Star Wars - no Force with me

gregbl

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Donor 2012-2013
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Hi all,

I've got a Star Wars upright that is having issues starting up. The machine was a mess on the inside, so I took everything out and cleaned it out really good. Then I very meticulously put it all back together, ensuring all the connections were right. I spaced on putting the anode back in the monitor on first start (yeah, stupid me), but I powered down quickly and fixed that for subsequent attempts.

Here are the symptoms:

1. Power starts up, marquee light and coin door lights come on.
2. Lights on the boardset all come on, then some of them stay on.
3. Spot killer on the deflection board comes up on startup (expected), then turns off.
4. I hear a soft rattling sound coming from the tube.
5. I don't hear the signature "The Force will be with you" at all.

I disconnected all the wires from the deflection board, but left the one on the main wiring harness connected, for testing purposes. I *believe* this is a way I can get the game to play blind, and if all is well with the AR board and PCB boardset, I should hear "The Force will be with you". But, alas, I don't.

I visually inspected all fuses on the transformer board and the deflection board and they all look good.

Any advice on where to start debugging this would be sincerely appreciated. *OR*, if you're in the Chicago area and know how to do this, please let me know. I've worked my way up to doing a lot of stuff on the raster games, but I'm still fairly new on the vectors. I'd be willing to compensate someone well that is local if they're able to fix this in time for my New Year's Eve party. Oh, and I'd probably throw in a 6-pack of nice bottled beer and/or a couple of bottles of wine out of my cellar... :)

Thanks,
Greg
 
I would start with :

1. Check all fuses in the bottom of the game with a meter, can't trust visual.

2. Check all voltages on the motherboard. Is the +5 there ?

3. Put it in test and see what happens.
 
Hi Greg,

The suggestion to check for +5v at all boards is a great place to start as you seem to indicate that the red lights come on at first but might not all stay on.

I would check to make sure the interconnect board is properly seated on the two boards.

Check all connection to make sure everything is seated properly.

Murph
 
Thanks Dave, where on the motherboard is the place to check for the +5vdc?

Much appreciated.

I would start with :

1. Check all fuses in the bottom of the game with a meter, can't trust visual.

2. Check all voltages on the motherboard. Is the +5 there ?

3. Put it in test and see what happens.
 
Thanks Murph. Should I expect all the LED's on the motherboard to stay lit? I wasn't sure if some of them were just startup LED's or something like that.

Yep, the interconnect board is seated very well...checked that multiple times. All connections seem to be seated well, I'm going to double check the edge connectors that leads to the AVG and CPU boards.

My machine doesn't have the EMI Filter on the back of the boards, but I guess that isn't a big issue...

Hi Greg,

The suggestion to check for +5v at all boards is a great place to start as you seem to indicate that the red lights come on at first but might not all stay on.

I would check to make sure the interconnect board is properly seated on the two boards.

Check all connection to make sure everything is seated properly.

Murph
 
Thanks Dave, where on the motherboard is the place to check for the +5vdc?

Much appreciated.

On an Atari PCB you "should" have little silver rings standing up on the board where you can touch your multimeter to. The ones you will need will be labeled "+5VDC" and "GND" for ground.
 
There should be at least one red light on each board on if you have +5V. Use the metal "rings" mentioned earlier to verify. Check all voltages you can find rings for on the pcb's.

What was the event that happened the first time you fired it up with the anode not in correctly?

Just to cover all ground, is it possible it is in test mode?

The filter pcb is not necessary.

Murph
 
There should be 1 red led on each board lit if there is +5v to each board.

Thanks for re introducing me to Star Wars. All of my games have been in storage in my garage for the last 6 months under cover. I just went out and uncovered it and fired it up and played a few games. Also checked the lights to make sure it was one on each board.

Murph
 
Thanks everyone who replied for the tips.

After doing all the tests, I found that the 32V 20A fuse had actually blown but didn't look like it. When fixed, the voltage to the board was fluctuating. I replaced the Big Blue cap on the Atari power transformer board assembly, and all is well again. It is good to have plenty of backup parts on hand for these types of situations... :)

Star Wars will live tonight for the big New Year's Eve party. All games in the home arcade are fully functional.
 
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