Novice needs help "EEPROM BIT CHECK FAIL"

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Novice needs help "EEPROM BIT CHECK FAIL"

Hi everyone,

I have owner serveral Arcade games over the years but have never had the opportunity to repair one. Well after a recent move I now have a need to fix my once working Lethal Enforcers game. SO... here is where I would much appreciate your help!!!

I ran the test and get an error "EEPROM (Q 2) BIT CHECK FAILURE"

SO I cannot get the game to start. I would love to learn to work on these machines myself and I have read a couple of books including "Guide to electronic gaming" (Atari) and electronics for dummies. Any advice on how to fix this error?? I have tried to figure it out by googling but all I can come up with is that I need to re program the eprom. PLEASE PLEASE help me take the first step into Arcade Repair. Thanks in advance!!!!
 
Thanks

Thank you for your response!! Am I simply just replacing the EEPROM chip with a new one or do I need to flash it? Is it possible to repair an EEPROM chip that is failing? Any further help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
Ok cool... I guess I will try to clean and reseat it. Any suggestions for cleaning? Should I use an eraser of something? Also, I saw a link for a site called hobbyroms.com, would I just contact someone like them to get an already programed EEPROM or what kind of options do I have? Thanks for helpin me out... sorry I have a lot of questions.
 
Generally they are reprogrammed by the CPU on the game board. Sometimes the game suicides when the chip dies, but that's an exception case that luckily is uncommon.
 
Thanks again

Please excuse my ignorance but are you saying that all I need to do is install a blank EEPROM chip and then the CPU will reprogram it.... or is there some other step that I am missing. Thanks
 
Thank you everyone!

Hi thank you for all your help! One last question, where is a good place to buy a blank EEPROM chip? I am still a little confused as everything I keep reading about replacing EEPROM chip says that i must program it before I install with a special EEPROM programmer... but if you say I can simply put in a blank one Im gonna go for it. Any suggestions for buying a blank one would be great. Thanks!

-If anyone could shed some light on why it would be necessary to actually reprogram an EEPROM chip with a EEPROM programmer I would love to know for learning purposes.
 
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Well, it would help to have the board in front of me so I could see what EEPROM chip it took. ;)

Look for a 24 pin chip that starts with a 28 number like a 28C16 or an 8 pin chip like a 24C01. I'm not sure what your board has on it.
 
Pictures....

I took some pictures... not sure exactly where the problem eeprom is (Q 2). Are there some tutorials out there you could direct me to???? I have the manual for this machine but am having problems locating the eeproms... Thanks again for your help!!

-A better representation of my board can be found here on page 18 (Still cant quite figure which are the EEPROM... sorry Im an idiot)

http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/ARCADE/K-R/Lethal Enforcers US [Instruction Manual] [English].pdf

I appreciate you taking the time to help me. I saw you have written many tutorial posts.... Kudos to you man!!
 

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On that board, it's a little 8 pin EEPROM up near the JAMMA connector. The hard part is that's an oddball oldie that is difficult to find.

RJ
 
Well that doesnt sound good.... Any suggestions as to how I proceed? I know see where Q2 is.. man I was looking all over? Do you know where I can get a replacement? It looks like I need to get one so any advice... again... would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

-There is a board on ebay for 9.99... could I swap them out or would buying a new board be overboard?
 
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I can probably pull one off a parts board for you.... keep in mind that it is possible that the board could have other problems.

I've seen EEPROM issues be caused by bad EEPROMs, a bad 74xx logic chip interfacing to the EEPROM, and damaged traces on the board.

RJ
 
Hi,

Thank you again for helping me through this issue. I can tell you that it did work before I moved. After the move I am getting this bad eeprom message when holding the test button down and turning the machine on. I am assuming I can visual inspect the traces... but are there any other tests I can do to isolate the issue so I know exactly whats failing? It would be great if I could get a replacement from you if the eeprom in question is truly the culprit. Do you repair boards for people? If I decided to just send the board off for repair how much $$ would I be looking at? I am interesting in learning and fixing this myself... as I to am cheap and prefer to fix things on my own. I really appreciate your time you are truly doing a service to those in need of help!
 
Additional Help please

Hi all,

I am back to trying to reolve this issue. Can anyone else please check out the thread and let me know if you have any ideas? In the first picture top left here is a circular transistor (I think) rather large and it is broke off one of the legs. This is obviously a problem but do you think it could cause this? Again thanks in advance for the help!!!!
 
Hi all,

I am back to trying to reolve this issue. Can anyone else please check out the thread and let me know if you have any ideas? In the first picture top left here is a circular transistor (I think) rather large and it is broke off one of the legs. This is obviously a problem but do you think it could cause this? Again thanks in advance for the help!!!!

no, it's not a transistor, it is a cap. i see that your board is konami's one. how about you try to take these step : turn it off, press that little button near jamma socket (i don't remember if it need to press service button also, but try both), keep press them (don't release yet) and turn it on. after a while, release them. now, you should see something like eeprom initialized or else (i don't remember). turn it off and on again (or if the game run already, you don't need to do so).
 
Thank you sir I will try it when I get home. Zinc one of the legs is broken off the capacitor what will that affect? Can't be good... would you expect the game to still work if the capacitor is not completely connected to the board? I will post pictures this evening. Thank you soo much@!
 
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