TMNT in Time is Haunted: Randomly Resetting to Test Mode

nerdygrrl

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TMNT in Time is Haunted: Randomly Resetting to Test Mode

I just recently sold my TMNT in Time to a friend for his retro shop. The game has never given me any problems and before it left I installed a new PS as a precaution and sent it on its way.

I got an email from my friend saying that on the second day it started rebooting. It goes into a Ram Rom screen, then the test grid and just repeats this cycle.

I went over today, tested the volts and everything was fine. I plugged it in and left it on while I hung out. I was there for an hour without any issues. We moved it back to its location and turned it on, things were fine. About twenty minuted after I left it started doing it again.

Any thoughts? I am wondering if there is a short in the plug or something. I am stumped.Here is a short video of one cycle. Apparently it does this repeatedly and then stops.

http://youtu.be/dvsBwJDmDRQ
 
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I just recently sold my TMNT in Time to a friend for his retro shop. The game has never given me any problems and before it left I installed a new PS as a precaution and sent it on its way.

I got an email from my friend saying that on the second day it started rebooting. It goes into a Ram Rom screen, then the test grid and just repeats this cycle.

I went over today, tested the volts and everything was fine. I plugged it in and left it on while I hung out. I was there for an hour without any issues. We moved it back to its location and turned it on, things were fine. About twenty minuted after I left it started doing it again.

Any thoughts? I am wondering if there is a short in the plug or something. I am stumped.Here is a short video of one cycle. Apparently it does this repeatedly and then stops.

http://youtu.be/dvsBwJDmDRQ

check the test switch for intermittent short and check the wires near the coin door for anything that may get pinched. Do a voltage test on the wall outlet and maybe check for noise on the power line.
 
check the test switch for intermittent short and check the wires near the coin door for anything that may get pinched. Do a voltage test on the wall outlet and maybe check for noise on the power line.

Thanks, I went through the test switch yesterday and all seemed well. I am going to swap out the AC cord and maybe even bring a spare board to throw in while I wait.

I am thinking it has to be a short somewhere.
 
Same Problem/Same machine

I have a TMNT in Time game that I got in a package deal. I usually have to wait a while for it to "warm up", it'll go into ROM test (and pass), goes into attact mode and after 10 sec or so it reboots. I'll be curious to know what you find. :D

I checked the power supply and the voltages seemed right. I plan to try to do a visual check of my MPU board this weekend, maybe something will jump out at me.
 
A lot of things can cause that... poor connections on the power cord/supply, bad connections on the JAMMA edge connector, dirty ROM legs/sockets, bad ROMs, slow ROMs, RAM errors, etc...
 
A lot of things can cause that... poor connections on the power cord/supply, bad connections on the JAMMA edge connector, dirty ROM legs/sockets, bad ROMs, slow ROMs, RAM errors, etc...

It sounds like this is going to a blast to diagnose. I am guessing since it was ok for us it is something that happened during transport. Or should I say hoping?
 
I had a customer who had a bad wall socket. Basically a loose socket. i replaced the socket and his problems went away.

Just a Little reminder Even tho the Power supply is new doesn't mean it is stable.
 
I had a customer who had a bad wall socket. Basically a loose socket. i replaced the socket and his problems went away.

Just a Little reminder Even tho the Power supply is new doesn't mean it is stable.

+1

I have replaced power supplies just to find out the outlet providing power was a bit low. Measured about 105vac. Move unit to another outlet and worked fine. I am curious as to exactly what the problem here is.

*bump to top*
 
I am going to go over there again tomorrow and replace the plug, etc. I am also going to bring a spare board to test out. The problem is it takes over an hour for the TMNT to act up, so I am just stuck there standing around. Hopefully I can get it figured out. The guy is kind of miffed.
 
bump up the ps to 5.1 or 5.2 and see what happens.

Installed a new Happ ps in an NBA JAM, worked great for a couple of months then it started rebooting. Ended up bumping it to 5.4 and haven't had a problem since.
 
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bump up the ps to 5.1 or 5.2 and see what happens.

Installed a new Happ ps in an NBA JAM, worked great for a couple of months then it started rebooting. Ended up bumping it to 5.4 and haven't had a problem since.

Just a note..

If you measuring voltages, measure voltages off the pcb and not off the power supply. To avoid the voltage drops that can occur due to connectors and wire resistance.
 
yeah, Dok, that's definitely a very very dirty JAMMA edge on that NBA Jam. I've never had to power any Midway cab with a power supply voltage north of 5.2V. (assuming it's dedicated)
 
Just a note..

If you measuring voltages, measure voltages off the pcb and not off the power supply. To avoid the voltage drops that can occur due to connectors and wire resistance.

That's good information. I was measuring right at the PS Output. I'll check the voltages on my machine tonight at the PCB and see what my voltages look like. Hopefully, this will fix BOTH of our machines... :D
 
When measuring on the edge connector, one slip of the probe and your board may well be toast. For this reason I always measure at a TTL IC on the board. 99% of the time the top left will be Vcc and the bottom right will be ground.
 
for the record, pertaining to the topic at hand, I asked nerdy about it and she said she cleaned the edge on the board with no change. I know she's busy, but I totally suggested metering at a rom next, or checking that the roms aren't plastered in corrosion cause that'll cause resets and other strange things too.

which any thread Broodwich and I touch, we will all tell you that some fine sandpaper works wonders on dirty rom legs. :D

the JAMMA edge cleaning and this are only a couple of the preventative maintenance tasks I perform on all my personal boards and the others that we operate at work. I've seen some pretty dramatic improvements from cleaning JAMMA edges with pencil erasers, so it's not like I'm throwing that out like a cap kit for a monitor to fix everything.
 
yeah, Dok, that's definitely a very very dirty JAMMA edge on that NBA Jam. I've never had to power any Midway cab with a power supply voltage north of 5.2V. (assuming it's dedicated)

Dedicated cab. 5.4vdc on the board and at the ps, anything less would constantly reboot. Very weird to say the least.
 
I went in and played the game through several levels and could not get it to reboot. I went ahead and installed a new plug. I also tested the volts at the Edge connector and the PCB. There was a pretty big voltage drop at the board, the edge connector was fine. I went back and recleaned everything. The ROMS and sockets looked clean, but I removed them and scrubbed them for good measure.

It has been running for a few hours without incident. Fingers crossed everybody.

Major thanks to Broodwich and mecha for texting me through the process.
 
Dedicated cab. 5.4vdc on the board and at the ps, anything less would constantly reboot. Very weird to say the least.

very strange. I don't know, there's been stories of games running strictly at 4.95V too lol. I have an Area 51 board, that the entire world insists is this major power hog, that won't work unless the voltage is 5.05V, otherwise it blacks out.
 
Well, pulled the board on my game and cleaned up the connectors. Pulled the Chips and cleaned them. Fired the game up and it has been stable for over an hour now. Hoping this is resolved for me.

I still may go through and check the voltages on the board anyway, but for now it looks like this one is heading down to the gameroom!
 
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