Q*bert issues

trickman

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Hi, question for all you Q*bert gurus out there...does this sound like a main board problem? I turn on the Q*bert, the marquee light goes on, the Q*bert voice came on and said (hello, I'm turned on), and the monitor comes on but is stuck at a solid blue color, like the background color but nothing else. It doesn't get past this, nor did the knocker make a noise after I turned it on. Any idea?

BTW, my PS is fine, my bridge rectifier has been rebuilt, and my filter board was rebuilt, so, it's getting proper power.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
It sounds like a power and/or edge connector issue. I'm learning as I go with Q*Bert, but these seem to be the obvious first things to check (voltages/edges.)

The kicker on my machine doesn't fire on startup, fyi.
 
Check solder joints for the connectors on Filter Board

I had this exact same problem with mine. I took the filter board off, redid the solder joints for all the connectors on it (and they needed it!) and bingo booted up and works 100%. I know you said rebuilt the filter board, but can't hurt to check it anyways.
 
If I recall, there's two volume pots on the soundboard. Turn em both up.

Okay, I'll try that for the tunes.

Any idea on the wrong sounds that are playing? Q*bert's jump sounds are definitely wrong, and it seem most every sound is switched out for an alternate sound.
 
Okay, I'll try that for the tunes.

Any idea on the wrong sounds that are playing? Q*bert's jump sounds are definitely wrong, and it seem most every sound is switched out for an alternate sound.

Replace 74LS377 @ A10 on main board. That usually takes care of this problem.
 
Replace 74LS377 @ A10 on main board. That usually takes care of this problem.

Here?

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Yes... Replace it... put a socket in there... it is the #1 reason for sound failure.
 
I don't have it in front of me at the moment. If it's socketed, could I potentially reseat it and see what happens?

Its safe to say it will definitly be socketed. Reseating most likely wont help but it wouldnt hurt to try. The chips fails and fails often. Anytime you have wrong sounds playing or missing some sounds this should be the first thing to check.
 
my qbert its still soldered in, of course, its also a 100% untouched matching serial number machine :)

but out of the 6 boards i have worked on, 5 have had sockets :)
 
Its safe to say it will definitly be socketed. Reseating most likely wont help but it wouldnt hurt to try. The chips fails and fails often. Anytime you have wrong sounds playing or missing some sounds this should be the first thing to check.

I did a swap out replacement of this chip from my other board. It worked! My sounds are correct now. Thanks so much for the advice! Now to get that old battery off the replacement board.
 
Speaking of the battery, it says DataSentry on it. Is this guaranteed to be a bad, leaky battery that I should definitely desolder? Will I get a garbled mess instead of scores, or what might happen?
 
Speaking of the battery, it says DataSentry on it. Is this guaranteed to be a bad, leaky battery that I should definitely desolder? Will I get a garbled mess instead of scores, or what might happen?

It will leak and it'll damage the traces and components around it. Worst of all it's nearly impossible to solder once corroded so repair is extremely difficult if possible at all.

Since you've got a Multi Q*bert, the DataSentry battery isn't needed at all and removing it won't change anything if you're running the kit since the scores and settings are saved to a serial EPROM (the small 8 pin device on the main kit board).
 
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