Need help with Star Wars - No Picture, Sound, or Blind Play

learpilot2

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Need help with Star Wars - No Picture, Sound, or Blind Play

My Star Wars is dead.

When I power up, the Wells Gardner monitor is black with no picture. The neck has a spark in it, and sounds like a squirl cage rotating. The red light is on in the chassis board.

There is a crackle in the speakers, no game play blind.

All the red led lights are on the 3 pcb boards

All the voltages check good on all PCB boards

I put my newly overhauled ARII board from my Battlezone in the Star Wars - no change.

I removed the RFI Interconnect board

I cleaned all the connectors and edge connectors with a eraser / contact cleaner

I reseated all the removable chips on all the pcb boards.

I think I have exhausted all my knowledge.. Oh yeah, I jiggled everything too!
 
you can also plug in your Tempest monitor to your Star Wars or vice versa. Whatever is easier without having to remove one. Put the games back to back and if you can get enough of the harness loose by removing a few screws that hold it in and plug it in. Sounds like the board though if it wont play blind.
 
test monitors..

I am going to try to rule out my SW monitor by using my Tempest machine. How do I do that? Do I just unplug the square molex plug going to the tempest chassis board, and plug it into the chasis board on the SW? That connector has a second line coming from it that goes somewhere to the top of the SW cab. Does that get upplugged on the SW video connector and pluggeded into the T off of the tempest video in connector to the chasis board? Does the SW machine still need to be powered to run the monitor, or does monitor power come from the video cable? Do I run a risk of screwing up my perfect Tempest? Is the chassis board the same as a deflection board? Not sure what I am looking at. One board is in the HV cage, and the other board I am unsure of the name.
 
you could rule out your Star Wars monitor by plugging it in to Tempest instead of the other way around. You only need to plug in the main molex and you dont need to power on the other game.
 
checking monitor

Let me get this straight. I unplug the molex connector on the Tempest, and plug it into the molex connector on the SW chassis board. The SW stays unpowered. The SW monitor power comes from the 3 brown cables that branch into the video molex connector off the Tempest. So the molex off the SW chassis board now has wires running to the Tempest game boards AND three separate wires to the Tempest power brick.

On more question. The Tempest monitor is labled WG 19K6101, the SW has no ID. It is WG, but only a tube # and sticker labeled 19VLUP22 on the tube. They look the same. How can I be sure they are compatable? Does this test run the risk of jacking up the Tempest machine?

Thanks for the input.
 
19K6100 vs. 19K6101 ???

I think the tempest is a WG 19K6101, and the star wars tube number indicates a WG 19K6100. What is the difference, and is one compatable with the other to allow me to do the above test?
 
That is right, the Star Wars would stay unpowered. Just plug the monitor from Star Wars into Tempest. I do not see any way that this could hurt the Tempest. That is right, the Tempest power brick will power the SW monitor. The wells gardner color monitors that came in Tempest and Star Wars can be swapped from game to game. I just tested a Tempest monitor in a Space Duel.
 
A WG6100 is a WG6100 is a WG6100. 19VLUP22 is the tube used in a WG6100.

You will have to power up both games to get the picture on the monitor that you are testing.
 
A WG6100 is a WG6100 is a WG6100. 19VLUP22 is the tube used in a WG6100.

You will have to power up both games to get the picture on the monitor that you are testing.

If you unplug at one deflection board and plug in at the other deflection board why would the SW need to be powered ? As long as he leaves the plug going to the Tempest brick plugged in, it will be powered.
 
If you unplug at one deflection board and plug in at the other deflection board why would the SW need to be powered ? As long as he leaves the plug going to the Tempest brick plugged in, it will be powered.

Yes, you are correct Dave. I am old and easily confused.;)
 
Swapped monitors

I swapped video out plugs. I plugged the working tempest video out cable into the stars wars cab, and turned on the Tempet. No life on the SW monitor. I swapped it the other way around. I plugged the SW video cable into the good tempest monitor, and turned on the SW.

The tempest monitor showed the SW high score screen for 5 seconds. It said 1 credit, pull trrigger to start. After 5 seconds the screen goes blank, and one loud beep accompanied by 4 blue dots on the screen, one in each corner of the screen. The 4 dots stay on the blank screen for 2 seconds then it goes back to the high score screen. This continues an indefinite cycle every 5 seconds.

The high score screen said pull the trigger to start. I pulled the trigger with no response. No sounds either of any kind.

I put the coin box switch into test mode. And it flips out on the monitor. Random flashing lines that resemble nothing. Also some very bright white concentrated spots on the screen. I tried pushing the coinbox advance button, with little effect on the screen. I shut down to keep from getting a spot burned in on my perfect tempest WG monitor.

Plugged Tempest back in, and monitor is still OK.

Looks like my SW has a monitor AND a game board issue.

I have a local TV tech that can fix the monitor, and I guess I will send SW PCB out for repair. Any ideas for me to try before I do that? I can cap the SW monitor, however, I don't think that is the problem. I get neck glow, and red light on chassis board, and it sounds like a squirl cage. I checked all fuses, all pcb voltages, cleaned connectors, reset roms, new ARII audio board, and I banged on it too.

Thanks for the help. I love SW, but it sounds like it is living up to it's nightmare repair reputation.
 
A common board failure point on SW is the AVG chip. From your description of game play that sounds like either the AVG chip needs to be reseated and/or replaced.
And the red light being on - when first powered it'll come on and go off. If it stays on that's not good. It either means you aren't receiving the necessary + & - voltage from the boardset to the monitor or there's an issue with the deflection board itself.
USe your DMM and check continuity from both ends of the harness. Those molex connectors are infamous for having the pins push back and you don't get a solid connection.
 
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I swapped video out plugs. I plugged the working tempest video out cable into the stars wars cab, and turned on the Tempet. No life on the SW monitor. I swapped it the other way around. I plugged the SW video cable into the good tempest monitor, and turned on the SW.

The tempest monitor showed the SW high score screen for 5 seconds. It said 1 credit, pull trrigger to start. After 5 seconds the screen goes blank, and one loud beep accompanied by 4 blue dots on the screen, one in each corner of the screen. The 4 dots stay on the blank screen for 2 seconds then it goes back to the high score screen. This continues an indefinite cycle every 5 seconds.

The high score screen said pull the trigger to start. I pulled the trigger with no response. No sounds either of any kind.

I put the coin box switch into test mode. And it flips out on the monitor. Random flashing lines that resemble nothing. Also some very bright white concentrated spots on the screen. I tried pushing the coinbox advance button, with little effect on the screen. I shut down to keep from getting a spot burned in on my perfect tempest WG monitor.

Plugged Tempest back in, and monitor is still OK.

Looks like my SW has a monitor AND a game board issue.

I have a local TV tech that can fix the monitor, and I guess I will send SW PCB out for repair. Any ideas for me to try before I do that? I can cap the SW monitor, however, I don't think that is the problem. I get neck glow, and red light on chassis board, and it sounds like a squirl cage. I checked all fuses, all pcb voltages, cleaned connectors, reset roms, new ARII audio board, and I banged on it too.

Thanks for the help. I love SW, but it sounds like it is living up to it's nightmare repair reputation.
I need to just make a cut and paste for this reply but your monitor sounds like it could use a Bob Roberts 40.00 rebuild kit. I don't think caps alone will fix it.
 
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