Rommager
Member
I picked up an almost working PP for $150 a couple weeks ago - it had a Rom 3 / Rom 2 error. At some point while monkeying with the board, it started suddenly working, except for 2 issues:
1) The game is on Free Play, but it automatically just coins and starts a game. I wasn't 100% sure this is correct behavior for Free Play since there is no start button - it seems this is common, although I did not know that at the moment.
2) Hi scores were wigging out, and showing values of 655,350, which just happens to be the decimal of hex value FF with a zero appended on the end. Sounds like a bad chip, or a loose/dirty chip.
I pulled, cleaned, and re-seated all the chips on the left board (the board with the 30 pin edge connector.) Most of the chips were pretty gunky and nasty, and one of the custom chips had half broken legs, so I had to re-solder some legs on
to get the game working again, but it worked - the high score table was no longer wigging out.
Figuring I would try and take stab at correcting the auto game start thing, I proceeded to pull, clean, and re-seat chips on the other board (with what was left of the 44 pin edge), and found a few chips with very brittle legs that were bending very easily. I managed to not snap any of them off, thankfully, but I suspect that maybe one of them broke on reinsertion.
So, the symptom is now that the game operates ok, but when you accelerate, the engine noise just cuts out about half way up on the low gear. If you slow down, the engine sound comes back.
Again, I think one of the brittle legs may have snapped when reinserting, but I don't exactly want to start pulling all the chips again to see which one, for fear that more legs on the Namco customs may not survive another extraction/re-insertion.
I'm looking over the schematics, and have some chips to start at, but thought maybe one of the guys here who have gone through great pains on PP boards may have some advice of narrowing down to the right chip a little faster. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Sean
1) The game is on Free Play, but it automatically just coins and starts a game. I wasn't 100% sure this is correct behavior for Free Play since there is no start button - it seems this is common, although I did not know that at the moment.
2) Hi scores were wigging out, and showing values of 655,350, which just happens to be the decimal of hex value FF with a zero appended on the end. Sounds like a bad chip, or a loose/dirty chip.
I pulled, cleaned, and re-seated all the chips on the left board (the board with the 30 pin edge connector.) Most of the chips were pretty gunky and nasty, and one of the custom chips had half broken legs, so I had to re-solder some legs on
Figuring I would try and take stab at correcting the auto game start thing, I proceeded to pull, clean, and re-seat chips on the other board (with what was left of the 44 pin edge), and found a few chips with very brittle legs that were bending very easily. I managed to not snap any of them off, thankfully, but I suspect that maybe one of them broke on reinsertion.
So, the symptom is now that the game operates ok, but when you accelerate, the engine noise just cuts out about half way up on the low gear. If you slow down, the engine sound comes back.
Again, I think one of the brittle legs may have snapped when reinserting, but I don't exactly want to start pulling all the chips again to see which one, for fear that more legs on the Namco customs may not survive another extraction/re-insertion.
I'm looking over the schematics, and have some chips to start at, but thought maybe one of the guys here who have gone through great pains on PP boards may have some advice of narrowing down to the right chip a little faster. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Sean
