Snap, Crackle....Pop! And throw a sizzel in

MonsterBash

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Holy shiet do i have a mess on my hands.

I was playing a one player game of Daytona on my twins last night and the #2 player (which was just in attract mode) decided to melt down.

First I heard a very load 'pop' from the monitor and the player 2 games shuts off...then all kinds of smoke from under the seat and what sounds like bacon frying (ummmm...bacon....)

Turns out the power supply (Peter Chou (sp?)) decided to let go taking out the monitor (assuming the loud pop!)...boardset and at least the I/O board. I did have a replacement PS and after replacing it..I have LED lights on 'some' components. I confirmed at least the boardset and I/O board is toast in the working side.

So much for just blowing a fuse!

Talk about torn on what to do. Replacement parts, assuming the monitor is a relatively easy fix, will cost me way more than I bought the thing for. And that's assuming it's only the I/O board and boardset. Parting what's left with also easily bring in more than I have into it.

Hopefully Ken from I Repair Sega will have some insight.

Funny though...about 20 minutes later I was playing T&F and the Doctor Who pin starts flipping out. I hear all kinds of solenoids clicking and clanging...and the machine starts feeding balls into the shooter lane.

Turns out that was just a fuse..

Was a fun night in the arcade!
 
I thought switchers weren't supposed to take boards out when they die?
 
I'm telling ya this is by far the most damage I've seen by a PS. The pop that came from the monitor was LOUD and echoed through the basement. I get no neck glow at all..and obviously no raster. What suck is this monitor was brand new when I bought the games a couple years ago. Not rebuilt..but new. And getting to the monitor in the twins is ridiculously stupid. The gotta come out the front. I was able to sit a MM back there to check the fuses..they were all good.

The reset switch on the PS is melted

I played Mr. Potato head with the working board set..and the fried board set. Not one single board worked when replaced in the working set

I attached a pic of the one board I need. It's not an actual pic..just one I found on line

Maybe I can piece together enough parts over the summer to get this back up and running....and not break the bank. It's certainly is a party favorite..
 

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I haven't really looked into it that much but the 110AC on the 2nd player side comes in from the other game (player 1 side)...into the PS. It looks like the 110AC continues out of the PS to do it's thing...presumably ending up at the monitor eventually.

I'm sure someone with more Dayton experience can chime in on how the power is routed through the game

I don't quite understand how the power supply took out the monitor...
 
Sounds to me more like a line voltage problem blew the PS and the monitor.
 
Well considering game #1 (which gets the power first) plays fine and so do the other 6 games on that outlet. It probably isn't a house power thing.

I had that though also, but measured 117VAC coming out of the player #1 side. Replacing the PS with new and no smoke show...and had proper voltages out of that PS. Of course I don't have a working boardset. And I'm still a little hesitant about putting the good boardset in that side...at least until I can look into it a bit more

I'll have to dig a little deeper and see what's up with the monitor..and see exactly how it's powered

Sounds to me more like a line voltage problem blew the PS and the monitor.
 
And are you sure the monitor didn't fail and take out the power supply? If the flyback failed and arced to something, any number of things could have happened.

Got pictures of the inside of the power supply? Seeing what fried might help narrow it down to what caused it.

-Ian
 
Actually that sounds very possible as the monitor did 'pop' first...then a couple seconds later the smoke show under the seat.

My dance card is full until the weekend..I'll snap some pics for sure.
When a flyback 'goes' do they generally blow up like that? I've NEVER heard this kind of noise from a monitor. The best way to describe the noise..it was like on of those party favors on New Years. The ones where ya pull the little string and confetti shoots out if the little bottle thingy.

Except I didn't get the confetti part...just smoke.

What you're describing make the most sense so far...

And are you sure the monitor didn't fail and take out the power supply? If the flyback failed and arced to something, any number of things could have happened.

Got pictures of the inside of the power supply? Seeing what fried might help narrow it down to what caused it.

-Ian
 
I sent Ken a picture of the damage to the board and got this reply (not sure if he checkout these forums or not).

'Excellent. Monitor chassis fried and took out video output circuit.
Hopefully thats all it is.'



And are you sure the monitor didn't fail and take out the power supply? If the flyback failed and arced to something, any number of things could have happened.

Got pictures of the inside of the power supply? Seeing what fried might help narrow it down to what caused it.

-Ian
 
When a flyback 'goes' do they generally blow up like that? I've NEVER heard this kind of noise from a monitor. The best way to describe the noise..it was like on of those party favors on New Years. The ones where ya pull the little string and confetti shoots out if the little bottle thingy.

Except I didn't get the confetti part...just smoke.

Well, sometimes you do get confetti - when an electrolytic explodes just right ;)

*Usually* when a flyback fails, it tends to simply short out and blow the HOT. Sometimes you get sizzling and lots of smoke. And sometimes it develops a crack and starts arcing to the frame or a heat sink, and making lots of scary sparking noises (with a nice blue arc). It's very possible for a flyback to fail in such a way that it cracks suddenly, with a large arc of HV. It would be unlikely, but not impossible. Could definitely make the sound you heard.

And, if the monitor's frame was not grounded to earth ground, and the HV arced to something connected to video/logic ground - that's connected directly to the power supply and to the boardset.

But, it probably would have blown the fuse in the monitor too - unless something else blew up first.

It's really hard to say what happened without looking at it, you're going to have to pull the monitor and examine for trauma. Anything I say is pure speculation on what is possible.

-Ian
 
Here's be the video board damage...of course it looked way worse before I cleaned it up.


I'm trying to find the drawings for the board....they aren't in the manual...just the wire schematics. Any hints on where I can find them? I'll at least replace the fried transistors and resisters to at least get a head start on the repair when I send them to Ken.

I have a feeling there's other boards that took a hit too...

I took the 'good' video board from the working set...tried it in the fried set and still got nothing. Of course it was in the side with the good monitor...so who knows.

I'm trying to work out a deal with a KLOVer for a working boardset too.
 

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And, if the monitor's frame was not grounded to earth ground, and the HV arced to something connected to video/logic ground - that's connected directly to the power supply and to the boardset.

This is a very good point. Was the monitor frame grounded? If not, well, you just learned a very painful lesson :(

It sounds to me too like it started at the monitor and cascaded from there. It's impossible for a switcher to produce enough smoke for it to actually be visible -- it'd blow a fuse first. Unless the current was coming from somewhere else.....
 
Wait. Wait a second.

I think I know what happened.

Most switchers have ceramic capacitors to block out voltage surges early in the supply chain. When they fail, they fail shorted briefly, producing a short surge of a LOT of current going through a very small short, setting off a violent runaway reaction that consumes the cap whole in a small explosion. There's where your bang came from.

Here's what I think happened. Your house got hit by a pretty significant power surge. Most of your games took it no problem, but that one power supply had a cap that was borderline and ready to fail. The surge pushed it over, so it popped, and as a result, failed to stop the surge, which passed through the unit and started smoking everything in sight. A really unfortunate coincidence.

I bet your pinballs acting goofy was something similar -- those PSes took the hit without damage, but wavered, and this corrupted the state inside a couple important ICs. Cue goofy behavior until each and every one of the state-corrupted ICs is fully reset (which usually takes a full-blown power cycle).
 
It's impossible for a switcher to produce enough smoke for it to actually be visible -- it'd blow a fuse first. Unless the current was coming from somewhere else.....

Uh, I filled my garage with smoke from a switcher going up. It may not happen often, but it can happen I assure you!!!
 
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