weird MCR/Domino Man sound issue

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So I've got a Domino Man board that works, but with a weird sound issue. Sound will work initially until you either place a domino or push the swat button. As soon as that particular sound effect finishes playing the game goes completely silent. Now the really weird part is if you hit the reset button on the pcb (with the game still powered on), the sound will come back and then work fine without cutting out. :confused: Any thoughts on this?
 
The MCR hardware has a main cpu for gameplay video and a slave cpu for sound. The main cpu sends commands like "play the domino sound" across a shared memory interface. My guess is either:

1. You have a communication fault between the main board and the sound board. The main CPU sent a command, got no response, decided that the sound was dead, and decided not to attempt any further sound communication.

2. You have a fault on the sound board. Some things work, but others may use some region of the ram/rom that is faulty and causes a cpu lockup or reset.

Go into self-test mode and run the sound test. Look for a reset on the sound cpu. Checksum your sound ROMs, test your sound RAM, suspect the shared memory. Also suspect a stuck line on the I/O buffers; they're on the main CPUs bus and can prevent sound comms.
 
Just as a follow up to this, I was over at Bills last night and experienced it...as bill had mentioned if you hit the reset button on the board the game then plays fine with no further sound or music problems....turen the game off and back on, coin it up, place a domino, you get the domino sound and then nothing until you hit the reset button on the PCB.

Its just a bizarre problem..I guess Id be curious as to what exactly the reset button on the board does and why it seems to be able to fix this every time...
 
Its just a bizarre problem..I guess Id be curious as to what exactly the reset button on the board does and why it seems to be able to fix this every time...
I explained above the most likely scenario. Either the main CPU decides the sound is dead and stops attempting to talk to it, or the sound CPU locksup/resets and the same situation happens. At that point you're stuck in "sound board interface error" until reset.

Start with the self-test sound test, checksum the sound rom, test the sound cpu ram, then move onto the more challenging ideas.
 
Thanks for the tips, Joey. I'm starting with checking the sound roms (4 of them). Two of the four fail the check so I'm erasing and re-burning as we speak. *crosses fingers*

Edit: I did try the dip switch for sound self test last night and got nothing out of that unless I did it wrong.
 
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Since you have the ability to burn chips, there's a much better sound test rom with RAM test here: http://www.multigame.com/mcr_sound.html
Cool thanks for the link. It looks like I may have jumped the gun a bit (no pun inteded on my user name haha). I have a GQ4x programmer and I know opinions are mixed on this one. The eproms are Texas Instrument brand 2532JL and I could get them to read data from them (found the 2 that didn't match the roms from MAME and the other 2 did), but I'm having trouble getting them to read as blank. I've left them in the eraser for I'd say at least 30 to 40 minutes of total time and they both fail the blank check immediately with the same error. This programmer is wanting an external supply so I'm wondering/guessing if that's why it won't read these as blank.
 
Does the game give any error codes when you first boot-up the game. (sound board time-out or sound board interface error?) If memory serves me right, I had a somewhat similar issue, and it was the RAM on the SSIO PCB. The speed of the ram is important on the SSIO
-Mark
 
Cool thanks for the link. It looks like I may have jumped the gun a bit (no pun inteded on my user name haha). I have a GQ4x programmer and I know opinions are mixed on this one. The eproms are Texas Instrument brand 2532JL and I could get them to read data from them (found the 2 that didn't match the roms from MAME and the other 2 did), but I'm having trouble getting them to read as blank. I've left them in the eraser for I'd say at least 30 to 40 minutes of total time and they both fail the blank check immediately with the same error. This programmer is wanting an external supply so I'm wondering/guessing if that's why it won't read these as blank.

I am going with the EPROMs just need to be replaced. If I have one read as bad (not matched against ROMIdent) I just trash it and use another. Just to see what occurs I have, in the past, attempted to blank "bad" EPROMs and reprogram. Generally they will never read as erased. I have seen some show data the changes upon every run of a blank check. If they ever show as blank they never program and verify correctly.

As to the power supply. My guess is that to run a read you would not need it. An external supply is more of an issue with a write when you need, depending on the part, more than 5v at a low current.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Of course I have to get these eproms replaced before going further even if that doesn't fix it. I may as well get a few extras from somewhere while I'm at it. For the moment I think I'll see if MAME re-creates the error if I use the data I pulled from the eproms.
 
Well I did that quick test with MAME using my 2 sound eproms that didn't match. It actually gives me a sound board error on boot and doesn't give me any sound at all. On my machine I never saw that error come up like it did on MAME. I guess if nothing I can assume those 2 eproms are at least part of the problem and hopefully all that is needed.
 
The sound board error is only displayed for a few seconds at boot-up. If your monitor is a little "slow" to display....you might not catch the text message before it disappears.

Edward
 
The sound board error is only displayed for a few seconds at boot-up. If your monitor is a little "slow" to display....you might not catch the text message before it disappears.

Edward
Good point. The G07 doesn't display a picture until the title screen is already showing.

I tried erasing those 2532JL eproms again with no luck so looks like I'll have to find a few. I know the GQ-4X has been dogged before (at least for working some older eproms) and that's the burner I currently have *ducks tomatoes*. From what I've been reading, it can handle a 2532 okay but not a 2532A. Can anyone tell me where a 2532JL fits there...what does the JL even mean?
 
Well I got some replacement 2532's since the others wouldn't erase. I put them in the board and no change....sound is still cutting out after the first domino is placed or you push the swat button. I'll have take a look at other suggestions from this thread.
 
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