Got this original Taito (licensed to Romstar) Arkanoid PCB for repair:

Board uses the Taito Classic pinout (used on other games like Bubble Bobble, Elevator Action, Jungle King) so I had to build a proper JAMMA adapter:

 

On power up I was greeted by this static screen:

The string “WOVO VEM EVVOV” reminded me “WORK RAM ERROR”.I had confirm of it opening one of the program code ROM with an HEX editor:

The WORK RAM is located  @IC15 in form of a 2K x 8-bit device but piggybacking it had no changes.There are other two 2016 static RAMs @IC57 and IC58  :

When I went to probe the one @IC58 I found the data bit 2 (pin 11) stuck high:

This is tied to pin 9 of a 74LS245 @IC42 for exchanging data with the other one @IC57 which, according to MAME memory map, is the VIDEO RAM shared with Z80 main CPU:

1   1   1   0   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   0       RW  2016 SRAM@IC57
1   1   1   0   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   1       RW  2016 SRAM@IC58

 AM_RANGE(0xe000, 0xe7ff) AM_RAM_WRITE(arkanoid_videoram_w) AM_SHARE(“videoram”)

PIN11 of the transceiver was, instead, properly toggling :

Piggybacking it restored correct error message:

I pulled the 74LS245 and it failed the out-of-circuit test exactly in the involved gate:

Replacing it fixed the board completely.

Another board from the box of the “death”: The Simpsons

It immediately appeared to be a “desperate case”, board was heavily “harvested”, many components were missing:

A smashed TEST switch too:

I tried to power up the board and obviously it didn’t work, it was  in an endless loop:

Summing up, these were the missing/broken components : 

• 6264 RAM @16G
• 3.579545MHz oscillator @4G
• ER5911 serial EEPROM @12C
• MB3722 amplifer plus electrolytic capacitors @C21 (1000uf 16V), C16 (1000uF 16V), C114 (330uF 16V)
• momentary switch @16A  

I reinstalled the RAM, the oscillator and the EEPROM (temporarily omitting components in audio circuit)  and board showed the self-test reporting bad devices @12C (ER5911 serial EEPROM), 6G (sound Z80 code 27C010 EPROM) and 7G (2k x 8-bit SRAM of sound system)

I cleared the first error by re-initializing the EEPROM (holding down the TEST switch while powering up the board) 

As for the other two errors, I dumped the EPROM @6G and code didn’t match any existing MAME set so I reprogrammed the device with correct code.This cleaared the error but the one regarding the device @7G was still present.Probing the device (a Sony CXK5814, a 2k x 8-bit static RAM compatilbe with 6116) revealed unhealthy signals on data lines:

Once removed, the chip failed the out-of-circuit testing:

Finally the self-test no longer complained so board booted into game but colors of some backgrounds were wrong and sprites were mssing parts:

The MASK ROMs check reported a bad device @16L, this is a 8Mbit one containing sprites data:

 

I replaced it with a 27C800 EPROM but with no luck so I focused on the background colors issue.The hardware uses an ASIC marked ‘053251’ which is responsible of palette and priority:

The chip outputs 11 bit of palette index called ‘CO0-CO10’ on schematics:

Probing the outputs with a scope revealed bad signal on pin14 ‘CO4’ (healthy signal on the left for comparison)

I removed che custom and replaced it with a spare take on a donor board (Premiere Soccer)

This fixed the color issue but sprites were always wrong :

and device @16L was still reported as bad:

Schematics don’t cover this part of circuit but I knew the design.The two ASICs marked ‘053246’ and ‘053247’ work in tandem, the first generates the address lines to the sprites MASK ROMs and the latter read and process their data:

I checked connections between the ASICs and MASK ROMs, no problem found.Actually the data lines from MASK ROMs are not directly tied to the ‘053247’ ASIC but there are some 74LS374 in the middle (two for each ROM) which latch data bits.Piggybacking the ones @12K and 10K restored partially the sprites.I desoldered the first and it failed the out-of-circuit test:

 

This improved sprites but not yet perfect :

So I removed also the other 74LS374 @10K, it failed too!

This fixed the sprites issue completely.As for lack of sound it was only matter to fit the missing MB3722 amplifer and electrolytic capacitors  @C114, C21 and C16.

Another board torn from the darkness, long live to it!

Another board from the box of faulty ones, an Irem M92 motherboard (with Undercover Cops license seal)

For my testing I used the ROM board from a working Undercover Cops (but I could use a whatever one).On boot I was greeted by this screen, self-test failed  reporting errors related to some RAMs 

There are two  6116 SRAMs @IC43 and IC44 whose data bus is tied to the two graphics custom ASIC ‘GA22’ and ‘GA21’  :

When I went to piggyback the RAMs, error changed in this:

Probing them with a scope revealed the outputs were dead on both despite the address lines were properly toggling:

Both chips failed when tested out-of-circuit:

With good RAMs the board successfully passed the self-test and entered in game:

But sound was missing at all, I could hear only a slight buzzing noise:

Using my audio probe I was able to verify that both FM sound and PCM samples were properly generated and then pre-amplified/mixed by OP-AMPs but signal got lost somewhere not reaching the input (pin 1) of the MB3730 amplifier.The whole audio section was previously recapped by someone so I ruled out electrolytic capacitors.But a closer inspection revealed heavy corrosion on many 1/8W resistors (probably due leakage of original ELNA capacitors), here are pictures of them taken with a microscope:

Measuring them gave me infinite resistance sign that they were open:

Here in details the bad resistors I replaced:

• R201 –  1KOhm
• R203 –  100KOhm
• R205 –  4.7KOhm
• R208 – 4.7KOhm
• R209 – 2.7KOhm
• R211 – 10KOhm
• R213 – 10KOhm

This restored full sound, board 100% fixed.End of job.