Picked up a Paperboy project from KLOVer Low-Gain today. I'm excited to get this thing restored. It was sold to me as "working before I stored it" but apparently it has been in storage for a minute. After cleaning it up a bit on the inside (layers of dust) and checking all of the connections I decided to fire it up to see what I got. Oh, I should mention that the only thing inside I see as being not original is that the 5V Power Supply (mounted to the right wall) was at some point replaced with a switcher.
So, I powered it up. Screen came up but all I got was a clicking out of the speakers. Every so often a split second of game sound would come through but that was rare. After verifying that the picture came up I went back around to make sure all was well back there. I noticed that the switcher that was installed had a "key/legend" on it stating that if the light is green then power is good, if it's red then power is high, etc. etc. Well, the light was red. I first checked the 10.3v tp on the ARIII pcb and was getting right around 30V. Checked the +5V tp on the Video pcb and was getting right around 11V. So, getting a bit nervous I quickly checked the +5V on the switcher and was pulling 11V on that also. And I turned the game off. Here's where it really gets good... I did a check on the ARIII pcb since something was obviously up and noticed that R18 is cracked in the middle and looks like it is about to burn, R25 is missing and all that remains is a black burn mark on the pcb, and R27 is crumbling away down to the coiled wire inside.
So, anyone know what's up? Although I do have some ability to troubleshoot there are two issues... 1) I haven't worked with the Atari power setup (i.e. Big Blues, etc) before and 2) I really don't want to turn the game back on again with voltages like that flying through the pcbs.
Thanks
(edit) attached some pics of the entire cab as a "see what I'm starting with" type of thing and a couple pics of the issues on the ARIII
So, I powered it up. Screen came up but all I got was a clicking out of the speakers. Every so often a split second of game sound would come through but that was rare. After verifying that the picture came up I went back around to make sure all was well back there. I noticed that the switcher that was installed had a "key/legend" on it stating that if the light is green then power is good, if it's red then power is high, etc. etc. Well, the light was red. I first checked the 10.3v tp on the ARIII pcb and was getting right around 30V. Checked the +5V tp on the Video pcb and was getting right around 11V. So, getting a bit nervous I quickly checked the +5V on the switcher and was pulling 11V on that also. And I turned the game off. Here's where it really gets good... I did a check on the ARIII pcb since something was obviously up and noticed that R18 is cracked in the middle and looks like it is about to burn, R25 is missing and all that remains is a black burn mark on the pcb, and R27 is crumbling away down to the coiled wire inside.
So, anyone know what's up? Although I do have some ability to troubleshoot there are two issues... 1) I haven't worked with the Atari power setup (i.e. Big Blues, etc) before and 2) I really don't want to turn the game back on again with voltages like that flying through the pcbs.
Thanks
(edit) attached some pics of the entire cab as a "see what I'm starting with" type of thing and a couple pics of the issues on the ARIII
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