Sega Rally 2, 3D display issues

[Lavissa]

Hi,

I've just finished putting together one part of my Sega Rally 2 Twin, and when powering it, the screen is mostly white.
2D graphics, text and pictures show up on the screen, but no 3D is rendered at all.

For context, I accidentally started with refurbishing the player 2 cab, and the player 1 cab doesn't boot. I haven't started on cab 1 yet, but there's no power to the switching regulator that powers the game boards.
Without knowing for sure, I presume that cab 2 might be set up as a slave, but I have no way of verifying that. I don't know if it's even significant to the problem.

No test menus are displayed. If I hit the test button in the coin tower, the screen goes white.
If I attempt to swap TX / RX on the fiber links on both cabs, it doesn't boot. If I unplug the fibers, it boots.

Looking at the game boards, all LEDs on the Comm board are lit, and the LEDs on the CPU board pulse on and off with no discernable pattern.

Any tips for troubleshooting here?
Am I looking at a partly defective video board?
Any resources available to check the status of the video board? I have access to oscilloscopes++.

I have a parted out Le Mans cabinet, but from what I read, the video boards on Step 1.5 and 2 are not interchangeable.

 

[DRAGONKZ]

Probably worth having a chat with Ken at irepairsega in the USA.

Model 3 Step 2.0/2.1 Video boards are well known to have issues, and produce all sorts of weird graphics glitches.

If you have 2 boards you can try swapping layers around and see if you can isolate a fault to a specific board

 

[Lavissa]

After swapping around the video boards, I can confirm that this error was caused by the video board.
Any tips about europe-based repair techs that could potentially fix the problem is greatly appreciated. Id like to limit the shipping distance if I can.
In the meantime, I'll probably try to source a refurbished board with the risks that this entail.

 

[DRAGONKZ]

Not sure who repairs them in the EU, sorry, but I can vouch for Ken in the USA.

I shipped 3 of my 8 video boards over for repairs and all were fixed… will be shipping the other 5 over soon as well.

Working video boards are harder to come by now, I’d suggest having at least 1 spare in your stockpile if aiming to keep your stuff running longer term.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t buy my 8, I was given 6 dead stacks + 1 video board with my Sega Rally 2 cabinet… given how hard it seems to be to find working ones I’ll be keeping a few spares!

 

[outrun2]

Ken is well known in the industry and is a master at repairing most Sega boards of this era. I too have numerous faulty Step 2 video boards and have been meaning to get them looked at for ages. Not sure how shipping/taxes would work from UK/EU -> USA and vice versa? Tax should be void surely as it's a service/repair and not a purchase or import/export as such.. sure I read something about that once?

If you're on the ukvac forums there is a guy there who fixes Model 3 video boards and is in the UK. Not sure if he wants his name advertised on here though..

 

[SBDESIGN]

How much have you been paying to fix the model 2 video boards?
If you don’t mind me asking

 

[DRAGONKZ]

Depends on the fault... on average I'd say it could be anywhere from $50 USD to $200 USD per board?? Ken is very fair with his rates though, I've found if he's said it takes him 30 mins to fix then he charges accordingly.