when I moved it everything seemed in tact. When I plugged it in at home everything was fine, I played this for a while then all of a sudden the sound started going out I would hear popping noises and it would work for a little then go out then popping noises.

My question is, is there anything I should look for being loose or will I need to start replacing parts. I noticed on the side of the cabinet there is a small pcb with an input and an output that looks like it connects to the speakers.

Thanks in advance.
 
It could be as simple as a blown speaker, I would test it by connecting it to a known good speaker first to determine that. Other than that it could also be a bad connection at the speaker or even at the connection to the board. Try the easy stuff first!
 
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Ok so I replaced the sound Molex cable and that seemed to help but it happened again. It seems to be better when I move the game PCB towards the back of the cab, so I am thinking the issue is with the SCSI cables. They are in terrible shape flaking and peeling could this affect sound?
 
Ok so I replaced the sound Molex cable and that seemed to help but it happened again. It seems to be better when I move the game PCB towards the back of the cab, so I am thinking the issue is with the SCSI cables. They are in terrible shape flaking and peeling could this affect sound?
It's difficult to guess from your description, but I can explain the process. The ribbon cables carry power and the main CPU's address/data bus over a shared RAM chip on the sound board. The main CPU writes to this RAM with commands, for example "play sound #1", that will be performed by the sound processor.

If there's no communication at startup you'd see it say "Sound Board Interface Error". If there was communication at startup but it's lost mid-game it's a little unpredictable if it'll give up until the board is reset, or if it'll keep trying.

Yes it's always worth replacing those ribbon cables with a modern option like the 50-pin SCSI cables (works great on my Tron). However it would only help if the main CPU is unable to send commands to the sound board. A million other things are possible including bad connection to speaker, bad volume pot, bad sockets on the sound board causing the sound processor to reset, etc.

The description of popping is not quite enough to know in which way sound is failing. Note the self-test has a menu to play sounds. You might consider using that as you try to narrow down your problem.
 
I talked to the guy I bought this from he said he had a sound issue about a year ago he jiggled the sound cable it worked fine since. If this is true then me moving it would affect the cable.
 
be careful on jiggling that sound cable..ive done that to see if it affects my output...my left channel is out and once in a while it kicks in...and when i did it reset the game...im afraid it could cause a possible short in voltage or maybe a spike...im still a noob at this but i know if a game kicks off after you jiggle a sound wire its not good

ive done a cap kit on the ps and the game looks better already...no sound improvement though...also swapped out amps with no improvement...i think tron games are notorious for left sound issues....if you think about it the attraction sounds are primarily left channel sounds so it gets a workout...

rarely have i found any speaker issues in these games...i always check them first...unhook the speaker leads and swap them on known good speakers...its just the easiest place to start

as said above use the diagnostics/test to see if the sound processors are working
 
I did the test and it showed no issues. The sound works fine but then all of a sudden it will start going out and I will here popping noises.
 
based on what you're saying about moving the mainboard and that improves the issue; I would check the integrity of the audio cable coming off the mainboard. It's the orange one that includes the black and bare wires. Connected at header marked J3. This also routes to the volume pot.

mine is nicked and the bare wires is hanging on for dear life right now; so I'm going to replace the entire connector. (this is not my pic by the way, just illustrating)
 

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I replaced the connector on the board with a .100 molex connector same issue.


hmmmm. ok, solder joints on the header itself? Though the moving board thing maybe chasing ghosts.


maybe post some pics of you're boards too; maybe we can spot something? also, the IC's on the amp may be going, or another part on the amp.

dunno, just thinking aloud....
 
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Ok so I went all out. I put in two new sound chips and replaced the cracked and flaky SCSI cables. So Far the sound is better than ever I will keep everyone posted if it happens again fingers crossed that it doesn't though lol because I have to move this again from my garage to the basement.
 
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