Pacman cocktail problems

jjdemu

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Donor 2012
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Of course I finally got my ms pac running I get a call from my old boss that wanted to know if I could look at someones pacman cocktail since I like playing and fixing some arcades. Back story is he got it off eBay and it worked fine for a few days then he had problems with it resetting itself and the guy sent him another board and wiring harness and he has the same problem with the other board. He only replaced the board not the wiring harness. I look over the wiring harness that the guy sent and it is in bad shape compare to what he has in it already. He does not want to send it back and figures maybe I can help him out. Machine looks nice as hell looks original and clean. Pcb connector is clean looks almost brand new inside. The connector on the pacman board is even clean and shiny.

I went over today and to check out his pac and the game plays great and when we got to the point when the apple bonus comes up it reset itself and we was able to get this to happen twice. He says this usually happens in that spot or other times. He says that this happens with both boards with the apple bonus which I find that just strange. Any ideals on what I should check.
I figure he should get a pacman cap kit and a new fuse holder at least but find it just odd that both pacman boards would reset itself in the same spot.
He has a problem with his monitor also you can see the post here http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=176453
What you all think and ideals on troubleshooting this strange behavior??

Thank You
JJD
 

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Usually when you get issues that only happen on certain levels its eprom related. If it still has the old masked roms on row 6 they should be changed. If they are in good condition you can try cleaning them but if it were mine i would replace them.
 
I know the original board had all original mask roms so I will burn him a set of chips to replace them. Just surprising that both boards have the same problems. Thank you again Riptor hopefully we get that problem fix and now for his monitor problems.
 
Make sure you meter out all the fuses too. Most boards wont boot if one fuse is blown but I have seen a few that do but will reboot after a little play. I found this out on accident one time my test rig had a blow fuse. One board played fine then I had several that wouldnt. It took me a while to figure it out since that one board was testing good and my 5v on the board was still showing fine. I never thought to check the fuse. On power issues I always start on the board and work my way back to the power supply.
Of course a bad fuse holder will give you the same results and its very common for those brass fuseholders to become weak.
Good luck and let everyone know what you find out.
 
Just rebuilt his monitor chassis and recap his pacman board and added the highscore kit he bought. Everything plays fine in my cabinet and plan on going over to his house tomorrow to put everything back together and install a new fuse holder. This should make him happy to finally play his PAC with no more problems for a long time.
 
Went to his house a few days and put the monitor chassis in and did rest of the work and of course it would restart when the start to play the second player most of the time. We had it on for a few hours just to make sure everything was working fine on his monitor and it does not fade out anymore. In a few days will start looking at his wiring harness and leaf switches to make sure nothing is shorting out. When I left he called back and said when he flip the switch for a credit it restarted on him. So it must be shorting in a few places.
 
Went over today and check connection, redid some solder joints bloody thing still resetting on the second player. Last resort i swapped the vram board and the Sync Buss Controller board between his two pacman boards and both work with no problems now. I just told him keep my number if and when if he ever has any problems.
 
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