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Evan

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Hello,
I recently got this mortal kombat board, and while the game works well, and it says all the sound hardware is working perfectly in the test menu, the game has an issue with corrupted sound effects. Either a sound effect is corrupted, doesn’t play, or other random sound effects play when they shouldn’t be. The board is getting 5.16V and -5.52V. Any idea on a fix?

Video of issue
 

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OK, when you power it up, how many bongs do you hear? Just one?

When you turn the test mode DIP on and go into the sound tests, what sounds / effects do you hear OK? Which are bad?
 
I just came back to it and now it doesn’t even boot and just resets itself which is great
 
OK, when you power it up, how many bongs do you hear? Just one?

When you turn the test mode DIP on and go into the sound tests, what sounds / effects do you hear OK? Which are bad?
ok now when I boot it up I get no bongs at all. Here is an error at the test menu. Any ideas what it means?
 

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you have a communication failure. if you haven't replaced the caps on the sound board or the ribbon cable's wires have come detached from the housings one of these scenarios may happen: 1) the old caps leak/outgas, the latter can destroy chips if the chemicals spray on the legs (your picture, while not close up on the sound board, does not appear to have had this happen) 2) the old caps are just bad and don't work as they should anymore (this is anyone's guess what happens then!) 3) you have a broken connection via the ribbon cable or it's connected backwards on CPU or sound board ends (this doesn't appear to be the case, but ensure the red stripe of the cable is aligned with pin 1/2 markings on both boards) 4) you have a fault in the power harness that connects the JAMMA power to the sound board. the grey wires are +5V, you can measure voltage to the sound board at the grey (+5V) and black (ground) wires through the top of the power plug. it will probably be kind of low, 4.8xV so don't be alarmed, they still work fine. if you're missing that voltage then the sound board isn't thinking at all. also for posterity Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam/TE, Total Carnage, and Terminator 2 do not use -5V. :)

I've had success fixing ribbon cables to Williams pinball games by just inserting the housing ends in a vise and squishing it tighter. if you have the CPU and sound boards out already you can just continuity test the pins between boards to verify all the ribbon cable connections are there.

I have provided what I would argue to be a pretty comprehensive list of things to try. I may need to expand my sound board page.
 
I share my experience on the MK1 PCB if it can help (the sound test and "bong" was flawless). After a short time of play, the sounds was disturbed and didn't match the action. I burned and replaced the sound ROMs and the problem was fixed.
 
I share my experience on the MK1 PCB if it can help (the sound test and "bong" was flawless). After a short time of play, the sounds was disturbed and didn't match the action. I burned and replaced the sound ROMs and the problem was fixed.
oh yeah I forgot if the U3 rom is bad, that will make it not work too. imagine if you will it's like you have a sound card in a computer, but no drivers. you will thus have no sound.
 
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