OK! I did it! My first real repair that actually fixed something!
Long story, but I did some basic troubleshooting to determine where the last problem with my new board set was. Since I have a partially working set, I am able to use some of the parts to figure out what's going on.
It was suggested that I swap the CPU out of my old boardset with the one on my new SW/ESB boardset (the one that I thought Big Blue killed.) I was a little nervous about breaking the ESB kit, so I decided to swap out my [original] entire CPU board and run it with the new AVG board [SW/ESB] Same results--game wouldn't play blind and the monitor just flickered. I was getting the "May the Force Be With You" post sound intermittently though.
This was good because I could reasonably assume that the new SW/ESB CPU board is good.
(Keep in mind that my "New" boardset has Clay's clever kit from 1996--at least that's what the date on the PCB for ESB kit says.)
So now that I believed the issue to be something on the AVG board itself I took my known good AVG chip and swapped it. No go. Same results. I was now beginning to suspect either RAM or the AVG Star Wars chip at L-1. (#105)
So, here is what I noticed--there was a couple of issues. First, looking closely at the SW AVG chip at L-1 I noticed that the solder joint for the ESB hack had broken. Also, the connector between the sound board and the AVG board wasn't tightly gripping the wire and it was loose in the sheath. I resoldered the lead on the chip and also put a new connector on the board connection wire for the ESB kit.
This allowed me to run the game blindly! Then I was able to put it into test mode.
And wouldn't you know it...
BEEP BEEP BEEP BOOP! BEEP BEEP...
So checking this handy chart:
1) RAM 2F/H on the CPU board (a 2Kx8 for the CPU)
2) RAM 5F on the CPU board (a 2Kx8 for the Matrix processor)
3) RAM 5H on the CPU board (a 2Kx8 for the Matrix processor)
4) RAM 3L on the AVG board (a 2Kx8 for vector RAM) ***
5) RAM 3M on the AVG board (a 2Kx8 for vector RAM)
6) RAM 4P on the AVG board (a 2Kx8 for vector RAM)
7) RAM 4L on the AVG board (a 2Kx8 for vector RAM)
8) RAM 4M on the AVG board (a 2Kx8 for vector RAM)
9) RAM 4P on the AVG board (a 2Kx8 for vector RAM)
10) NOVRAM 1E on the CPU board (a 2212 Xicor 256x4 NOVRAM)
11) EPROM 1F or 1M on the CPU board +++
12) EPROM 1 J/K on the CPU board
13) EPROM 1 K/L on the CPU board
14) EPROM 1F or 1M on the CPU board +++
15) EPROM 1 H/J on the CPU board (The daughtercard for ESB)
16) EPROM 1 L on the AVG board ***
I was able to determine the RAM at 3L on the AVG board was bad. I swapped it from one my spare boardset and BAM it's back up and running!
WOOT!
Now, I just have one issue. That left sound channel keeps dropping... time for a new thread...