No sound from Sky Kid board

eBayfreak

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I just picked up a Sky Kid in a converted Stargate cabinet (for $30, no less). The game powers up and plays great but the sound is completely dead.

So far, I've checked the wiring and speaker, then I reseated all the chips on the PCB... still no audio whatsoever. Any other things I should try? I believe this is similar to a Pac-Land board.
 
I just picked up a Sky Kid in a converted Stargate cabinet (for $30, no less). The game powers up and plays great but the sound is completely dead.

So far, I've checked the wiring and speaker, then I reseated all the chips on the PCB... still no audio whatsoever. Any other things I should try? I believe this is similar to a Pac-Land board.

Pull the skykid out and restore to Stargate, put the skykid in a 25" dynamo where it belongs, a 19" dynamo will also work in a pinch ;)

Now for the audio.. check the audio amp, touch it to see if it's at least getting a little warm. If you have a like a pair of small headphone speakers attach one side to ground and the other side to the middle pin of the volume pot, turn the volume to the middle. Then put into test mode and try playing some sounds. If you're getting sound that narrows it down to at least the amp side of things.

The amps do go on these boards, but they're LA4460's and pretty easy to find replacements.

If it's not the audio amp check for broken pins on the long brown colored SIP ic "cus 99", there's only one on the board, don't have the location to hand. Make sure it doesn't have any pins snapped off. I've seen these totally bent over and pins broken.

- James
 
Wow James, thanks for the quick and excellent advise! Haha, I'd love to convert this back to a Stargate, and I'll probably start collecting parts toward that goal but right now I'm going to avoid investing much money in it. Sky Kid is actually very entertaining I must say.

I did as you said and hooked a tiny PC speaker to the volume pot pins, and voilà, there was very faint game audio coming from the speaker. I've had the machine on for a while now and the audio amp is still cool to the touch, so I'm guessing it's dead.

I'm usually pretty good at blindly fixing stuff, but these arcade machines get a little tricky and I don't always know how to troubleshoot since I'm more or less a rookie at this, so thanks again!
 
Sky Kid is actually very entertaining I must say
It's probably my favorite game of all time, it's such a blast to play. Two player co-op is a whole lot of fun.

there was very faint game audio coming from the speaker. I've had the machine on for a while now and the audio amp is still cool to the touch, so I'm guessing it's dead.

It could be dead but also check the 12v to the board, it's only used for the audio amp, so might be missing. The other thing to check is the speaker wiring, just make sure it really is connected ;)

- James
 
Well, after close inspection after getting the board out, I actually found a hole that looks chipped out of the middle of the amp chip, so I'm guessing that it's toasted. The game has a recent switcher power supply installed so I'm confident that all's good power wise. Thanks again!
 
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