Pole Position (Multiple problems)

[Scucci]

After getting Battle Zone up and going (with tons of help. Thanks Mark and vrAx), I've been feeling pretty lucky with Atari stuff right now... so I decided to dig into my Pole Position. Took the sense lines out of the picture with the sense mods on both boards, then I paired up all my boards and finally found a CPU and Video board set that pass the self test. No RAM/ROM errors.

But I'm missing most of the graphics. I have no cars, signs, starting gate, or blimp.

As for sounds, I have the engine sound... but that's it... I think, I haven't tried driving it to test the explosion sounds. But I do know I'm missing the "beep beep beep boooooop!" sounds (my favorite part), and my "pwepare to qwualify" sounds, as well as the music.

Lets here it... where should be a good starting point?

 

[Fudd]

cars are at 12j,13j,12h,13n etc, just look at page 2-2 in the manual. i had a block and lines running thru my car and i reseated a couple chips in that area to fix it...

 

[Scucci]

cars are at 12j,13j,12h,13n etc, just look at page 2-2 in the manual. i had a block and lines running thru my car and i reseated a couple chips in that area to fix it...

Yeah, I was looking in there... all the sockets look pretty dirty, but they've checked out with the multi-meter.

I'm going to clean them a little more, try again, and if all else fails, just replace all the sockets.

I'd love to get this down to just a "single" problem and have audio issues but actually have all the graphics.

 

[orion3311]

Not to impede on the thread (its on the same topic), but does anyone know what chip(s) to the beep beep BEEEEP sound, as well as the map music? After mine flips out for 20 minutes and comes to life (every time) it seems those sounds are missing.

I think my flipping out is bad caps on the AR boards. Until I feel like spending the $$ to rebuild em I'll live with it.

 

[jrok]

Not to impede on the thread (its on the same topic), but does anyone know what chip(s) to the beep beep BEEEEP sound, as well as the map music? After mine flips out for 20 minutes and comes to life (every time) it seems those sounds are missing.

So you're losing all the music and sound effects or are some effects playing ?

- James

 

[orion3311]

Mine is missing just those two sounds. When you put the coin in and the map comes up its supposed to play the music, thats missing. Then when the race starts, the red light noises are missing, and its sounds like the OP has the same symptoms.

It worked at one then stopped so I'm assuming its a dirty chip. I fixed one chip's broken legs so I'm afraid to touch them again.

 

[dickmillikan]

The chips at 9C,9E and 9FA generate all the sounds you are missing under control of the Z80, the engine sound is generated from the roms at 12E & 12F along with a few other chips, speech is done by the 52xx at 9E, the circuits are a bit more involved than can be covered here but the above are a starting point.
Dick

 

[Scucci]

The chips at 9C,9E and 9FA generate all the sounds you are missing under control of the Z80, the engine sound is generated from the roms at 12E & 12F along with a few other chips, speech is done by the 52xx at 9E, the circuits are a bit more involved than can be covered here but the above are a starting point.
Dick

Is that Z80 dedicated to just those sounds?

I'm not a big fan of multiple faults... if there's 1 chip that controls multiple things, and most of those things are missing, it's usually easier and safer to assume that chip is screwing everything up, right?

 

[orion3311]

If only life were that easy - I think the Z80 runs the whole game. The problem with Pole Position is that its known to have a lot of multiple probs, just from the boards aging, dirt, bad power supplies, bad connections, etc.

 

[Scucci]

If only life were that easy - I think the Z80 runs the whole game. The problem with Pole Position is that its known to have a lot of multiple probs, just from the boards aging, dirt, bad power supplies, bad connections, etc.

Well, I'm working on ruling the connections/sockets out right now... it's slow going but I REALLY don't want to lift any traces, so I'm taking my sweet time. 6 out of 9 so far for lines 12 & 13 on the CPU board. And 0 traces lifted so far... pretty happy with that since I have a REALLY bad track record with these solid sockets. I like the ones where you can just pop the back case off and do the pins one at a time.

 

[Scucci]

All sockets for the PROMs and custom in 12 & 13 are replaced now... I'm getting SOMETHING atleast now... getting a few vertical lines were the cars, signs, blimp, etc etc are supposed to be.

Baby steps I guess...

EDIT: Added attachement... don't make fun of my 13" test monitor... she's rough. lol

 

[Scucci]

Leaning towards the RAM at 10/9F... Out of replacement RAM, and out of sockets as well... ... balls.