Picked up an Asteroids -works but has a high pictched squeel...any ideas?

enjoyvelvet

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Picked up an Asteroids -works but has a high pictched squeel...any ideas?

Picked up a pretty nice Asteroids. The game works except some of the words have garbled graphics like "player one" during demo mode. The squeel level changes when I adjust the volume pot so I don't think the monitor is the issue...the squeel is def coming from the speaker. All the game sounds work when you play a game and the squeel goes away when you switch into test mode. Only the words seem to have garbled graphics. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
 
High pitched sequel is usually a tantalum capacitor.

It is probably a bad capacitor of some type (tantalum or electrolytic).

Tantalum usually short out but not always.

Electrolytic usually weaken or open again not always.
 
Mine had this issue too once.

Check the coin door slam switch. If the two ends are touching, it sounds an alarm through the speaker and won't stop until you bend the two ends away from each other and stop the contact.

This is the sound to signal operators the game is being trashed on when people beat on the coin door.
 
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thanks for the advice guys! I've never heard of a tantalum cap...like on the power supply or should I be looking somewhere else.

I'll look into the coin door slam switch...the door just kinda stays swung open right now so maybe something is touching. It's weird that it stops during test mode.

Any idea what the minor graphics glitch probs could be?
 
Nice call on the slam switch.

Any chance you could post a pic of the messed-up letters, and/or the test mode display?
 
garbled letters

heres a few pics showing the screen during demo mode, test mode, and inputting initials.

sorry if the pics are sideways!

during gameplay the ship and asteroids look fine...only the letters or score are garbled
 

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If so, mine had this issue too once.

Check the coin door slam switch. If the two ends are touching, it sounds an alarm through the speaker and won't stop until you bend the two ends away from each other and stop the contact.

This is the sound to signal operators the game is being trashed on when people beat on the coin door.

I have heard of Nolan Bushnell talk about this but I have never seen one. So is it just two pieces of contacts that touch when coin door is "slamed"?
 
I have heard of Nolan Bushnell talk about this but I have never seen one. So is it just two pieces of contacts that touch when coin door is "slamed"?

Yep, that is it! The leaf switch technically.

When I got my machine I had to send the board out and when I got it back, it started making this noise. I had no idea and thought it was the board again. The guy that fixed the board had no idea what it was either. I only found out about it when I was poking around and noticed the leaf switch ends were touching, so I bent them away from each other. The noise stopped, so than I manually touched the ends and bingo!

It's also the noise the machine makes when you get an extra ship every 10,000 pts.
 
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