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Track and Field board - all of a sudden not booting

mathewbeall

mathewbeall

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Hi Folks!

Weird issue - was getting ready to take my Track and Field board into work and get it all hooked up. Checked it out at home - worked great - I changed the battery just in case the one in there was old, and went to work and hooked it up.

The board booted to something similar to the picture below - I adjusted 5v a little up and down, and then took the board home to troubleshoot. When I got it home - hooked it up to my supergun, same issue (good!). I then started looking at everything that could have shaken loose during the 30m car ride. The ribbon cable was seated and locked in, everything seemed ok. I popped the battery out and then back in - and voila - it booted up! Weird right?

So I take it back to work today - exact same problem when I get to work - can't get it to book. I take it back home again, and now, on my bench - I can't get it to boot up, even after removing and putting the battery back in.

Has anyone run into this kind of issue before?

Matt
 

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Thanks @ekorz - just downloaded that. Just saved off the contents of my original EEPROM and am now erasing it - and will burn this diagnostic ROM and see what comes of it!

Matt
 
Good luck! I brought a hyper sports back to life with one of these, it was pretty useful.
 
Same behaviour - even with the diagnostic EPROM in there - is there something I have to do get into diagnostic mode? I saw some information about holding down player2 start when booting up - but that didn't do it.

matt
 
it looks on the schematics like it has 2,
47uf caps connected to a 555 timer chip

there is a 3rd 47uf cap that controls some power stuff too.
very strange schematic!
 
@ekorz do you remember how you got into diagnostic mode? Was it by holding down the 2P start button? That doesn't seem to be working for me.
 
mathewbeall said:
@ekorz do you remember how you got into diagnostic mode? Was it by holding down the 2P start button? That doesn't seem to be working for me.
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It's been a while, but in MAME i just tried it and you don't need to do anything, it just boots into the test mode. So your board might not even be making it far enough to load it. So it's a good place to start checking the reset circuit @stj is talking about. Reset looks like it's pin 19 on the Konami 1 chip on the bottom board. The 555 timer and related caps should be nearby. I can take a look at my board a bit later if you can't locate it.

1652574300999.png
 
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Found that area - at least with a visual inspection - everything seems ok! Super frustrating that just replacing the battery seems to have caused the board to go wonky!
 

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the schematic ekorz posted is less messed-up than mine,
that 220uf cap isnt even on mine - the scan has the edge missing! :(
 
mathewbeall said:
Found that area - at least with a visual inspection - everything seems ok! Super frustrating that just replacing the battery seems to have caused the board to go wonky!
Click to expand...
It might not be the battery, that could just be coincidence. Replace those caps if you can, it certainly can't hurt at all! Old caps can do weird things.
 
Will do - just ordered the capacitors from Mouser - I will replace those 3 next weekend and see if it makes any difference!
 
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try a different ribbon cable too if you have another game with the same size ribbon
i have seen the connection between the wire and plug contacts fail many times in old games - i dont think they hold up well to decades of flexing and people pulling the plugs out by the cable
 
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