new battlezone issue, at coin up the game just fires

tron guy

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new battlezone issue, at coin up the game just fires

I played a couple of games with my son and flipped it off to play something else.

I come back later and when you coin up the game it automatically starts and sits frozen in one position and continues to fire.

You can't move the guy any direction or control the firing.

When I go into test mode (bear with me, I don't remember exactly what it says)

I see:
revision (whatever it says) ERASED (on the right side of the screen.

no letters pop up like it did when I was having connection issues.

anyone familiar with this issue?
 
anyone have any ideas?

does that fact that the word ERASED is showing tell any story?
 
here is a picture of the screen in test mode

When in game mode everything appears normal until you coin up, then the game automatically starts without hitting the start button and your guy remains frozen in one spot (cannot move any direction) and continues to fire.

I reseated the high score save kit, all of the scores were erased prior to doing that (curiously)
 

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The game is thinking more than one button it pressed at the same time. There are a few reasons why. If you have tried reseating your large 24 pin connector and also checked the switches and harness leading to the pcb and they are sound, then it's likely to be a board problem and you need to get out the schematics or send it to "your guy" for vector repairs.

Bill
 
The game is thinking more than one button it pressed at the same time. There are a few reasons why. If you have tried reseating your large 24 pin connector and also checked the switches and harness leading to the pcb and they are sound, then it's likely to be a board problem and you need to get out the schematics or send it to "your guy" for vector repairs.

Bill

ok I will get in there and check it out. I did reseat both edge connectors. They are brand new as well, so connection there is fine. I guess I'll mess around a bit with it and see where it leads me, thanks man.
 
anyone have any ideas?

does that fact that the word ERASED is showing tell any story?

Maybe you got the buttons wired wrong or in reverse. I know it shows erased when you clear the high scores on that screen. and that requires holding down buttons start and fire with the Braze kit you Have. Would also explain the constant firing and auto starting.
 
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Maybe you got the buttons wired wrong or in reverse. I know it shows erased when you clear the high scores on that screen. and that requires holding down buttons start and fire with the Braze kit you Have. Would also explain the constant firing and auto starting.

well it could be wired wrong, but it was 100% operational for the last 2 or 3 months.
coin up, hit start, fire button fires, normal stuff

It occured to me that something could be going wrong on the control panel so I will flip it and take a look. I guess I will start by unplugging one of the buttons (start or fire) and see where it leads me

thanks guys
 
Always start with checking voltages. 5 volt problems can cause a variety of issues.

If the game was working, and nothing has been done or changed I think it unlikely its a wiring problem.

Don't have the schems in front of me, so I don't recall if those inputs go through the aux board or main.

You can always unplug the cap and turn it on. That will eliminate switches at least without really doing or undoing anything.
 
OK removing the connection to the start button did nothing (as expected)

I am getting +5.04 at the test point on the bottom board and +5.38 at the test point on the top board.

Is that 5.38 too high?
 
OK removing the connection to the start button did nothing (as expected)

I am getting +5.04 at the test point on the bottom board and +5.38 at the test point on the top board.

Is that 5.38 too high?

Yes and no;

LOGIC FAMILY:

74 |5.25 MAX/4.75 MIN 74LS| 5.25 MAX/4.75 MIN 74HC| 5.5 MAX/ 4.5 MIN 40BE|18 MAX/3 MIN

mEASURE VOLTAGES at the chips to be certain of what is there.
 
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ok I didn't measure voltages at the chips yet, but I have flipped it on 8 or 10 times in the last few days.

every time I turn it on, I can get it to play if I do it right at power up. It plays for 1 minute or so, then it's the same story. My 'man' freezes and won't move either direction, then the screen freezes (IIRC) once I get killed.

Does this sound like a pcb that's getting too much power at the +5?
 
ok I didn't measure voltages at the chips yet, but I have flipped it on 8 or 10 times in the last few days.

every time I turn it on, I can get it to play if I do it right at power up. It plays for 1 minute or so, then it's the same story. My 'man' freezes and won't move either direction, then the screen freezes (IIRC) once I get killed.

Does this sound like a pcb that's getting too much power at the +5?

Well, if your voltage is too high, that would cause problems. You need to make sure the voltages are correct before you can try to figure out if anything else is wrong.
 
Well, if your voltage is too high, that would cause problems. You need to make sure the voltages are correct before you can try to figure out if anything else is wrong.

I totally agree. Is it reasonable to say that 5.0 is what I am looking for at the leg of one of the chips then?

thanks for the input guys, I am highly invested in this battlezone and thought it was 100% but can't wait until it is.
 
I totally agree. Is it reasonable to say that 5.0 is what I am looking for at the leg of one of the chips then?

thanks for the input guys, I am highly invested in this battlezone and thought it was 100% but can't wait until it is.

Yes, you don't want to go too much over 5. 5.1 probably near the max. The closer to 5, the better.
 
I sound like a broken record posting this over and over- have you reflowed the header pins on the inter-connect between the boards? That's job #1 when working on any Atari vector.

You can spend weeks chasing spurious errors that turn out to be caused by cold solder joints.

Since it worked after your repair, try tracing from the edge connector back from the fire input to the first chip. Without looking, I'm going to guess it's a 74LS169, also check the 7474's in the same circuit. Midway used the same chip for inputs on Pacman, so if you've got a dead board, you can rob one from there.
 
Ok got a chance to look at schematics looks like player controls are handled by the pokey at B/C2

The good news is, it may just be that chip.
The bad news is you've only got one on that aux board.
The good news is you should be able to pull it, and see if the problem stops.
The bad news it may be the header/cable Mike mention

Fun huh?
 
yeah I reflowed solder on all of those pins, tested for continuity as well.

I may get back to this tonight or tomorrow and report back. thanks gentlemen
 
Oh geeze- Pokeys, I totally forgot about that. That's more likely the case.

I've been brain dead most of the day, that'll teach me to reply to tech post in that state of mind.
 
Ok got a chance to look at schematics looks like player controls are handled by the pokey at B/C2

The good news is, it may just be that chip.
The bad news is you've only got one on that aux board.
The good news is you should be able to pull it, and see if the problem stops.
The bad news it may be the header/cable Mike mention

Fun huh?

Oh geeze- Pokeys, I totally forgot about that. That's more likely the case.

I've been brain dead most of the day, that'll teach me to reply to tech post in that state of mind.


I replaced one of them I have to see which one it was. There are 4 aren't there? Anyway I will check and report back.
 
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