Star wars vector - Jumpy graphics / tie fighters have lines

jonathan1138

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Star wars vector - Jumpy graphics / tie fighters have lines

Hi all. My beloved Star wars is exhibiting the following behavior - please help, or put me on a lead!

Its has an Amplifone. Game was working great until i decided to remount the deflection board tonight - when i got the game it was hanging, i gave a temp mount, and tonight i remounted correctly after getting the parts. So yes, something was compromised from remounting the deflection board.

Tie fighters have lines all the way through them. Graphics get really shaky and mix in images (Tie fighters flash death star sometimes).Trench scene - graphics shaky and all over the place.

Self test shows divider errors (but no Matrix errors). Something like Opt 5w Div Num error, with three codes.

I have a lot of researching to do, but can someone give me a lead based on the description? Please? Thanks.

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu352/jonathan1138/SWIssue/

(link to the problem attached)
 
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Hi - a little more information. There is a bright dot in the center of the monitor - when playing the game, the tie fighters "hook" to this dot - they dance around it.

In addition, images flash mixed - a tie fighter will flash a deathstar sometimes.

Is this just an adjustment issue? There are many pots on the deflection board - which Pot would i need to focus on?

Again, any lead / advice / help is appreciated.
 
If you've got a bright dot in the center -- I'd stop playing until the monitor is fixed.

that's gonna beam-burn your tube, and replacements are pretty tough to find (unless you have spare m-res CRTs lying around :) ) Use an oscilloscope with z-axis to fix.

A bright dot is a vector game's cry for help.
 
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Your brightness is too high on the flyback - turn it down. You should NEVER see a dot like that. It will burn the phosphor on the tube which most likely you already have some of that going on.

When you go into the OP menu and run tests does it complain about any ram issues?

FWIW - on that monitor a person can incorrectly adjust the colors and over drive a color and cause the dot. If the colors look "true" and the vector lines are nice thin and crisp then go for the brightness knob on the flyback.

You could try reseating the socketed chips - but my gut instinct says it's either a RAM issue or a bad AVG chip.
 
Hey folks.

The game just started demonstrating the behavior last night - when i remounted the deflection board. Just to verify the game - its been on for two minutes since then. I dont plan to play it until its fixed.

The two symptoms are - bright star in center (looks like a fixed star), the tie fighters "dance" off that center star. The color that connects it is green - So, if the tie fighter does a 360 around the screen, it has green following it around. So, i would think thats a problem with the Z amplifier - which i read is responsible for turning off the drawing to the object?

I wish that were the only issue. The other is that the game flashes random objects - for example, the tie fighter gets replaced by a death star. During the tower scene, the small red towers are in the air. Everythings effed up.

No Matrix errors, but yet, divider errors. SW Opt Num Div Error with three hexadecimal values. Unless i have a catbox, i dont think they will make much sense to me? Or am i mistaken?

So, it seems this is certainly main PCB related - i have the board in front of me to reseat some chips. I will also get a closer look at the Deflection board.

If i have the same behavior when reinstalling, i will post pics / videos. In the meantime, does this sound like strictly a PCB issue? Could it be a voltage issue? The game has a new big blue (Bobs Big Grey is in there).

Thanks for any help, advice. The game was working perfectly for months since i have it, years for the other owner, and remounting a board (the deflection) shifted something.
 
I had the exact same problem after recalling the
Monitor it didn't go away I then went to work on the board and this when I noticed thy the edge connector was filthy, I cleaned it up and now it works fine.
 
I had the exact same problem after recalling the
Monitor it didn't go away I then went to work on the board and this when I noticed thy the edge connector was filthy, I cleaned it up and now it works fine.

Yeah, don't discount this. Both my Empire Strikes Back and Tempest started acting up during an arcade party. Vector line drawing was spazzing badly. ESB was kinda intermittent. Tempest was worse. I thought it was a heat issue, as the back section of my game room gets kinda stuffy after my games have been running a while and people have been back there. Temps in that area can be several degrees higher than the front area of my game room, which is more open and gets air flow from the open back door. Later in the evening as the party was winding down I turned off several of the unused games in that area and waited 30 minutes. The temps in that area dropped noticeably. Tempest was still FUBAR'd, but ESB began to settle down the and the problem went away.

In both cases it turned out to be a bad connection on the PCB edge connector. Usually just pulling and reseating it will help, and it did with ESB. In my Tempest's case the edge connector's pins were so worn and thin that they had practically worn through. Rebuilt edge connector and the A/R II and it's been solid ever since. ESB has had its A/R II rebuilt and its edge connector is gonna get rebuilt soon too for good measure.
 
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Tried that just now - cleaned all connectors - reseated the bid three board connector in the back - cleaned the front edges and connectors. Same issue though.

Some more detail - made it to the trench scene on easy. The dot in the center is not there (or its not as bright). Its just a drawing issue it seems - take the trench for example - as i go down the trench, the red from the side turrents jump out at me - like 3D! Just 3d red lines jumping all over.

The lines are all haywire. Going to check voltages now.
 
Oh - I have the ESB kit installed - when i switch over to that, i get the same lines - although on that game its a lot more pronounced (a lot crazier).

I guess what i need help on - can anyone here take an educated guess based on the description or experience - is this PCB or Vector board problem? It seems strange that the PCB was untouched and working and suddenly stopped so i am biased toward the vector board (Amp deflection board).

If this turns out needing expert to look at the boards, i dont even know which ones to send (and sending them all will be a b*tch).
 
If it's Clays kit, I am almost positive it shows an error in test even thought it's ok. I am guessing you have a deflection board issue. Someone else on here with clays kit should put theirs in test and verify if it has the same error. When I had my kit on my board, i tested it before i sold it and the error showed up. I asked Clay about it and he said it was normal to have that error if i remember correctly. I would have someone do that for you before you send anything out. I did not realize you had the kit til just now.
 
Arc - thanks! That is somewhat good news.

If anyone has a Clay ESB / SW kit - do you have this divider error in test?

Something like SW OPT DiVIVDER NUM ERROR

(still leaves me with the drawing issue....)....
 
I'm far from a color vector or SW expert, but that looks to like problem with a blanking circuit of some sort. Don't know enough to guess if it's a monitor issue or a PCB issue...

Edit:

OK, I looked at the schematics, and here's my admitedly amateur opinion: It looks like the green signal isn't repsonding to being blanked, and is staying on when it shouldn't. This *might* be caused by a bad 7407 @ 8L or 74LS175 @ 5L (ref. sheet 14B of the schematics). I'd suggest breaking out a logic probe on those guys to see if anything is stuck high or low.
 
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Thanks Darren. All the advice helps. I am completely new to this, but my love for this game is driving me.

So there are two possible trouble spots - either on the deflection board or the PCB.

All of this is my speculation from the research i have been doing. If any of the experts can chime in and let me know if i am on the right track or chasing my tail, i would appreciate it alot.

On the deflection board, it could be a Z amplifier issue - looks like Q18 -Q22 transistors and some related caps. I am testing those now. Z amp drives the drawing of the RGB to the points on the screen by applying +/0 voltage (yes, no? Possible failure point based on the video? Dont bother?)?

If its the PCB - as Darren notes - then i am looking at possibly chips 8F, 8N,5M,6F (Listed under z intensity and blanking in schematics, sheet 14b). Later i can reseat those chips (if they are socketed).

Darrens blanking comment helped me alot - i was looking for the term of what i am seeing - wasnt sure if it was a clock issue, scaling issue (which would have me dive more into exploring those chips).

So again, it would save me ALOT of time if someone here can help keep me on this path or tell me to go elsewhere. All of this may lead to outsourced board work, but at least i would know i am getting the right attention (and sending the right boards).
 
Ha!

Darren - i missed your EDIT - i posted my answer regarding 14B during your post.

Thanks - i can try that. Now, ive never used a Logic probe - but i did get one in anticipation. Guess i have some learning to do.

Again, any more advice - keep it coming.
 
If anyone has a Clay ESB / SW kit - do you have this divider error in test?

Something like SW OPT DiVIVDER NUM ERROR

No test errors with the Clay ESB kit for me.

Also... I had a problem similar to yours (w/regard to the center spot and weird lines). It turned out the white thing that connects to the yoke on the monitor was almost falling off. I pushed it in tighter and it was fine after that. Well, it did leave a small phosphor burn dot :(

... Altan
 
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I just looked back at my emails with Clay. The error I had was when the game was in ESB mode, it was a verisum 735 error. In normal Star Wars there were no errors.
 
Well, thanks guys. I am still testing the transistors on the deflection board - but in between i checked the neck board (the white neck board on the amp tube) and that thing is in tight / wont budge.

Will report back the findings on the transistor testing. Thanks.
 
I looked at your video again, and now I doubt what I said earlier. The green gun isn't "stuck on", or prevented from being blanked all the time. The green text at the top of the screen is being drawn fine; it's only the tie fighters which appear to have extra (non-blanked) vectors drawn to the origin (middle of the screen). In addition, white vectors also include the green gun, and some of them look OK. So it doesn't appear to be a total failure of the green from being blanked... only sometimes.

I assume SW has a self-test mode that'll test the RAM and report if there's any problem? Is you RAM all good?
 
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