My fish tales dmd seems to work fine but I have a problem that only comes up when the game is left on for an extended period of time. If the game is on for around 2 hours, the dmd starts to scramble everything. This is the only time this happens. I did change all the ribbon cables since I already had them. Issue still comes up though. Any ideas?

Looks like someone has been here before

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My question would be does it look repairable? It looks quite toasty and already worked on. If not, would a rottendog replacement do the trick for around $90 to 100.

I swapped out the board from my Creech. When I first plugged it in, the pic was jumbled I reseated the connectors. When I reseated the Idc connector that plugs into dmd, the pic came back clear. I put a new molex connector in. Booted right up. I'm going to leave it on for a couple hours to see what happens with the new connector and my Creech board. I took some pics and you can see some hacks.

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Just a little.

Well after a while the picture was scrambled with my Creech board in there. That one has a nice looking hv section. Now what are the thoughts?

I'll test the creech board and dmd in FT this evening. I ordered a color dmd anyway cause I have a lot of family coming in two weeks and need all games up and running.

The ribbons have all been replaced with brand new ribbons and have all been reseated. This didn't fix the issue. I'll take video of the scrambled screen this evening.

Well it's not the dmd board or the dmd that is causing the display issues. I put the creature dmd board and dmd in fish tales and the issue came back after an hour of being on.

I went to take a video but it wouldn't let me upload it. Then as I was standing there it came back clear for a few minutes. Then it went back out. I could still play a game and you could see some stuff going on in the background. Now that the board and dmd are ruled out (I think) what is next? Should I go with all new molex connectors with trifurcon pins? Bad connection somewhere? I thought for sure that it would go away with the board and dmd from creature.

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I tried pushing down on the chips above the batteries and it cleared up about halfway. Turned it off and on and it came back clear. Maybe that fixed it. I'll give it some time and see what happens.

FYI voltages tested on dmd

1. - 118
2. - 95.7
3. No wires here
4. 0
5. 0
6. 4.9
7. 12.6
8. 65.8

These appear to be in line with what pinwiki states they should be.

Still kind of on for a while and then it goes off for a bit. I just removed all the Idc connectors on the dmd board and added molex connectors. I'll see if this does anything.

Good for a while but gets distorted after sitting for a while. I'm lost.

I have the one from creature in there.

Not exactly sure cause i pressed on a bunch. I'll give it a try though.

Well after pushing in u9 with power off, I got the "factory settings restored" or whatever that says. Never had that on this machine. Odd. I added date and time back and then shut off. Turned back on and settings were saved. That was a first on this game. Did I push too hard?

I also don't believe I pushed in u9 before

Well after almost an hour, the dmd is still good. I shut it off and turned back on to make sure I didn't have issues with settings. I'll turn it off for the night and try again tomorrow for a longer period of time.

I turned on for another hour this morning without issue. I left the game on and my wife will be checking on it periodically throughout the day. Maybe U9 on the mpu was the answer!

The machine has been on since a little after 7 AM this morning and, per my wife, the dmd has been fine every time she looked at it. Hopefully the U9 chip just needed to be pushed down a little. I'll keep monitoring this but its looking good for now.

Definitely saved me from some serious headaches! I'm going to switch back to the original board and dmd and see if things remain the same, once I get home.

The old dmd and dmd board have been in for 2 days and have been left on for many hours without issue. I think this is fixed. Now to decide where to put my new color dmd.

Well the issue has popped up twice since I thought it was resolved. Usually the resolution is to push in U9. It stays scrambled until I launch the ball. After that, all good. Should I try to reflow solder on the back of board?

I would say that it is much better since I pushed in U9. I've done board work before but never on that area. Is it easy to remove that chip to examine? Lots of legs to break!

Both times it happened, it cleared up after pushing in U9. I'll just monitor everything and report back. Might not be for a while though. Thanks for the help!

Ok family has come and gone. Issue did resurface. I pulled the board for visual inspection. Visual inspection shows no cracks to socket or chip. I did not pull the chip. Pics of the back side are attached. I'm guessing there could be cracks or broken legs I don't see. One concerning thing I see is that the pins for the I/O Extend J201appear to have been resoldered and a lot appear to be soldered together. Pic is attached. Should I desolder and resolder?

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Heres some pics

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All reflowed. Played 5 games without issue. I'm leaving it on for a while.

So far so good. Played about 10 games. Sat for a while too. I'll try more tomorrow evening.

4 days while being on significant portions of the day, lots of games played, no issues. Hopefully this is the end of the issues. I'm leaning towards it being the end. The only way I'll report back is if it comes back.