Hello All - picked up a nice Space Riders recently, and I've been working on getting it up and running. After some work and repairs, the game is now playing, displays working, and I'm getting close to having things in order. One of my remaining issues is sound-related.

If I listen closely, I can very faintly hear the in game sounds (scoring, bonus count down after drain, etc). Adjusting the volume pot (near the coin door and on the Aux board) seem to have zero effect. Has anyone run into this issue before? I am unfamiliar with Atari boards, so suggestions are welcome.

The Aux board has never been recapped from what I can tell. The game sat unplayed for over 20 years.

Small update - Turned the game on this morning and the sounds appear to be gone now. Originally I had no sound, but after cleaning the edge connectors on the Aux board and reseating the connectors, I had the very faint sounds noted above. So it seems like the sounds might be getting generator from the main PCB just fine, but the output or volume is non-existent or low? Not sure.

Bump... Anyone have any suggestions? Since I can very faintly hear the sounds, and the volume pot doesn't seem to do anything (not even make the speaker hum or crackle when adjusted), I thought perhaps it might be the issue. Could I bypass it and go direct to the speaker to see if that affects anything?

Update... still looking for advice on this one. I removed and checked both the on-board and remote volume pots, and both are in working order. With both of them cranked all the way to their maximum, I can hear all of the game sounds, but it's definitely too quiet to really be heard during gameplay. Maybe 5-10% volume at best.

Since all of the sounds are clearly working, I would think that rules out the main board. I'm thinking something from the Amplification side of things, which I believe is on the Aux board. Does anyone have knowledge on this? I'm not sure where to go, and am unfamiliar with Atari's digital-to-analog methods.

Suggestions welcome! This is the very last issue with the game, I would love to get it solved.

MarAlb A lot to work with there, I really appreciate the response! I'll start looking at all of that and reply back with any questions or results. Going to bribe a friend with some beers and take a look soon. Thank you!

No I haven't sorted out The sound issue just yet. I picked up the cap kit for it and a replacement op amp to see if that would help. I haven't had a chance to do it.

I will hopefully do that in the near future, but I do have the game up for sale as well. If it gets bought before I get a chance to fix it, I'll include all that stuff with it, but otherwise I hope to install it and see if that helps.

Sadly I checked that and it wasn't the problem. Wish it was though! Glad you got yours fixed. Still need to figure out mine!