Robotron: RAM ERROR 32

11111steve

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Hi everyone,

I picked up a robotron last week. It was working fine until one day when I turned it on. The rug pattern comes up, then says RAM ERROS 32. What does this mean? Is there anything I should check that may be an easy fix or do I have to go into completing board work?

Thanks!
 
the Ram at 3-2 is bad for some reason. you could try re-seating it or swapping it with another RAM chip on the board and see what happens.

Check the manual to see where 3-2 is on your board. It's pretty simple. You can get a chip extractor from Radio Shack. Just take your time when taking it out so you don't break off the legs.
 
Check the manual to see where 3-2 is on your board. It's pretty simple. You can get a chip extractor from Radio Shack. Just take your time when taking it out so you don't break off the legs.

Swap the chip at 32 with the chip at 22 and see if it changes to RAM 22. You don't have to watch the screen, as the LED readout on the ROM board will flash 1-3-2 for 32 and 1-2-2 for 22. If the error changes to 22, then just replace the 4116 RAM chip at 22. If it stays on 32, then either that chip socket is bad, or the voltage to it is problematic.

Here's the chip layout on the CPU board:

WilliamsRAM.jpg
 
Thanks a lot for the help guys! I swapped the chip at 3-2 with the chip at 3-1 and the error has now changed to RAM ERROR 31. So, its the chip. Do I have to replace it with a specific chip? Do I follow the numbers silkscreened on it? Can I grab another RAM from a completely different board? Thanks a lot for the help guys!
 
NO! Replace it with the exact replacement type... What does Robotron use, 4116 rams? You could have a hundred RAM chips with the same pins and look the same yet they're ALL different. Pinouts, speeds, memory... get the right one. It should be printed as a part number on top of the chip.
 
Bob Roberts sells the RAM and adapter for the RAM upgrade. I did it on a few Williams games and had good results. I have other Williams games with the original RAM and they work fine too.

Also, if you end up with power supply issues, look into getting a rebuilt Williams power supply rather than a switching power supply. A switching power supply in a Robotron has a known issue with erasing some or all of your high scores when you turn the game off and on. I know, it's happened to me. When that 900k+ score gets erased it really sucks!

Robotron - best game of all time.
 
Thanks a lot for the help guys! I swapped the chip at 3-2 with the chip at 3-1 and the error has now changed to RAM ERROR 31. So, its the chip. Do I have to replace it with a specific chip? Do I follow the numbers silkscreened on it? Can I grab another RAM from a completely different board? Thanks a lot for the help guys!

Well, the reason I told you to swap it with 22 instead of 31 is because a 31 error is what comes up when you have power problems. While it appears that your RAM is the only problem, it's best not to use the 31 RAM as the swap chip...
 
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