So I picked up a Batman forever today and it has some dmd issues. Most of the time the screen is half lit and dim like in the pic. Some of the screens light the bottom half and it’s bright like it’s supposed to be. Sometimes it just works altogether but never for long.

I’m just looking for a little advice on where to begin. I’ve not worked on many sega pins. Is this most likely a power supply issue?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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Bad display ROMs?

It has the harness on it but it looks a little hacked up. I went ahead and ordered a new one just to be sure.

I will pull the power supply this evening and start checking for bad solder and connectors. I know the data east boards were notorious for bad fuse clips so I will check those too. I’m just hoping it’s a power thing and not a dmd thing. I’ll report back this evening what I find

Ok so I reflowed all the pins on the power supply and the dmd controller board. I also replaced the 26 pin ribbon cable. The machine was missing a bunch of board screws so I replaced all that were missing in case of grounding issues. I also just to make sure, tried a rottendog mpu in the game.

Any ideas on where to go next? If the screen is bad I’m ok with ordering a color screen I just want to make sure that’s what the problem is first.

Unfortunately I do not.

Ok so I got the harness on from pinball life. I replaced the hacked up one that was on it but the display is no different.

Anyone have any idea what would cause the dmd to do this?

Hopefully this will help. I am deifntley no master at sega pinball. I just figure that if the screen lights up like that that it is probably good and something else is to blame. But once again I know nothing of sega dmd so just looking for any help I can get

Here is a picture. My phone is crappy and the lighting isn’t great. I can move the machine if you need a better one

I don’t have a rom burner. But I can order a set of ROMs for it

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This one should be better. I can take more. Just let me know what you need

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Here is the back side just in case you need it. I suppose those caps are there for a good reason?

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Do you happen to know the value right off. I do not have a schematic

All I had on hand was .1 and .01 so I will order some today. I guess I’m going to go ahead and get a set of ROMs too just in case that is the issue. I really appreciate the help. I’ll post back as soon as I have any more info

I ordered the chip and sockets too. Looks like it should all be here by Thursday. I’ll install it all after work and post the findings. Thanks. I really appreciate it

Yes I have replaced lots of IC before. It is so easy to screw one up for sure. Hopefully it will fix it The shots on the game a pretty cool. I can’t wait to play it while actually knowing what is happening lol

The game had that harness in it when I got it but it had some spliced places in the wiring so I ordered another one and installed it just in case.

Well I replaced the capacitor today and there was no change. New display ROMs were also checked in the game to no avail either. The ic below the cap has. It come in yet so I will have to check it when it does

Sounds like a plan. I will start checking those tonight. This thing is driving me crazy. I just hope the screen itself is good. I’d imagine since it lit up in test that it probably is.

Ok so... I checked all the traces. I removed the old chip and inserted a socket. I added the new chip and there is no change in the dmd. The chip came out cleanly and no pads or traces were damaged in removing it. I checked them all before I soldered in the socket. Any idea where to go next

I will pull it back apart tonight and check.

I tried to see where it goes but it appears to stop at the top right leg on the socket for what would be rom 2.

On another note, a super generous pinsider is going to let me use a known working display to test in my machine. That way I can rule out the display itself as the problem

I will post as soon as the screen comes in. It may be a few days as it has to be shipped

I really appreciate that. People complain all the time about pinside being negative but honestly there are so many great people on here.

I put in the screen that was sent to me and it works. There are some flaky power issues still but the screen itself works now. I really appreciate all the help on it.

It looks that way. I hooked it up and it fired right up.

I know right. I was hoping the screen was good cause it came on in test mode like that. I ended up buying the one V_piscopo sent me to check the machine and have played about 15 games on it already. What a fun machine. I reset the asic chip on the controller board and the flaky power issue seems to have gone away too.

Yes I used my controller board. When I look closely at the display itself it looks as if there is some kind of corrosion along one side of the board. It doesn’t look like there are any damaged parts so I’m not real sure what that could be. Possibly battery damage? But I’m not sure how it would have gotten there. I can try to post a picture of it this afternoon when I get home from work.

Here is the area I was talking about.

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There was a little bit in the grid around the battery holder but it wasn’t bad at all. I guess that’s what it probably is but I don’t see how with so little on the mpu that so much would be be on the display. I can’t see any components that look damaged in any way

Maybe. It is a reimport so I guess sitting in a storage container for an extended period isn’t out of the question.