Star Wars acting up...what to do?

vader1979

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About a week ago my star wars started acting funny. During attract mode it is fine...during sw gameplay the left shield area drops about two inches until hit by torpedo..then goes back to normal. Dont know if i am imagining it..but it also seems that the picture isnt as "smooth" anymore...seems very slightly "choppy"... When i switch to ESB...the game plays for about 5 seconds then freezes...goes black..freezes..goes black..etc. When this happens the light on my WG6100 chassis starts blinking red on and off. I checked the +sense on the ARII board and it was a little low at 4.96. Turned it up just a hair to 5.08 on the ARII so i get 5.05 on the pcb. no change. I did take the pcb to smalltownguy2 house last weekend and he checked it out...he said chips were seated good and the connectors looked good. Brought home and tried with and without the filter board...same problem. did self test...in sw mode i get the normal Program Rom3 at 1KL 3171. When i test in ESB i get ROMO at 1F SC87. Do not know if this is normal or not. I also checked all fuses just in case...all good. This is the extent of my electronic knowledge. Do not know what else to do next. Any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks!!
 
Not a stupid question.
Scaling is a big part in a vector monitor.
Star Wars is a well known game for pushing the monitor to it's limits with the Death Star explosion and other grafx.

There are numbers in the corner of the screen. You want to push those to where they are just unable to be seen.

It sounds to me that the monitor is trying to "draw" a bigger picture than what it's capable of doing.

I do not know if there was any work on the monitor recently, or anything else that may have changed since the problem started occuring.

So, scaling would be a first step (easy step) to try.
Always test the easy stuff first...then, look to the pcb.
 
Do u mean the blue dots in the corners? I already have those about half inch in from the corners...u want me to stretch the screen bigger so I can't see them any more? Also the chassis was recently rebuilt...during restoration....about four months ago...






Not a stupid question.
Scaling is a big part in a vector monitor.
Star Wars is a well known game for pushing the monitor to it's limits with the Death Star explosion and other grafx.

There are numbers in the corner of the screen. You want to push those to where they are just unable to be seen.

It sounds to me that the monitor is trying to "draw" a bigger picture than what it's capable of doing.

I do not know if there was any work on the monitor recently, or anything else that may have changed since the problem started occuring.

So, scaling would be a first step (easy step) to try.
Always test the easy stuff first...then, look to the pcb.
 
I have seen what you are talking about. Unfortunately I don't recall a fix. IIRC I don't think it was a monitor problem, as the symptoms followed to another machine. It seemed to only happen when shields were reading between 7-9 once hit it would go back to normal, but then start drooping again. Until you were at 5 or 6 shields at which point the shield bar I assume was small enough not to cause the problem.

I also believe we tried swapping out the AVG chip and that IIRC didn't make a difference either.

If you haven't it, put the machine in test mode, and aux key to the scaling tests and see if you get a nice smooth shrinking box.

ESB kits will cause Rom test failures this is normal.
 
did the scale test...the first round was fine...second round the square started freezing as it got smaller....froze about 10 times until it dissapeared....so now what??





I have seen what you are talking about. Unfortunately I don't recall a fix. IIRC I don't think it was a monitor problem, as the symptoms followed to another machine. It seemed to only happen when shields were reading between 7-9 once hit it would go back to normal, but then start drooping again. Until you were at 5 or 6 shields at which point the shield bar I assume was small enough not to cause the problem.

I also believe we tried swapping out the AVG chip and that IIRC didn't make a difference either.

If you haven't it, put the machine in test mode, and aux key to the scaling tests and see if you get a nice smooth shrinking box.

ESB kits will cause Rom test failures this is normal.
 
I see someone else asked but has there been any work on the 6100 lately?

Have you considered replacing the deflection transistors? Though with a lock up I'm not sure they'd be the culprit.
 
Honestly couldn't tell u....when I got machine it had just been done. Whatever came in the bob Roberts kit is what was replaced...
 
OK, well that kit does come with the 2N3792 PNP and 2N3716 NPN deflection transistors so if they were put in they should be good to go. I repaired my 6100 not too long ago and those transistors are easy to put in but sometimes people skip them when they're just working with the chassis board. So I was just askin'. Again it's weird with the choppiness and freezing up. I've got a spare board set with missing tie fighters and stars otherwise I'd offer to let you use it to swap.
 
I don't get it either....its weird. But I am very uncomfortable when it comes time to pulling chips..etc. I just ernd it off if it comes to that.
 
I concur and hadn't even thought of that! Bad AVG is a great place to start and it's a VERY easy chip to replace. Arcadeshop and other places sell AVG replacements. It was among the first things I tried when I was having weird issues with my board set.

Go for it.

I actually have a spareon hand for wonky drawaing issues.
 
Awesome! Could you please point me in the right direction so i dont buy the wrong chip...and also where do i put it on my machine once i get it? Thanks!






I concur and hadn't even thought of that! Bad AVG is a great place to start and it's a VERY easy chip to replace. Arcadeshop and other places sell AVG replacements. It was among the first things I tried when I was having weird issues with my board set.

Go for it.

I actually have a spareon hand for wonky drawaing issues.
 
It shouldn't. I'll snap a photo with my camera phone tomorrow on my spare board set. It looks a lot like a z80 but it's all by it's lonesome on the bottom board opposite the Sound Board if I recall.

Gimme a shout tomorrow to remind me if you don't hear from me in the a.m.
 
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