Ms. Pacman Problems

steppenwolf

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Alright here's problem this time ... I turned on the Ms. Pacman machine and had the screen showing yellow bars scrolling almost sideways across the screen. So I turned it off, and then turned it back on and now ... nothing. I pressed the buttons and nothing happens. I have no idea what's going on with it. So, I hope someone can help me out here ... I always feel horrible when one of my machines go down.

-a.e. steppenwolf
 
By "nothing", what do you mean? Does the marquee light come on? Can you hear the monitor, or see the flash on the screen as you turn it off? Or is it completely dead, as if it wasn't plugged in?

Start with the power. Check the interlock switch on the back door, and check the fuses. Ms. Pac fuse holders are especially crap, so double check that you're getting continuity through them, and that they haven't gone high resistance or broken. (They corrode, and the metal tabs that hold the fuses break).

-Ian
 
When I had bars going right to left on my Ms. Pacman, I did a PCB capkit. Removed each chip, one by one cleaning the legs then carefully reseating them. Also, a new fuse block holder was installed.
That fixed my problems. But if the board doesn't power on at all now, I would first try checking for the correct power outputs with a meter.
 
By "nothing", what do you mean? Does the marquee light come on? Can you hear the monitor, or see the flash on the screen as you turn it off? Or is it completely dead, as if it wasn't plugged in?

Start with the power. Check the interlock switch on the back door, and check the fuses. Ms. Pac fuse holders are especially crap, so double check that you're getting continuity through them, and that they haven't gone high resistance or broken. (They corrode, and the metal tabs that hold the fuses break).

-Ian
By nothing, the marquee does come on and I can tell the screen turns on I can see the flash when I flip on the power but beyond that, I can't get the game to work ...
 
By nothing, the marquee does come on and I can tell the screen turns on I can see the flash when I flip on the power but beyond that, I can't get the game to work ...

OK, so you have narrowed down where you need to look. Check the fuse holders on the output of the main power transformer, and see if any are bad/broken/corroded. Use your meter to verify that you're getting both 7vac and 12vac to the board edge connector. Unplug the board and verify that the edge connector isn't burnt or damaged.

But the most common culprit in this game is the fuse holders. Check them very carefully. I would not be surprised if you have a bad one causing your problems.

-Ian
 
Have you moved the game recently? While you are checking the fuses take a look at the edge connector and the ribbon cable to the daughter card. Also check all the socketed chips and make sure they are all the way in their sockets. If the original rf filter board is on the edge connector just take it off.
 
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