Ms Pac Man Cocktail Fuses

Nes

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I purchased a ms pac man cocktail unit awhile back. Replaced the board after I bought it. I played roughly 3 games on the machine. I then moved it a bit to do some general cleaning. When I plugged the machine back in nothing came up on the monitor. I can hear the fan power on, lights by the joysticks come on, I can hear the monitor fire up, just no picture or sound. I had a former arcade technician (he claims 20 years experience) come by with a board. He installed his board and the machine worked fine. Unfortunately, this working board was already sold :( So I thought my board went dead.

Sent the board back to the person I got it from, but the board tested out fine on his end. Got the board back a few days ago. When I installed the board and plugged in the machine I initially got a screen that was checkerd and jumbled up with letters and different color patterns. I gave the machine a small bump and the picture went to nothing again.

I checked the fuses today and found 6 in the machine. 5 by the transformer board assembly and 1 behind the monitor. Did I locate all the fuses? The inside of my machine looks different from the picture in the Ms Pac Man manual. The first pic is the entire insides of the cabinent. The second one is the 5 fuse box located near the trans board assembly. Third, is the fuse holder located behind the monitor. I've removed the fuses for testing. I've confirmed 5 working fuses and 1 that is not. Are the fuses the likely problem?

I've never replaced a fuse in anything and am unfamiliar with them alltogether. Which fuses do I need to buy for the cocktail unit? I'm not sure if the current fuses I pulled out are the right kind. Would the unit have even fired up if there was an unworking fuse? Thanks for the help in advance.
 

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As far as the fuses go, you should be able <unless worn off> see what kind of fuse it is by the markings on it. Example being 3A 250V. Look for something like that. Im sure one of the smart guys can tell you what fuses your supposed to have in the different locations to make sure you have the proper ones installed.
 
If it worked with another board, then it's not your fuses.

I would bet on the edge connector being your culprit. Clean the edge fingers on the game board with alcohol, and ensure none are burnt.

Ensure the game's harness connector is firmly seated on the circuit board, and power it up. If you get nothing, try tightly squeezing the connector together, to tighten it to the board (especially near the ends), and see if you see the game start to boot.

Note that as the game boots, you should see garbled characters and junk moving on the screen. This is normal. It should take only a few seconds to start showing the attract mode.

If it works when you're squeezing the connector, then you really do need to replace the connector. This is a very common problem on Pac games. As a quick-and-dirty solution, you can clamp the connector tighter together by using a couple of large binder clips. But to do things right, replacing the connector is the way to go.

Fuse holders are also often a problem. But, again, if the game worked with another board, then you should be at least getting power. Replacing the fuse holders is a good idea though.

-Ian
 
Those fuseholders pictured are not problematic like the ones used in pac / mspacs with the brass clips.
The single fuse holder pictured is on the monitor chassis. If its blown your monitor wont work but the game should still play blind.
The 5 fuse block has the 4 fuses for the main pcb. The fifth fuse is for the lights above the control panels. Uprights only have 4 fuses.
Just because another pcb worked does not rule out those fuses. Some boards will still boot and play fine with one fuse blown. Some wont boot at all and some will boot but reset when you try to start a game. I would reccomend replacing the fuses and see if it works. If not, you might want to check out your edge connector.

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/hum.html
 
Went out to purchase some new fuses and put them in. Also, cleaned the connectors with alcohol. Didn't get anything. I tightly squeezed the edge connector quite a few times and nothing at all.
 
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