(Topic ID: 175512)

Meteor Freezes After One Ding @ PowerUp

By CUJO

7 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 30 posts
  • 7 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by CUJO
  • Topic is favorited by 4 Pinsiders

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Linked Games

  • Meteor Stern Electronics, 1979

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Meteor_SDB.jpg
Meteor_MPU.jpg
Meteor3 (resized).jpg
Meteor2 (resized).jpg
MeteorMPU1 (resized).jpg

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#1 7 years ago

Well, too good to be true. Meteor took a dive two nights ago.

Played 3-4 games fine and left it on after. When I looked at it 10 minutes later, lights on the playfield weren't cycling anymore AND all
the displays inc credit/match were out.

Power off, Power On, Get the first dong, then nothing. No nothing..just a freeze up with no lit displays..

CPU? Memory? Ugh...

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

#3 7 years ago
Quoted from acebathound:

Try unplugging either side of the sound board cables (ie. J5 on the MPU or J1 at the SB-300) -- first thing to check with Classic Stern games that don't boot since sound board issues can prevent the game from booting.

Acebathound,
Tried removing ribbon from J5 on the MPU board. Power up. Only difference is I don't hear the first "ding" as it stops booting.
I noticed when powering on with sound cable back on, the MPU LED flashes once, goes out as I hear the ding..then nothing. If I press the S23 blue button on the MPU board, I hear more sounds and even once time it sounded like a motorcycle idling.

Not sure what that blue button's purpose is. Reset maybe?

#5 7 years ago
Quoted from acebathound:

Any corrosion around the 5101 RAMs at U8 and U13? Take a picture of the bottom half of the MPU if you aren't sure, plenty of us can spot that stuff pretty good

They look pretty good. They are socketed. I pulled them and reseated them. Same Single Ding at power on...

MeteorMPU1 (resized).jpgMeteorMPU1 (resized).jpg

#7 7 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

Meteor software does not silence the sound board. See if you are failing at 0 flashes (led just turns itself off, in metoer there is a tone for this, stutter tone in galaxy and meteor with 1st flash) or if you get 1 flash.
No first flash = one of the ROMs is bad / not accessible. No 2nd flash = u7 ram bad or not accessible.
someone made a half ass attempt at fixing the corrosion, but the sockets do not look damaged. I would reset u2-u7 and see if you get any change.

The LED on the MPU board lights up at power on but goes out quickly followed by a single ding.
Is that what you are referring to as 0 flashes?
Here's a couple more pics too. Maybe you'll spot something. There is some corrosion in the detail of the pics that is hard to see with the naked eye.

Meteor2 (resized).jpgMeteor2 (resized).jpg

Meteor3 (resized).jpgMeteor3 (resized).jpg

#8 7 years ago

Thanks for the tip Barakandl!
I reseated those U1-U7 Eproms and 2 of the other LARGE IC's to the right of them.
Power up pin and back in BIZ!

Not sure if it'll stay that way but good to go for now!

All my settings and HiScores got reset since I pulled out the EPROMS??

Thanks!
CuJo

#10 7 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

You are likely going to need that board serviced at some point. Hopefully it will go a long while, but if it starts acting up, have a pro rebuild it with new IC sockets and header pins.

When the software crashes or a game fails to boot properly, ram corruption is likely. The CPU runs wild and craps into the ram chip basically.

Well, it didn't take long to crap out during ball 3 of the first game.
All the switched lamps went out on the playfield , flippers kept going ,so kept playing.
Drop target banks wouldn't reset, all displays went blank.

Power off..Wait 10 sec..Power On, pin boots up ok and plays normal.
Didn't dump the hi-scores or credits this time but didn't play anymore.

Barakandl , do you work on this MPU board?

Thanks!
CuJo

#11 7 years ago
Quoted from CUJO:

Well, it didn't take long to crap out during ball 3 of the first game.
All the switched lamps went out on the playfield , flippers kept going ,so kept playing.
Drop target banks wouldn't reset, all displays went blank.
Power off..Wait 10 sec..Power On, pin boots up ok and plays normal.
Didn't dump the hi-scores or credits this time but didn't play anymore games to see if it would repeat.

Barakandl , do you work on this MPU board?

Thanks!
CuJo

sorry double post

#14 7 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

yes, but i am not taking in work right now. just not enough time.

Totally understand. I'm going to pull the board out, inspect carefully and re-seat all the socketed IC's on a flat surface while

looking for corrosion and such first.

I'll post pics of anything suspect.

#15 7 years ago

Update:
Pulled the MPU board, took pics front and back if I need to look at them later.
Pulled every IC that was socketed out, inspected, cleaned the pins and re-seated back in socket.
Re-install MPU board back in backbox, connect all cables & turn on pin.
Seemed to boot fine and play fine for a couple games. Left it on over an hr and it never froze up, so that's a good thing.

The Bad: The displays are all flickering now. When in attract mode and all the displays show the high score to date, the flickering
is like identical on each display. Even as a single player game, the score will flicker making it hard to tell what the score really is.

Power issue maybe?

I reseated connectors on the power/driver board but no difference.

Anyone have an idea what could be causing this?

#18 7 years ago
Quoted from schudel5:

How's your rectifier board in the cabinet? All voltages correct? Any connectors look toasty?
For the displays, power off, reseat the rectifier connectors and the upper right large connector on the solenoid driver board. Turn game on and see if the displays are better.
If not, you can adjust the high voltage using a plastic bladed screwdriver on the HV pot on the solenoid driver board. It's located through the small hole in the Plexiglas cover over the HV section. I always adjust just above the point where they flicker and stay on solid.

Rectifier board was rebuilt by a local tech maybe 4 yrs ago and the game has probably only been on for 5-6 hrs since then.
I'll check those connectors on the rectifier board. I remember it gets pretty darn hot. It does have the heatsink on it too.
Then I'll try turning the adjustment screw as you outlined tonight!
Thanks!

#19 7 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

check the power at the displays CAREFULLY
i have found connector voltage drops on the 5v supply make the displays more likely to buzz and flicker. Flickering across all displays in a wavy pattern is usually excessive ripple on the 230v supply (c26 SDB).

Is C26 that big blue can capacitor on the Driver board?

#20 7 years ago

Bad news...
Before turning on Meteor, I opened coin door, pulled off all three power connectors on the rectifier board just in front of coinbox.

They look good, not burnt and re-seated them.
Turned on pin, got noise out of the speaker, like white noise.
Turned off pin. Pull and reseated again. Power up. Same thing.
Turn off pin. Power up. Dead as doornail...
Must have blow a fuse somewhere...

#22 7 years ago

Update:

Powered off pin.

Pulled all 6 fuses out of rectifier board in cabinet. All tested ok. Re install fuses.

Turn on pin.

It powers on. I hear a surge of power from the speaker briefly as the MPU LED comes on and stays on.
But now there is no single "ding" like before with the LED going out after the ding.

Now it just stays lit. If I press the blue reset on the MPU board, sometimes the speaker will oscillate , like a small motorcycle idling until I power off and the LED will go out.

I am getting power to the upper right Power Driver board as I can feel the heat coming off the heat sink. I can check the voltage once I get out there again with a DVM.

#23 7 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

check voltages on the solenoid driver board then mpu. see if you are missing 12v and 5vdc

Which Test Points?

#25 7 years ago

Update:
Tested voltages on SDB/MPU board:
SDB:
TP1: 5.34 VDC
TP5: 14.00 VDC

MPU:
TP5: 5.3 VDC
TP2: 13.93 VDC

also tested MPU:
TP3: 22.90 VDC
TP1: 5.3 VDC

Looks ok here?

#27 7 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

yeah that is OK tp voltages.
The computer is not running for some reason. Probably unrelated to the reseating of the rectifier board plugs.

I would agree. The board is original and 35+ years old. A lot of the pins on the EPROMS were very dull looking when I had reseated them.

BTW, the Pharaoh sound/speech board your repaired is doing well still.

2 months later
#28 7 years ago

Update: Meteor has "fixed" itself. After leaving it be since the last post, I turned it on 3 days ago and it went thru the boot cycle just fine.
I know it probably is temporary but hey, it's worked for three days and I've probably played 15 games without an issue.

5 months later
#30 6 years ago
Quoted from semicolin:

Next time you've got it open, pop some stickers over the EPROM erase windows.

Good advice. I will.

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