Super Off Road (Track Pak) half screen FIX

I have had this problem every since I swapped to a track i have had a problem with u120 failing. Replace it and it will last anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months and fail again. I have the correct version of the chip from digikey. I have gotten to the point I ordered 20 and just change them as they fail. I'd like to fix the actual issue but have had no luck so far! Anyone else have this problem?
 
I have had this problem ever since I swapped to a track i have had a problem with u120 failing. Replace it and it will last anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months and fail again. I have the correct version of the chip from digikey. I have gotten to the point I ordered 20 and just change them as they fail. I'd like to fix the actual issue but have had no luck so far! Anyone else have this problem?
What are symptoms ? Usually corrupt 120 will show jacked up serial number in test mode, among other things.
 
This probably has nothing to do with the IC failing, but maybe take a look at the power harness from the supply to the game board? The game board side fries A LOT!
 
Slightly off topic but does anyone know if there's a replacement chip for the one that receives/deals with the opto signal from the steering wheels.
There's 1 chip for each wheel and sorry i don't know what the original chip is. My spare board is with a tech guy and i don't have the machine any more (machine had the Trak pack version in it) The original board had been repaired but upon testing we discovered the middle wheel wasn't working (opto board tested ok though swapped to either side wheels) Tech bloke said it was that particular chip but wasn't sure if he could get a replacement and also wasn't sure if he had a spare non working board to steal a chip from. In fact he wasn't sure if the chips for the 3 wheels were specific or the same chip for each one.
 
What are symptoms ? Usually corrupt 120 will show jacked up serial number in test mode, among other things.
I get the half screen, when I swapped in a new chip it fixes it. Keeps failing every couple months. Runs 8ish hours a day.
 

Attachments

  • 20240930_101129.jpg
    20240930_101129.jpg
    896.8 KB · Views: 4
I get the half screen, when I swapped in a new chip it fixes it. Keeps failing every couple months. Runs 8ish hours a day.
I've hit the "half track" symptom a couple times in the last 3 years and replacing the chip at u120 resolves it. I too am curious what causes the failure, however I certainly don't run mine anywhere near 8 hours a day... probably 8 hours a year.
 
I get the half screen, when I swapped in a new chip it fixes it. Keeps failing every couple months. Runs 8ish hours a day.
Is the chip actually dead, or just corrupted? I can imagine certain things causing the chip to get corrupted... game crash, power loss at just the wrong time, etc. But if it's actually dead, I'd think it's gotta be power (e.g. +5V too high, voltage spike at power up, etc... though strange that it'd kill just the EEPROM). Do you have a chip programmer? You'd need a way to erase the EEPROM to see if it's just corrupted... you can erase certain settings, etc. in setup mode, but I don't think there's a way to force the game to manually reinitialize the EEPROM.

Slightly off topic but does anyone know if there's a replacement chip for the one that receives/deals with the opto signal from the steering wheels.
There's 1 chip for each wheel and sorry i don't know what the original chip is. My spare board is with a tech guy and i don't have the machine any more (machine had the Trak pack version in it) The original board had been repaired but upon testing we discovered the middle wheel wasn't working (opto board tested ok though swapped to either side wheels) Tech bloke said it was that particular chip but wasn't sure if he could get a replacement and also wasn't sure if he had a spare non working board to steal a chip from. In fact he wasn't sure if the chips for the 3 wheels were specific or the same chip for each one.
Assuming you're talking about the PALs on the boardset for the steering wheels - I reverse engineered those and submitted them to the PLD Archive a while back: https://wiki.pldarchive.co.uk/index.php?title=Super_Off_Road . U74, U75, and U82 are the chips for the 3 wheels... I believe U82 is the one for the middle (yellow) wheel. The chips are slightly different, so you can't just swap the chip from one of the other positions.

DogP
 
Is the chip actually dead, or just corrupted? I can imagine certain things causing the chip to get corrupted... game crash, power loss at just the wrong time, etc. But if it's actually dead, I'd think it's gotta be power (e.g. +5V too high, voltage spike at power up, etc... though strange that it'd kill just the EEPROM). Do you have a chip programmer? You'd need a way to erase the EEPROM to see if it's just corrupted... you can erase certain settings, etc. in setup mode, but I don't think there's a way to force the game to manually reinitialize the EEPROM.


Assuming you're talking about the PALs on the boardset for the steering wheels - I reverse engineered those and submitted them to the PLD Archive a while back: https://wiki.pldarchive.co.uk/index.php?title=Super_Off_Road . U74, U75, and U82 are the chips for the 3 wheels... I believe U82 is the one for the middle (yellow) wheel. The chips are slightly different, so you can't just swap the chip from one of the other positions.

DogP
Yep thanks, it would be the PALs yes. I'll let my tech mate know about that although he did suspect that the 3 chips were slightly different to one another.
By "reverse engineer" do you mean you worked out a way to recreate the chip or the function that it serves? Sorry i'm not hugely tech minded when it comes to board repairs and the like although get by pretty good with most other stuff.
 
By "reverse engineer" do you mean you worked out a way to recreate the chip or the function that it serves?
Yes... the original PALs were locked, and registered, so there's not an easy way to directly "dump" them like you'd dump a ROM. So using a logic analyzer I determined how the chip worked and then recreated it. So while it should function the same, it's possible that I didn't implement it exactly like the original. Also, the files I posted are for the more modern and commonly available GAL16V8 instead of the original PAL device.

DogP
 
@DogP - Thanks for posting this thread 9 or so years ago...

@SCUBA King - Thanks for pointing this fix out to me...

I stopped by our Museum exhibit to check in on things this morning, and by chance, the Super Off Road (which has been running Track Pack roms for a week now) started acting up... sometimes the bottom half of the screen was gibberish, and sometimes the track was pushed halfway up the screen, though the car would still think the physical track was where it was supposed to be. Totally unplayable, but I guess not, as people were still putting tokens into it and playing it like this!

In any case, I was able to swap the U120 EEPROM with a 93C46B/P pulled off another board... and well... it just worked... solved my problem.

Thank you both.
 
@DogP - Thanks for posting this thread 9 or so years ago...

@SCUBA King - Thanks for pointing this fix out to me...


Thank you both.
all thanks go to @DogP
Everything I know about these stacks are from his threads or me DM'ing him.

I just remember and regurgitate when I see someone asking about something I've read about them.

So +10 to thx for @DogP
 
Back
Top Bottom