Star Wars matrix errors

Cartouche

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Of course the day a guest wanted to play Star Wars it breaks down.

coins up, starts, sound seems good, but then all I see is the cannons on my fighter and a blinking Death Star in the distance - no stars, no tie fighters, the only sounds are related to the fighter, cannons, R2D2, Luke's voice. No tie fighter sounds or Darth's voice. Every few seconds I see random blinking green x-y patterns.

self-test:
looks good, but at 10D, it flicks back and forth from on to off at switch 3 and 4 every few seconds (difficulty setting)

no divider errors

matrix errors screen:
A FFFE
B 0000
C 0242
D F496

NNNF FNNN AAAA
NNNF NFFF AAAA
NNNF NFFN DSSS (or 555?)
NNNF NFNF DSSS (or 555)

I'm a complete neophyte when it comes to boards. I've reseated chips, replaced zener diodes and caps, but have no idea where to start here.

Thanks,
Marc
 
Monday morning bump.

Anyone?

I tested for +5vdc at some of the chips. Most are either 5.01 and 5.10. There is one socketed chip that's showing .03-.07, which seemed odd. Should every single chip on the board set be ~ 5vdc?
 
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I believe matrix errors can be caused by bad PROMs, which commonly fail... but it's hard to say which one, or if that's actually the cause of your problem. If you know someone with another board, or a set of PROMs, it's probably easiest to just swap them and see if it fixes it.

If you say switch(es) on 10D toggle, check the dip switch itself, and then test R42-R49, and test 9E. I don't think that'd cause a matrix error though.

You might want to check this out as well, if you haven't already:
http://falz.net/files/starwars/troubleshooting_guide/

DogP
 
Looks like we have dual (or dueling) matrix error threads this week! lol

From what I read on the other thread, the 74LS245s can be a problem.

I booted the game and those two chips are running VERY hot, along with the 5 others in these photos:
IMG_4664.jpg

IMG_4662.jpg


the 74LS245s -
IMG_4663.jpg


voltage on the board is ~4.86 - 4.90

Should every chip on the board read ~5vdc? The long vertical chip in the photo reads at 3vdc, and I have another at 0.03 elsewhere on the board...

replace chips?
 
Yep..dueling threads :) .

The large chips in your photo is the CPU chip...I believe it should run pretty hot normally? Anyone else?

The LS245 chips are part of the matrix processing according to the schematics. I was thinking to try replacing them, but I'll also check my working boardset when I have a chance to see if they still run hot on that board (might be a good clue!).

The other socketed chips are the PROMs. I tried swapping these from my working board, but it didn't help me...but you could try this.

Jon
 
You should turn your +5V up to about 5.05V to 5.1V at the chips.

DogP

Done. All voltages at the test points on the board are good.

That chip at 2C, which is listed in the manual as simply "microprocessor" is still reading at about 3 to 3.15vdc. Are test points different on this type of chip? I removed it, cleaned the legs and re-seated it, but no change in reading or display on screen.

I realize I'm just shooting in the dark here, I'm just doing the few tests that I do know how to do.

I guess I should mention that I've been trying to sell/trade this for a couple months now, so I'm hoping it's a simple fix (i.e., swapping out a socketed chip or two).

Otherwise it's:
sell it as is for ~$150 loss
have the board repaired by Elektron Forge, sell it at ~$100 loss

Kind of a bummer, really, since it worked great for a year.
 
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Did you ever fix this?
Mine has the same errors, but it like, when the test mode have run in 2 minutes, the errors is gone, then I have a game, and after 1-2 minutes the errors is back. Its like its running hot or something???...
 
Pull all the proms one by one and clean the pins to see if you can get it up and running. It's probably one of the proms but I can't remember which one causes no stars.
 
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