(Topic ID: 216283)

Atari Middle Earth Help!!

By Willillist

5 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 13 posts
  • 5 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by semicolin
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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#1 5 years ago

Hi Everyone,
I just picked up a middle earth last week and im scratching my head over a couple of problems. First off my score display will not come on at all but my credit/ball display is working fine. I have the +/- 90 volts at the c1 and c2 on the credit match board. I pulled the glass out in cleaned the connections placed back in and nothing still. Thats about as far i have gotten and cant seem to find any other documentation on how to trouble shoot this display. Any one know of a good way for me to test this glass to make sure its not gassed out?? If it is gassed out anyone know a source where i can find a working display? Also my other issue is the same player shoots again light stays on and never goes out from the second you turn the machine on till you shut it off i am assuming its a short somewhere in the lamp matrix. Lastly i have a stuttering flipper on the upper left playfield. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bill

#2 5 years ago

The manual and other documents are here to download for free.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1590

-Mike

#4 5 years ago

Check the space rider manual--that's the most polished manual out of all the atari games. Also check the documentation section on pinwiki for atari games. There is a troubleshooting guide that atari released.

#5 5 years ago

Thanks forceflow I will do that and let you know if I progress any.

#6 5 years ago

My voltages are there on both the credit/March pcb and the score display pcb I’m leaning towards gassed out display☹️....Is there anyone to know for a fact that’s the case? Or is there anyone out there selling a gen 1 Atari score display and hints on finding one would be huge at this point.!

#7 5 years ago

It's not a type of display that outgasses.

Voltage and/or logic issues tend to usually be the culprits. Also make sure to check that the ribbon cable is good.

#8 5 years ago

Ribbon cable is good what’s the best way to test the logic on this gen 1 board?

#9 5 years ago

Make sure all the edge connectors are clean (use a pink rubber eraser)

Quoted from Willillist:

Ribbon cable is good what’s the best way to test the logic on this gen 1 board?

Schematics, theory of operation, multimeter, and logic probe. There is also a test ROM available.

#10 5 years ago

If the credit/match display is coming up fine but not the score display stays blank
do you still think it could be a logic issue?

3 years later
#11 2 years ago
Quoted from ForceFlow:

It's not a type of display that outgasses.
Voltage and/or logic issues tend to usually be the culprits. Also make sure to check that the ribbon cable is good.

They are gas-discharge displays. Wouldn't that mean they can outgass?

I also have a dead display. I swapped it with another display and that one works fine, so I know it's not a problem with anything up stream.

#12 2 years ago
Quoted from Quickdraw19:

They are gas-discharge displays. Wouldn't that mean they can outgass?

Technically yes, but with the atari displays, they don't ever appear to slowly fail with fading digits like other pinball displays tend to do. Outgassing in this case usually implies a slow process eventually leading failure.

With atari displays, they either light up, or they don't. I imagine that's because they're made differently in some way from other displays. Bad seals? Different display materials? Who knows.

1 month later
#13 2 years ago

Sometimes they fail in entirely more annoying ways. I had an internal short circuit on one so that when you lit one part of a row, the whole line would light. Stayed bright though!

I ended up having to replace the whole glass, but it looks pretty good now.

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