MCR Hell

nutballchamp

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My Journey had some graphic issues where on a couple of screens the characters instruments and heads would be on a different part of the screen. The game would play with all the sounds. I reseated all IC's, replaced connectors and reflowed solder to all connector pins. Pluged it in and same problem but worse as all screens are messed up now.

I swapped out the video board with my working Tapper and same problem but controls stopped working. I put the Journey video board in Tapper and same problem with Tapper as the characters are messed up. I put my Tapper video board back in Tapper and the graphics are fine but the controls don't work.

What happened? Super bummed out because I was one game away from my arcade 100% and now I messed up Journey more and Tapper.
 
if you didn't make sure that the pins were 100% straight when you reseated them, most likely you now have several pins not making contact. Those single wipe sockets they used only make contact on the inside of the chip legs, and they get weak over time, if the pins are the least little bit bent outwards, they'll not make contact. I always make sure the pins aren't bent any outwards, even just a tad inward - and be sure you cleaned the back side of the chip legs.
Also, take a light and look down into the sockets - you may find some that are corroded and need to be replaced.
also - have you replaced your ribbon cables?
 
if you didn't make sure that the pins were 100% straight when you reseated them, most likely you now have several pins not making contact. Those single wipe sockets they used only make contact on the inside of the chip legs, and they get weak over time, if the pins are the least little bit bent outwards, they'll not make contact. I always make sure the pins aren't bent any outwards, even just a tad inward - and be sure you cleaned the back side of the chip legs.
Also, take a light and look down into the sockets - you may find some that are corroded and need to be replaced.
also - have you replaced your ribbon cables?


Thanks for the replay. Just to clarify, both Journey and Tapper aren't coining up or any other inputs after I swapped the video boards and back. I tried grounding the coin 1 pin at J4 on the SSIO and nothing. The video is fine on both games other than the original graphic glitches on Journey. I don't think the sound is working on either as I turned on the attract sounds and got no sounds. Before I swapped boards the sounds were working on both games and they were coining up and playable.

The only chips I swapped are the video roms when changing out the boards. Would these cause the sound and control inputs to not work? Cables are new and I was very careful not to miss a pin each time hooking them up.

Is there a way to test the SSIO sound and inputs? I'm still getting +5v on the board and the test mode on SSIO dip switches isn't showing any errors on both boards.
 
are you getting the sound board interface error when you boot the games?
it kinda sounds like you've got one ribbon cable plugged up wrong, but not both, or you would'nt be getting voltage to the ssio at all. If you look at the ribbon cable from the side, when its installed correctly, it'll be positioned so that its close to the pcb on one end, and away from the other pcb on the other end.
 
are you getting the sound board interface error when you boot the games?
it kinda sounds like you've got one ribbon cable plugged up wrong, but not both, or you would'nt be getting voltage to the ssio at all. If you look at the ribbon cable from the side, when its installed correctly, it'll be positioned so that its close to the pcb on one end, and away from the other pcb on the other end.

Yep, I had a bent pin that wasn't making contact with one of the ribbon cables on Tapper. It's working 100% now. Thanks so much!!

Re-checked Journey again and cables look good. Still no coin up and graphic glitches. I'm getting a tone with the Oscillator test (SW3, SW#1 On and SW#3 On) but no sounds in attract mode. I'm going to take a closer look at this tomorrow and swap known good cables from Tapper.
 
Got both boards working 100%. Journey graphics ended up being a bad 93422 Ram on the video board and the non working inputs was a bad cable. Not fun boards to work on, but at least I got really good at taking them apart and putting them back together.
 
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Got both boards working 100%. Journey graphics ended up being a bad 93422 Ram on the video board and the non working inputs was a bad cable. Not fun boards to work on, but at least I got really good at taking them about and putting them back together.

I'm glad you got yours going... this week I've hit 50/50 on MCRII boards... Satan's Hollow was Friday, couldn't get it working... Then my Tron started resetting really bad Saturday, fixed it (failing RAM at B2)...

I REALLY hate working on them though... they're nightmares. In order for me to even LOOK at one, it has to be a game I like... Tron, yep. Satan's Hollow, yep... Two Tigers? GTFO.
 
i feel your pain. I think i'm on spy hunter number 5 or 6in the last couple of weeks. I'm so sick of putting the plates back together....
And, i've got one that as soon as i fix one problem, another pops up. Right now, i'm down to heat related problems. I think i've already changed out all the sockets though.... So, its just a chip that gets hot and acts up. Its in the background graphics, either ram or addressing. The kicker is it won't do it in attract mode, just in play mode, so i may pull my hair out trying to get this one straightened out.
 
i feel your pain. I think i'm on spy hunter number 5 or 6in the last couple of weeks. I'm so sick of putting the plates back together....
And, i've got one that as soon as i fix one problem, another pops up. Right now, i'm down to heat related problems. I think i've already changed out all the sockets though.... So, its just a chip that gets hot and acts up. Its in the background graphics, either ram or addressing. The kicker is it won't do it in attract mode, just in play mode, so i may pull my hair out trying to get this one straightened out.

EEH, I hear ya...I just finished up a Spy Hunter. It was fine in demo mode, but once starting a game.....The top half of the screen was fine, the lower half.....well, the road way was being drawn about 8-10 seconds ahead of itself (just on the lower half). So, the road on the bottom half of the screen is what you will be seeing on the top half 8-10 seconds later. The cars/sprites didn't acknowledge this issue. They acted as if the road was normal. Took me a good day/plus to track this one down.

Edward
 
So tell us what the problem was.

Many people search archives of groups like this for troubleshooting. You may help someone out.

K

In my cast, it was the LS273 at 4D.....pin 12 was stuck high....in game mode it should be moving.



Edward
 
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