My Crystal Castles died yesterday...HELP!

AlkalineJay

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My girlfriend has a rockabilly-esque boutique. Just for fun I put a few games in the place to give it more style ;-) One of the games is Crystal Castles. It has been a huge hit. People come in and try to buy it every day. Yesterday, my gf comes into the store, opens it up for the day, fires all the games up, and crystal castles is toast. The lights come on, monitor comes on, but no startup sound. I went down there today and pulled the back door off, I re-seated all the roms, nothing. I took the filter board off, nothing. Ive never had problems with this game, so I dont know that much about it, but I did notice when I fire the game up, the red light on the board doesnt come on. Could this be a power issue, not a board issue? That is my number one suspect right now. I've checked all fuses,and all are still good. Any help guys?
 
Take all voltage readings. The #1 thing to do is check your power supply. Take readings and let us know. Connectors could be dirty also, but if led is not comming on it is most probable power supply.
 
replace big blue. recap your audio reg.

If you look at the audio reg, look for a burnt resistor. the area around the resistor will look black, so if that happened, you will spot it..

Start at the power cord. make sure power is going into the transformer.

meter the audio reg at its test points to see if you have any power coming in.
 
replace big blue. recap your audio reg.

If you look at the audio reg, look for a burnt resistor. the area around the resistor will look black, so if that happened, you will spot it..

Start at the power cord. make sure power is going into the transformer.

meter the audio reg at its test points to see if you have any power coming in.


Im assuming your referring to the big blue cap on the power board? I've never done something of that magnitude, but I dont imagine its too terribly hard. Where is the best place to get one of those? As far as the audio reg, Im honestly not sure where that is, is there a schematic on this game? I've actually never had to work on my crystal castles, its always ran like a champ. One other question, theoretically, how difficult is it to wire in a switcher instead? Would that be a wiser choice?
 
Im assuming your referring to the big blue cap on the power board? I've never done something of that magnitude, but I dont imagine its too terribly hard. Where is the best place to get one of those? As far as the audio reg, Im honestly not sure where that is, is there a schematic on this game? I've actually never had to work on my crystal castles, its always ran like a champ. One other question, theoretically, how difficult is it to wire in a switcher instead? Would that be a wiser choice?

No need to wire in a switcher. First is to replace Big Blue (it's simple). Bob Roberts has them. It wouldn't hurt to pick up some fuses and the A/R II rebuild kit from him either. If you'd rather not rebuild the A/R II, a member here had a bunch of them ready to go. Let me look up who it was... EDIT: PM member pacray

Manual: http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arcade_Atari_Kee/Crystal_Castles/
 
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Im assuming your referring to the big blue cap on the power board? I've never done something of that magnitude, but I dont imagine its too terribly hard. Where is the best place to get one of those? As far as the audio reg, Im honestly not sure where that is, is there a schematic on this game? I've actually never had to work on my crystal castles, its always ran like a champ. One other question, theoretically, how difficult is it to wire in a switcher instead? Would that be a wiser choice?

big blue is in the transformer in the bottom of the cabinet.. Its $12.50 from bob. very easy to replace.

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/bigblue.html

you should atleast recap the audio reg 2.
http://www.therealbobroberts.net/aar2.html


look for this reisitor to see if its burnt. if bruned, you have a loose edge connector problem.
http://www.stickycarpet.com/pinx/_images/ar2r29.jpg

http://www.stickycarpet.com/pinx/pp2page2.html
 
Alright, replaced the big blue, no change. Next up, I am going to attempt to swap out the arII in hopes that this is what I need! The cab powers up, lights come on, monitor fires up, buttons light up, but no game. I've checked all the connections to the board, everything is good, reseated all the roms as well, no change. I really dont know what else it could be besides the arII. The board itself has never had any problem whatsoever, so I dont really think it is the culprit.
 
Why do all you guys jump to replacing the blue capacitor?!?! You have to *test* things first, don't just jump in there and start throwing parts at it.

Take a step back. Put down the screwdriver. Get your multimeter and test the power supply. You can pinpoint the fault with the meter, and from there you can determine what you need to replace. Have you even checked the fuses?

I'd hate to see you guys working on a car. Won't start - no need to check the battery or fuel. Put in a new alternator, distributor, battery, plugs and wires. If it still won't start - new engine.

-Ian
 
Why do all you guys jump to replacing the blue capacitor?!?! You have to *test* things first, don't just jump in there and start throwing parts at it.

Take a step back. Put down the screwdriver. Get your multimeter and test the power supply. You can pinpoint the fault with the meter, and from there you can determine what you need to replace. Have you even checked the fuses?

I'd hate to see you guys working on a car. Won't start - no need to check the battery or fuel. Put in a new alternator, distributor, battery, plugs and wires. If it still won't start - new engine.

-Ian

Exactly!!! Thank you for saying it!!!
 
Me personally I always replace the big blue on any Atari game I'm keeping for my collection just as part of preventive maintenance. In fact when I was working on my Star Wars I had a low +5 problem and I stared out rebuilding the ARII and checking the edge connector. Oddly enough it did end up being the big blue and when I put a new one in, I was able to get the +5 to adjust beyond the 4.6 it was maxed at. I have to confess that is the first time I can recall replacing one and actually having it fix a problem. I wouldn't suspect the big blue in this case either and would check your voltages and fuses as RetroHacker mentioned.
 
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Take all voltage readings. The #1 thing to do is check your power supply. Take readings and let us know. Connectors could be dirty also, but if led is not comming on it is most probable power supply.

Did I not say this in the 2nd post. What are the voltages?
 
get used to reading manuals and schems.grab the manual for your game from net and learn to read the schems ie:what wires carry what voltages so you can see what is what.rather than running in with meter and not knowing what you are looking for or what is not right.

some atari games have test points on the game boards so see if you can see any on the board they should be like little loops with the voltages next to them in writing,i dont own this game so i am only suggesting you look as i know missile command has,ar2 should aslo have the test points marked on the board.

so meter them points and write the volatges down and see what does look right or wrong.
:)
 
get used to reading manuals and schems.grab the manual for your game from net and learn to read the schems ie:what wires carry what voltages so you can see what is what.rather than running in with meter and not knowing what you are looking for or what is not right.

some atari games have test points on the game boards so see if you can see any on the board they should be like little loops with the voltages next to them in writing,i dont own this game so i am only suggesting you look as i know missile command has,ar2 should aslo have the test points marked on the board.

so meter them points and write the volatges down and see what does look right or wrong.
:)

As "terrible" as a thing it was, I replaced the big blue, and put in a rebuilt arII, and neither fixed the issue. So basically, where I currently sit, is I get power to monitor marquee light, cp button lights, but nothing on the board. I've taken the interconnect board out as well, but it looks as if I may have a dead board. This is perplexing as I've never had any issues with the board whatsoever. Not one glitch to indicate any problem at all. I originally ruled the board out because of how well it has always ran for me. As for reading voltages, that is something I have yet to master. I need to sit down and do that. Is there anything else it could be? I really think I have ruled out all possibilities, and it looks as if I need to consider a costly board repair...sigh...
 
Why do all you guys jump to replacing the blue capacitor?!?! You have to *test* things first, don't just jump in there and start throwing parts at it.

Take a step back. Put down the screwdriver. Get your multimeter and test the power supply. You can pinpoint the fault with the meter, and from there you can determine what you need to replace. Have you even checked the fuses?

I'd hate to see you guys working on a car. Won't start - no need to check the battery or fuel. Put in a new alternator, distributor, battery, plugs and wires. If it still won't start - new engine.

-Ian

Absolutely spot on!!!!
 
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I originally ruled the board out because of how well it has always ran for me. As for reading voltages, that is something I have yet to master. I need to sit down and do that. Is there anything else it could be? I really think I have ruled out all possibilities, and it looks as if I need to consider a costly board repair...sigh...

You have not ruled out all the possibilities. Not even close. You've lobbed parts at the game. But you have not done ANY real diagnosis. Do you even know that the "rebuilt" ARII is working? Have you set the 5V to be correct? Is the edge connector damaged? Are your fuses good? Is the rectifier in the power brick good?

Do you even own a multimeter? If not, you should buy one. The package it comes in should tell you how to use it.

-Ian
 
Man, I've taken a good beating in here thats for sure! I bought two parts (from members nontheless) for this game because I was advised to do so. It was not my intention to offend people by doing so lol! I have purchased a multimeter and am going to attempt to take a crack at using it. I just want my beloved crystal castles to work again is that so bad? To the people who have offered assistance, I truly appreciate your help. Thank you very much.
 
Man, I've taken a good beating in here thats for sure! I bought two parts (from members nontheless) for this game because I was advised to do so. It was not my intention to offend people by doing so lol! I have purchased a multimeter and am going to attempt to take a crack at using it. I just want my beloved crystal castles to work again is that so bad? To the people who have offered assistance, I truly appreciate your help. Thank you very much.


AJ, you didn't take the beating, a few of the advice givers did! ;)

Anyway, based on what you have said about your electronic skills, installing a switcher is likely too much for you to jump into, but not impossible. I have a switcher in mine, works great, but because the audio comes from the AR board which also produces the 5v power, you need to disable the 5v circuit similar to the Pole Position switcher mod. The installation actually is just like the Pole Position job with the exception of only 1 AR board and there is also a 10v line feed to the PCB (which I fed 12v to without any issue).

Take the advice of the testers and check the PS first.
A power LED out is 90% likely to be that.
Check the 5v feed to the PCB first.
Fuses? Then Feeds off the PS (part with the big blue) and then finally the AR.
I'd advise you to just fix what is there, don't worry about switchers.
Bob Roberts sells AR rebuild kits too.
 
As for fuses , you need to meter them OUT of circuit and then make sure they are in tight. You need to measure for +5 at the voltage regulator board first, and if it's there, measure it at the main board.
 
I had a problem with my CC when I got it. It happened to be the power brick assembly. Bad rectifier. It's nice to have other machines that you can swap out similar parts with. When I tested the 10v at the board it was oscillating back and forth.
 
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