Robotron - no response from the control panel but boots up fine

enjoyvelvet

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Robotron - no response from the control panel but boots up fine

Really weird. My Robotron has worked flawlessly for years but now I get no response at all from the control panel. When turning on the machine it goes into the "factory settings restored, open the coin door"...when I do that and hit the test button inside the coin door it boots up into demo mode to factory settings just fine. I replaced the CR2032 button that holds the settings thinking that would do the trick but no luck. Still no response from the player 1 or 2 buttons or the joysticks. I can coin up just fine from inside the coin door but it won't start a game when I hit player 1 or 2 and just stays in attract mode.

I've done the following...

-replaced CR2032 battery on the board
-gone into switch test...only the right joystick registers going left and right only
-reseated the connector to the control panel (the lights under the player 1 and 2 button are working so its getting power)

Any ideas where to look?? I can't change the settings in test mode since the joysticks wont work. Really weird. Thank you in advance!
 
I would say its the IO board. Might just have to reseat the ribbon cable. Or you may have to reflow some solder on the connector.
 
now is where you get an alligator clip out and start jumpering your bad inputs to the good grounds. do they register again? if so, then you have a broken ground someplace. judging by your right and left only working, when you have either down or up inline with those grounds, I'm leaning towards it being a bad ribbon cable.

I had this exact thing on the Robotron at work where I think left/right didn't work and I started spinning my tires going over the connections in the panel until I had it in the switch test and bounced the ribbon around and it made it register random inputs.

this is how you diagnose a bad input ribbon. be mindful one half of the cable is soldered in, and unless you have really good desoldering tools, this process can suck. if you need it replaced, I can do it for a small fee.
 
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