Track and Field... the saga continues

monsterbaldy

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So let me start off with this:

What is the proper way to test voltage at the board? The method I had used was to put the ground lead on the power supply ground and the 5v pin on the harness that connects to the board.

Would an improperly grounded game cause freaky behavior? The grounding wires in this thing are like a weird maze, and it almost seems like the Power Supply is receiving it's ground from the fact that the motherboard metal enclosure is grounded... only I can't tell where the heck it is grounded, but according to a connectivity test between the enclosure and the ground prong it is.

If I seem stupid that may be accurate, because I think this machine is making me dumber.

Backstory:

My track and Field was having funky button behavior. Then it reset like twice. I tested the PS (not at the board) and it was high (like 5.4). I replaced the power supply as this one was a very old switching power supply with no adjustment knob, and a new one was $25. THe new one I hooked up and adjusted so that I was reading 5.0 even at the board (red lead on 5v pin on board harness and black lead on PS ground). It was fine for the first few sessions, just now it froze. I restarted it, it self reset.
 
For T&F boards the first things to check are this:

Power level at the board when measuring from the ground on the board to the +5v on the board. Pin 1 and 28 of an EPROM chip are good places to check.

Next, one by one pull each chip from the socket and make sure the inside and outside surfaces of the legs are clean. You'll probably find corrosion on the pins. While the chip is out, look down in the socket for corrosion and replace any bad sockets.

Make sure to put the chip back in the same socket it came out of and back in the proper direction. Most chips will be destroyed if plugged in backwards.

RJ
 
Ah ok, maybe by doing the voltage test the way I did I got a higher reading than the board is actually getting. I'll test again the correct way and see where it is, I don't want to start reseeding chips yet, but I'll try that next if I keep having issues after getting the power right.
 
Make sure the board edge connector is clean. Use a pink pencil erase on both sides of it. Of course, get rid of the pink dust before plugging the harness back in. ;)
 
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