Star Wars Hum

bungy

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
3,055
Reaction score
149
Location
New Jersey
My Star Wars Upright has some pretty loud hum that I'm trying to get rid of. I have consulted the two threads below and found some common things to check, but I have done all of that and still have the hum. The hum is at a constant (somewhat loud) volume regardless of what I try or how the volume pot is adjusted.

Star wars hum...Fixed!
-Replace Big Blue

Star Wars HUMMMmmmmm....
-Unplug Marquee Light
-Replace Big Blue
-Dirty/Bad Edge Connector
-Dirty Fuses / Fuse Block
-Recap AR-II
-Dirty RFI board

**************************************

Here is a summary of what I have done:
-Recap ARII + new regulators
-New audio amps on ARII
-New Big Blue
-Remove marquee bulb
-Unplug control panel
-Unplug coin door
-Unplug monitor
-Remove RFI board
-Clean/squeeze edge connector (no effect)
-Swapped power brick (with new big blue) from another game that did not hum
-Tried different speakers
-Unplugged test switch / volume control panel - hum remained constant but game volume increased

Nothing changes the hum even a little bit. Is it worth it to recap the PCB? Are there any other things to try?
 
weird,i just clicked over here from searching a hum in my asteroids deluxe how ironic. ive been looking and trying things but nothing works for me either.

also one thing you didnt list that i did was change the speaker,dont work either though.
 
also one thing you didnt list that i did was change the speaker,dont work either though.

Here is a summary of what I have done:
-Recap ARII + new regulators
-New audio amps on ARII
-New Big Blue
-Remove marquee bulb
-Unplug control panel
-Unplug coin door
-Unplug monitor
-Remove RFI board
-Clean/squeeze edge connector (no effect)
-Swapped power brick (with new big blue) from another game that did not hum
-Tried different speakers
-Unplugged test switch / volume control panel - hum remained constant but game volume increased
__________
 
got it,my judgement may be a little impaired this evening. but still though this hum is driving me crazy!
 
Mine does the same and I've made the same changes you have. The only thing I haven't done is to recap the PCB itself. I'll try that next and report back.
 
I've also got the same loud hum on my new star wars and will add my findings

So far, unplugged flourescent, no change
Adjusted volume, no change
unplugged speaker, hum gone (as expected)

not much more than a bump, but as i try to fix this monitor i'll be diagnosing the hum

Thanks all for the info so far
- gwarble
 
my hum now goes away when the volume is down all the way and fluctuates with the volume control so gonna order a new volume pot and see what happens.
 
Star wars HUM

Must be the dark forces....

I have a gunner pilot star wars from 91 hums with certain playback audio samples...
annoying GRRR!
It appears that there are only 9 of us that have one here in the USA..

any of the 9 have the same problem?

I would also check for ground connection on sound boards, bad ground may cause issues
 
I have a gunner pilot star wars from 91 hums with certain playback audio samples...
annoying GRRR!
It appears that there are only 9 of us that have one here in the USA..

any of the 9 have the same problem?

There are certainly far more than 9 of them. Not every single person that owns a given game tracks down vaps, signs up and registers. Most collectors I know don't list their games there purposefully.

The VAPS tie-in to KLOV is completely useless in providing an accurate view of rarity/collectability. Ignore it. Also, sell me your Sega Star Wars, kthx.

They are talking about a completely different game from a completely different era with completely different hardware. For your machine, it's likely caps on the audio amp board or the sound board. IIRC, Sega Star Wars uses the typical model 1 sound board which is actually two sound boards stacked on top of each other. If only certain sounds have hum then one of them probably needs caps replaced.

for the OP: I've had dozens of SWs and never seen that problem. As you capped the brick & ARII it's hard to take a stab at, but maybe the coin box/test panel (where the volume control is) is not grounded. Is the machine grounded? If so, maybe you're getting some noise through your ground.. try lifting the ground. I would not first suspect that the board would cause this, but checking it in another machine could eliminate the possibility.
 
for the OP: I've had dozens of SWs and never seen that problem. As you capped the brick & ARII it's hard to take a stab at, but maybe the coin box/test panel (where the volume control is) is not grounded. Is the machine grounded? If so, maybe you're getting some noise through your ground.. try lifting the ground. I would not first suspect that the board would cause this, but checking it in another machine could eliminate the possibility.

The machine is grounded, I installed a new power cord with a ground pin. I just double checked continuity to the ground pin, and all the metal parts of the game can see it, including the volume control pot. I pulled the ground socket pin on the power cord and no change.

I do know of another machine I can try my board in, I'll give that a shot.
 
Last edited:
The machine is grounded, I installed a new power cord with a ground pin. I just double checked continuity to the ground pin, and all the metal parts of the game can see it, including the volume control pot. I pulled the ground socket pin on the power cord and no change.

I do know of another machine I can try my board in, I'll give that a shot.

You can stop by and try the boards in my cockpit. Just let me know...
 
I have had a hum on a SW that was a problem on the sound board
 
Yeh I have read on a couple different threads about this issue being caused by a bad cap or desoldered cap on the audio board.

Do you have an ESR meter to check the caps? I just picked up one of these bad boys and it solved a missing sound on my DK Jr in 5 minutes by helping me locate a cap that had a leg broken away from the board.
 
I have had a hum on a SW that was a problem on the sound board

I removed the sound board and the hum remains. The hum is gone if I disconnect the rest of the PCB stack

While I had the board out, I cleaned the interconnect contacts and found a broken 0.1uF ceramic cap. Replaced the cap and no change in hum.

Pulled the ARII and noticed one of the large nickel-sized disc caps is broken at the top and the metal innards are exposed. Gonna look for a replacement and see what happens.
 
Pulled the ARII and noticed one of the large nickel-sized disc caps is broken at the top and the metal innards are exposed. Gonna look for a replacement and see what happens.

Replaced the cap (C8) and no change in hum.
 
SW

You can try PCB and AR in my Star Wars if you around Bridgewater area.
 
Back
Top Bottom