(Topic ID: 227985)

Revenge from Mars hung and died?

By phlegmer

5 years ago


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#1 5 years ago

Last night I was playing RFM. Actually had a pretty good game for once. After I finished, I left it on, went up stairs for maybe 10 min, came back down and I saw that the screens attract sequence froze. I powered it off, waited a few seconds, powered it back up. The translight light comes on, power is getting to the PC box, but there is no video signal and the playfield never lights up. When I lift the PF, I see that most of the fuse LED's are not lit. I did meter them and they all seem ok. The prism card does have a non blinking amber light on.

Seeking advice where to go next?

Thanks much!

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#2 5 years ago

Get a DMM on your power supply and check the voltages.

#3 5 years ago

Thanks for the advice. Could you be more specific as to how to do this? Referring to the power supply in the PC box? If so, do I just plug a plug and test voltage on each pin?

Thanks

#4 5 years ago

I pulled the 2 AT power plugs (not an ATX PS) from the motherboard and got the following readings:

Red = +5.05 or +5.06
Orange = +5.04
Blue = -11.23
Yellow = +11.96
White = -4.83

Is that within tolerance?

#5 5 years ago

Those measurements do not look suspicious. Check the parallel port cable from the transformer

#6 5 years ago

Sorry I don't think I'm following. The only parallel (DB-25?) cable I see is connected from the PC box to the board in the cabinet. I'm not seeing a parallel cable coming from the transformer.

#7 5 years ago
Quoted from phlegmer:

Sorry I don't think I'm following. The only parallel (DB-25?) cable I see is connected from the PC box to the board in the cabinet. I'm not seeing a parallel cable coming from the transformer.

sounds more like a PC issue then a power issue.
If I was you I'd just take the PC out and reseat everything, the prism, ram, reseat connections etc...
can't remember is there more then one ram slot in that motherboard?, maybe put it in the second slot if it has one.

#8 5 years ago
Quoted from hocuslocus:

sounds more like a PC issue then a power issue.
If I was you I'd just take the PC out and reseat everything, the prism, ram, reseat connections etc...
can't remember is there more then one ram slot in that motherboard?, maybe put it in the second slot if it has one.

Yes I agree. I was looking at those fuses thinking the power was lost with all those solenoid voltage LEDs off, but LED9 is on so the 50VDC is getting to the driver board. The solenoid voltage is switched on later during boot up via a relay for all those other lines out So as you suggested, reseating everything, especially the finicky Prism card is a start,

Is the fan running on top of the CPU? No bulging capacitors on the motherboard?

There is more than one ram slot on my motherboard, although I understand there was more than one version used. I once added ram to see if it would improve anything, but all it did was make the already long self test even longer.

#9 5 years ago

I'll try reseating everything. I did already reseat the prism card but will try a more thorough reseating session next.

#10 5 years ago
Quoted from phlegmer:

I'll try reseating everything. I did already reseat the prism card but will try a more thorough reseating session next.

if you did it once I doubt a second time is going to help much.
I know almost every time I have issues with a new PC build and it won't boot, it's almost always a ram issue.

yeah like wayout440 mentioned you could check for bulging caps on the motherboard. There are a few on there that will cause the issues your talking about.
You could even just replace them all, think it took me about 30 minutes... there were tons of caps on that mobo and I didn't have a de-soldering iron at the time.

I finally just bought another pc and went with pinbox, the problem with those old P2K parts is once they crap out your kind of screwed.

#11 5 years ago

Yeah, I remember the puffy cap era a lifetime ago. We had to replace a lot of PC's at my job because of that issue. The last time I looked, the caps didn't look obviously bad. But since this is a common problem, might be wise to recap it just to check that off the list.

Quoted from hocuslocus:

it's almost always a ram issue.

If the memory is the problem, reseating it probably wouldn't solve it correct? Unless the thought is it's a memory connection issue.

Next few days don't think I'll get to poke at it since we have lots of family things going on this week. Appreciate all the feedback though!

#12 5 years ago

It's also possible that your interlock and/or memory protect switches died, which would help to explain the lack of voltages on the Power driver board, and the failure to continue booting. I've had this happen on a few WPC games, replaced them both and was back in business.

#13 5 years ago

If the problem hasn't been specifically isolated to the motherboard by swapping the Prism or motherboard, then the Prism card could be suspect. While reseating the Prism card often solves issues with communication between the motherboard and the Prism, there's a lot of things that can become a problem on the Prism itself. The Prism sandwich has socketed ROMS that could have chip creep, for example. Mine had broken traces at the connector that had to be jumpered. It's a delicate thing, so be very careful if you need to pry the two halves apart to investigate it.

#14 5 years ago

Folks,
I actually had some time over my lunch hour to quick run home and peek at the memory slot. Appears that mine actually has 2 slots. I popped the SIMM / DIMM (whatever this stick is) and secured it into the vacant slot. Flipped the power switch and BINGO! Screen lit up with something other than no signal and booted up just fine. PF now has a light show and the Prism card is now blinking amber instead of steady on amber. Didn't play an actual game on it but it looks like it's alive again!

Thanks so much for all the help!

#15 5 years ago
Quoted from phlegmer:

Folks,
I actually had some time over my lunch hour to quick run home and peek at the memory slot. Appears that mine actually has 2 slots. I popped the SIMM / DIMM (whatever this stick is) and secured it into the vacant slot. Flipped the power switch and BINGO! Screen lit up with something other than no signal and booted up just fine. PF now has a light show and the Prism card is now blinking amber instead of steady on amber. Didn't play an actual game on it but it looks like it's alive again!
Thanks so much for all the help!

congrats , glad you got it working again.

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