Star Wars died - Need help - Stumpped....

oktobernv

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Hello all

Star Wars upright died this week.

Powers up - screen is black - has neck glow

There is No audio. Game will NOT play blind.

All 7 fuses on PS test ok.

Swapped game boards with known good and working set. No difference.

All lights power up.

It is acting as if everything is getting power EXCEPT the PCB....

Thoughts? Any help / tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hitting a wall on this.....

Thx,

Rob
 
Swap out AR2. Then check or swap out Power brick assembly voltages.
 
Ok

Swapped AR II - no difference

Don't have a spare power brick.....

Anything else I can check??

thx,

Rob
 
Did you check all voltages? Not just the AR but at the chips on the main PCBs. The problem may be your connections. (I assume your fuses and holders are clean).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
 
From what you have done. Swapping in a working boards and a Another arII..

And it still doesn't play blind. I would look at the brick power supply.

I suspect you might have blown a fuse or your power harness has an open in there someplace.

A voltage meter will tell you the answer quickly
 
The bridge rectifier in the power brick could be blown.

You are looking for a square aluminum block with 4 legs. If blown the AR2 wont get it's 10.6VDC, so the AR2 won't put out the 5VDC needed to run the Game Board

See here (Click to enlarge)
 
Get your hands on a multimeter, and set it to measure DC voltage. Power down your machine. Then unplug J5 on the power brick, and put the red multimeter lead on pin 1 and the black multimeter lead on pin 4 (on the brick). You should be measuring the pins on the power brick, not the pins leading away on the harness. Power on the machine and look at the screen on the multimeter. Let us know what voltage reading you get.. you should have something around 10.3 volts DC.
 
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The bridge rectifier in the power brick could be blown.

You are looking for a square aluminum block with 4 legs. If blown the AR2 wont get it's 10.6VDC, so the AR2 won't put out the 5VDC needed to run the Game Board

See here (Click to enlarge)

Bingo mine did the same, it was a bad bridge.. Bob Roberts sell them cheap........
 
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Thanks for the help

Thanks for the all tips guys - MUCH appreciated.

I will try all the suggestions tomorrow when I get back home....

Spent about 5-6 hours working on Star Ways yesterday....

No luck so far.....

But I WILL get it figured out!

Thanks again for the help

Rob

:)
 
If you still have the RF board installed on the two main boards. Remove it, an hook your wiring back up directly to the main pcb's. I've seen that board go bad, and it has stumped a lot of SW's owners.
 
SW

SW UPDATE:

Ok - here is the latest.

Swapped out the main PCB, and AR II boards with known / working boards.

Removed and tested all fuses. Couple of fuses tested bad or looked bad, swapped all of those.

TESTING OF PSU: Here are the voltages recorded from main PSU

Pins 1, 2 and 3 show 15.89V DC (using pin 4 as my ground)

Pins 6 to 7 show 38.38 v AC

Pins 8 to 9 show 6.71v AC

Pins 10 to 13 show 52.5v AC

Pins 11 to 13 show 26.2v AC

All of these voltages seem to be in range.

Hooked all the cables back up - got ready to fire it up to test.

Turned game on and saw FUSE @ F4 blow as soon as game powered up.

???

Thx,

Rob
 
To Jimjaycee's point

Yes, the RF boards have been removed

Main connectors connect directly to the PCB boards.


Still no luck....
 
A bad bridge will blow a fuse.. Cant remember if it F4? Send a PM to Dokert he can tell you how to test the bridge...
 
OK, the power brick seems OK

For fuse 4 to blow, the problem is on the 36VAC line, and as only 1 fuse in the pair is blowing, it's specifically a fault downstream to pin 6 (18VAC)

that 18VAC goes to the AR2 (p9)

Now when I first hooked up my starwars the prev owner labeled that plug (P9) incorrectly (There is 2 plugs shaped exactly like p9)

So because mine was labeled wrong I put them in the wrong spot.

That blew fuse 4 and also it blew up my ESB board, and also a part on the AR2 as well

Could you of done the same?
 
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If F4 blows upon startup, most likely CR5, CR6, CR7, CR8 on the A/R II is blown. Test them and see if one or more of them is bad.
 
Are you sure the AR board is a working board? The F4 fuse is for the 36VAC tap that runs to the AR board and connects to the AR board by pin 4 and 5 of J9 which is a 6 pin plug on the AR board. The 36VAC then is rectfied by CR5-6-7 and 8 and produces DC voltages after voltage regulators,which outputs on J-10 which is a 12 pin molex plug on the AR board. Unplug both J9 and J-10 , replace the F4 fuse which is a slowblow 4 amp. Power up game, if fuse blows then problem is in the power brick if it dosent blow plug J9 back in and power it up. If fuse dosent blow then check the DC votages on J10 on the AR board with voltmeter. Pins 5,8,11,12 are all grounds.
Pin 4 is +12VDC
Pin 1,2 is +22VDC
Pin 3,6 is -22VDC
Pin 7 is +15VDC
Pin 10 is -15VDC
Pin 9 is - 5VDC
If voltages are correct plug J10 back in and turn game on. If fuse blows then theirs a short on one of the voltage pins powered by J10.
 
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