The \'Troubleshooting tips for restoration\' thread
Ideas for short-cutting to problem fixes!
Ummm... first, never use sandpaper to clean joystick leaf-switches! The contacts are gold-flashed to prevent oxidation and enhance contact- sandpaper removes the gold, and its all down hill after that. Instead, use a business card with alcohol on it, or tear a piece off the manual cover or manilla envelope it came in... (OH, SHAAAAME ON ME!) hehe, and you wondered why they always had chunks torn out of them! Whatever you use- just put it between the leaf blades, squeeze them together and move the card back and forth. Repeat several times if needed.
Oh, and try to use isopropanol alcohol- moms bathroom alcohol has perfumes and other stuff in it that you don't want.
Give your cabinet interior a blow-job! Get an air compressor and go to town. A dust free monitor, power supply and pcb makes for a much longer lasting game! If you don't want to be strung up by your short hairs- you might want to do that outside... or vac it first.
Clean the legs on those ICs! Most pcb's have a combination of soldered and socketed ICs. The socketed ones WILL EVENTUALLY need attention. Its a tedious and perilous endevour to be sure, but it will solve a GREAT MANY game problems. BE CAREFULL! First, discharge static electricity from your body by touching something YOU KNOW is grounded, do not perform this type repair while on carpet- get on concrete or tile. A grounded wrist strap is cheap insurance. Second, position board where you can work on it without dropping it and with plenty of light. Personally, I burnish the IC's leg's 'shoulder' area before removing them- once clean look CAREFULLY for fractures or cracks in the 'shoulders'. If you find cracks- try plan B or continue at your own risk- they may break off!
Next, use a small flat screwdriver to GENTLY pry one end of the chip up slightly. Move to the other end of the chip and pry it up. Avoid bending or stressing the legs. Continue until you get it up and out. Make note of the chips orientation- it must go back the same way it came out! Usually there is an indent in one end that matches the screen-printed outline of the IC on the board itself, or a small dot next to pin 1 on the same end of the chip. Just pull one IC at a time.
Once out, stand the chip on one side and GENTLY burnish the legs with a fiberglass burnisher tool- AAARG, don't break the legs!!! If you see one giving way your prolly fuxored- try plan C. Do both sides of both sides- thats 4 sides. Spray the legs with PRO Gold, and replace.
Repeat.
Thats it, you should now have a double decker chocolate cake. Enjoy!
Anyone else?
Ideas for short-cutting to problem fixes!
Ummm... first, never use sandpaper to clean joystick leaf-switches! The contacts are gold-flashed to prevent oxidation and enhance contact- sandpaper removes the gold, and its all down hill after that. Instead, use a business card with alcohol on it, or tear a piece off the manual cover or manilla envelope it came in... (OH, SHAAAAME ON ME!) hehe, and you wondered why they always had chunks torn out of them! Whatever you use- just put it between the leaf blades, squeeze them together and move the card back and forth. Repeat several times if needed.
Oh, and try to use isopropanol alcohol- moms bathroom alcohol has perfumes and other stuff in it that you don't want.
Give your cabinet interior a blow-job! Get an air compressor and go to town. A dust free monitor, power supply and pcb makes for a much longer lasting game! If you don't want to be strung up by your short hairs- you might want to do that outside... or vac it first.
Clean the legs on those ICs! Most pcb's have a combination of soldered and socketed ICs. The socketed ones WILL EVENTUALLY need attention. Its a tedious and perilous endevour to be sure, but it will solve a GREAT MANY game problems. BE CAREFULL! First, discharge static electricity from your body by touching something YOU KNOW is grounded, do not perform this type repair while on carpet- get on concrete or tile. A grounded wrist strap is cheap insurance. Second, position board where you can work on it without dropping it and with plenty of light. Personally, I burnish the IC's leg's 'shoulder' area before removing them- once clean look CAREFULLY for fractures or cracks in the 'shoulders'. If you find cracks- try plan B or continue at your own risk- they may break off!
Next, use a small flat screwdriver to GENTLY pry one end of the chip up slightly. Move to the other end of the chip and pry it up. Avoid bending or stressing the legs. Continue until you get it up and out. Make note of the chips orientation- it must go back the same way it came out! Usually there is an indent in one end that matches the screen-printed outline of the IC on the board itself, or a small dot next to pin 1 on the same end of the chip. Just pull one IC at a time.
Once out, stand the chip on one side and GENTLY burnish the legs with a fiberglass burnisher tool- AAARG, don't break the legs!!! If you see one giving way your prolly fuxored- try plan C. Do both sides of both sides- thats 4 sides. Spray the legs with PRO Gold, and replace.
Repeat.
Thats it, you should now have a double decker chocolate cake. Enjoy!
Anyone else?