Yet another Williams 1-3-1

Moto_bone

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Hello everyone!

I've been fighting with my Williams Stargate since I've owned it. It works for a few days and then it dies. I've continued to fix it every time but now I'm kinda at a stand still.

I'm getting a 1-3-1 error which I know is really not necessarily a ram error but an error with accessing the ram itself.

I've done the mod to use 4164 ram which was a nice modification while it worked! I have swapped over to a nvram because I put in a brand new switcher. I've dialed the +5 to a prefect 5.0 at the ram.

I thought I may have discovered a bad 74153 because of the pulsing was extremely fast on the output of 4F. Nope still same error.

I get pulsing on the write enable leg of the ram chips during a reset and then they go high soon as the rom board shows 1-3-1.

I looked at 4l and 4m and they seem to be working properly for write enable.

Any other suggestions?

I may just take the board to my knee and then buy a jrok lol.
 
Here is the screen shots of my rug screen pattern.
 

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Check/replace the decoder roms ?

Hello everyone!

I've been fighting with my Williams Stargate since I've owned it. It works for a few days and then it dies. I've continued to fix it every time but now I'm kinda at a stand still.

I'm getting a 1-3-1 error which I know is really not necessarily a ram error but an error with accessing the ram itself.

I've done the mod to use 4164 ram which was a nice modification while it worked! I have swapped over to a nvram because I put in a brand new switcher. I've dialed the +5 to a prefect 5.0 at the ram.

I thought I may have discovered a bad 74153 because of the pulsing was extremely fast on the output of 4F. Nope still same error.

I get pulsing on the write enable leg of the ram chips during a reset and then they go high soon as the rom board shows 1-3-1.

I looked at 4l and 4m and they seem to be working properly for write enable.

Any other suggestions?

I may just take the board to my knee and then buy a jrok lol.
 
maybe not the decoders themselves, but the sockets. I would replace the sockets, there's just 3 of them. 10 minute job.

I don't have any currently. I need to put an order together from mouser. Is there a suggested list of items to have on hand for common Williams problems?
 
I believe the decoder PROM closer (physically) to the RAM chips or it's socket can definitely cause memory issues like this. And the sockets Williams used for these aren't that great.

You can remove that decoder PROM, check for corrosion/tarnish on the pins (carefully clean that up if there is any. Check the pins in the socket and see how they look. If you have some Deoxit, you can put a little in there. Then re-insert the decoder PROM and retest.

I have equipment that can verify and burn those PROMs. They can not be done on most EPROM burners (especially anything made in the last ~10 years or more). I do have some blank chips, so if you find it is toast, I can burn a replacement. They aren't as cheap as EPROMs, so you really want to determine if it is bad or not before buying a replacement.

on the 74153s, make sure nobody has put a 74LS153 in place of the 74153 chips, as the LS part can not generally drive the load present on most/all of the 74153 chips on the MPU board.

I can repair these boards as well if you don't find the problem. Just inquire via PM if you are interested in board repair for these.

Good luck finding your problem, that decoder PROM is right in the path of the RAM activity and hopefully it is as simple as that or its socket.
 
I believe the decoder PROM closer (physically) to the RAM chips or it's socket can definitely cause memory issues like this. And the sockets Williams used for these aren't that great.

You can remove that decoder PROM, check for corrosion/tarnish on the pins (carefully clean that up if there is any. Check the pins in the socket and see how they look. If you have some Deoxit, you can put a little in there. Then re-insert the decoder PROM and retest.

I have equipment that can verify and burn those PROMs. They can not be done on most EPROM burners (especially anything made in the last ~10 years or more). I do have some blank chips, so if you find it is toast, I can burn a replacement. They aren't as cheap as EPROMs, so you really want to determine if it is bad or not before buying a replacement.

on the 74153s, make sure nobody has put a 74LS153 in place of the 74153 chips, as the LS part can not generally drive the load present on most/all of the 74153 chips on the MPU board.

I can repair these boards as well if you don't find the problem. Just inquire via PM if you are interested in board repair for these.

Good luck finding your problem, that decoder PROM is right in the path of the RAM activity and hopefully it is as simple as that or its socket.

+1 to all of this lol

the point about the sockets is the pins can either corrode (a noticeable black tin) or they can break off completely. depending on which pins are affected on that decoder, that will determine which ram error you can get. it can be 1-3-1, 1-3-2, or a 1-2-7 even.
 
Hello everyone!



I've been fighting with my Williams Stargate since I've owned it. It works for a few days and then it dies. I've continued to fix it every time but now I'm kinda at a stand still.



I'm getting a 1-3-1 error which I know is really not necessarily a ram error but an error with accessing the ram itself.



I've done the mod to use 4164 ram which was a nice modification while it worked! I have swapped over to a nvram because I put in a brand new switcher. I've dialed the +5 to a prefect 5.0 at the ram.



I thought I may have discovered a bad 74153 because of the pulsing was extremely fast on the output of 4F. Nope still same error.



I get pulsing on the write enable leg of the ram chips during a reset and then they go high soon as the rom board shows 1-3-1.



I looked at 4l and 4m and they seem to be working properly for write enable.



Any other suggestions?



I may just take the board to my knee and then buy a jrok lol.



Jroks are terrific. Buy it, install it and forget it.. it's a great feeling knowing your games will just work when powered up. Nothing better than playing on a jrok!
 
Concentrate on the 3G PROM of the 2 as this one is used by the CPU to read and write the memory. So the testing goes through this one. 3C is only used to display the memory on the screen and will not cause a 1-3-1 error, the screen may look bad but no errors.

Good luck.
 
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