problem with marble madness SOLVED - but why? ;-)

Superully

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i've HAD the following problem with my system 1 cab:

no matter which game i inserted, they all showed problems about 10 seconds after i turned on the machine (picture and / or sound distorted). all the board components had been tested on a friend's machine - where they worked just fine!

for more info see this thread: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=94272

the only thing i hadn't done was exchange the wiring. so i took it out of another system 1 cab and swapped it - VOILA, marble madness is up and running!

"ok", i though, "must have been the wiring", so i took a multimeter and checked ALL THE WIRES of the old harness for continuity - everything working perfectly. i re-inserted the old wiring and once again the problems were there. in with the new wiring again: VOILA AGAIN!

i'm happy that the game is working now, but i'd like to know why it isn't running with the old wiring harness which seems to be perfectly intact ...

any ideas?
 
i've HAD the following problem with my system 1 cab:

no matter which game i inserted, they all showed problems about 10 seconds after i turned on the machine (picture and / or sound distorted). all the board components had been tested on a friend's machine - where they worked just fine!

for more info see this thread: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=94272

the only thing i hadn't done was exchange the wiring. so i took it out of another system 1 cab and swapped it - VOILA, marble madness is up and running!

"ok", i though, "must have been the wiring", so i took a multimeter and checked ALL THE WIRES of the old harness for continuity - everything working perfectly. i re-inserted the old wiring and once again the problems were there. in with the new wiring again: VOILA AGAIN!

i'm happy that the game is working now, but i'd like to know why it isn't running with the old wiring harness which seems to be perfectly intact ...

any ideas?

The harness might have weak pins in the connectors. If you can find replacements, you could replace the connectors on the harness.
 
I also had some "ghost" problem with running certain boards in one cabinet.

I think it had something to do with that some boards need to have the +12V on both sides connected as the +12V was only connected on the lower side of my Jamma conector.

Yes when you push the multimeter in the connector at the 12 V you get a good reading but its only one side that gives you the reading.
 
You checked the wiring for continuity point to point. Now check it point to point and 1 on each side. Sounds like you have an insulation breakdown or an unwanted bridge in your wiring.
 
what dave means is check each pin in the connector with its 2 adjacent "neighbors" to see if any of them are shorted together. Mind you, use a schematic as some might supposed to have continuity (grounds +5v, ect).

However, if you have a good harness in it now, just go with it. Unless your determined to find the exact cause of the problem, harness seems good enough to me.
 
However, if you have a good harness in it now, just go with it. Unless your determined to find the exact cause of the problem, harness seems good enough to me.

that's true, but the replacement wiring harness came from another system 1 cab which i'm planning on using at some point in the future, too - that's why i want that wire fixed before i put it back in again!
 
You checked the wiring for continuity point to point. Now check it point to point and 1 on each side. Sounds like you have an insulation breakdown or an unwanted bridge in your wiring.

i've just checked the harness "point to point and 1 on each side" - everything's like it's supposed to be, so it seems there's no continuity problem / unwanted bridge in the wiring.

is there anything else i can check? something HAS TO BE wrong with the harness!
 
You may still have issues with the connections that a continuity meter won't locate, especially in the power lines. The power connectors need to be solid or you can read continuity but not be able to pull the full load through them. If they are IDC connectors they can get hot and cause issues as the wires expand under load.

I would start with replacing the power connectors and seeif that helps.

ken
 
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