Mag Max repair log

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Jul 112018
 

This game had been in my collection for about 14 years. I decided to make a play but the game displayed a RAM NG text and didn’t boot

 

After checking the schematics I decided to prove rams and some devices but the signals were healthy

Thanks to Kale from mame team, I discovered that the game does a simple check but decrementing some values in ram and read them back.

Therefore I decided to desolder the program srams to check if they were good. The game has only 2x 2016 toshiba rams.

This brand is known to be not really reliable in comparison to others

After checking the first one I got confirmation that it was bad

I resoldered it and this time the game booted with RAM NG briefly shown and behaved strangely. You couldn’t shoot and parts of the scrolling was repeating.

I decided to desolder also the second one since the game still complained about the ram.

Also the second one was bad!

After changing also this one, the game was 100% fixed

 

Rolling Thunder 2 repair log

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Jul 112018
 

Got this game for a repair.

At boot it displayed the following:

Using Mame source code with the memory map I could narrow down that RAM0044Eo20 was the colour BLUE ram

Desoldering it I could confirm it was bad

After replacing it I still got:

30TIP, 31TIP and 33TIP error

After discussing with Charles MacDonald he pointed me to the DUAL PORT RAM.

It checks if the last entry in RAM (460FFF) is zero, if so that’s an error (should be non-zero)
Then it checks if 460FF contains byte 6B, if it doesn’t that’s an error too

I started to probe around the dual port ram

Until I found a stuck bit on the Left side of the Dual port ram which came from a 74HC175.

After changing it, the game booted but still with TIP33 error which could be erased by pushing the start button.

TIP33 is the error related to the EEPROM which is not inizialized correctly or contain some corrupted data. Normally you inizialize it only one time but everytime

started the pcb, I got this error and offcourse all the dipswitch settings couldn’t be saved correctly.

To cut a long story short, some smart guy changed the original EEPROM with a normal 8k SRAM!

I took a spare from a faulty final lap 3  and I could finally fix 100% the game

 

 

Black Tiger repair log #3

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Jul 012018
 

Although this is a bootleg it follows the original PCB closely.
Couple of easy fixes on this one.
First a character issue and second a sound issue.


As you can see in the video above, the screen is filled with “A”s and none of the text is correct

There is a seperate EPROM used for characters on this game.

Pulling this and reading back with my programmer yielded a valid dump for Black Tiger.
Checking the adjacent associated 74LS273’s and 74LS245 showed I had at least one pin floating.
I traced this back to a nearby TMM2016 which had D7 floating.

Replacing this fixed the screen

The sound issue was even easier. The sound program EPROM was completely smashed. Replacing it fixed the issue.

Job done.

 Posted by at 11:49 am

Sunset Riders repair log #8

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Jun 042018
 

Was asked by a friend to repair his Sunset Riders.

When starting up the PCB, it was stuck in something resembling a watchdog fault.

But I’ve been working on Sunset Riders before and this didn’t seem like an ordinary watchdog. I felt that it went a little bit longer in the startup sequence before crashing.

The board was a bit dirty but I started with the usual:

  • Checking CPU signals like clock, reset and halt
  • Verifying the program ROMs
  • Checking the program RAM for odd signals

All looked ok, but then I found this at the 051550 reset signal generator.

Pin 1 on the 051550 looked like a cold solder joint.

Pin 1 is the clock signal input pin on this IC and without that input, I can understand that the game doesn’t boot up properly. Gave that pin a dab of solder

And booted up the game

Board fixed without any other issues 🙂

Atari 800xl repair log #2

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Jun 022018
 

Although I grew up with a Commodore 64, I have a soft spot for Atari 8 bit machines. My mission in life is to save them all from going into landfill.

I spotted this grimy Atari 800XL on Gumtree very recently as untested, it came with an Atariwriter Word Processor Cartridge. I met the friendly chap selling the item and we did the exchange for the computer at Town Hall steps, which is a popular meeting place in Sydney.

Taking the machine apart, I was happy to see that the machine was fully socketed and that the PCB was in excellent condition despite it needing a good clean. Actually, I was expecting a fully socketed machine because it was made in Hong Kong just like my 600xl was. Another pleasant surprise was the brand of DRAMs used ( OKI ) instead of the mT variety, which have a bad reputation for reliability and were used extensively in the Atari 8 bit and C64 line.

I had a close friend of mine over after work and we went through the troubleshooting together. Unfortunately, not much happens after power it up. A black screen most of the time and sometimes an intermittent picture, obviously this is a sync issue.

Sometimes I manage to get a screen that looks like this. This is a good sign. At least I know the CPU, ROMs and DRAMs are working to some extent to produce this screen.

 

Luckily I  have a fully socketed 65XE to swap parts to and from.  I also tried a known semi good GTIA which was bad on one output only but produced a nice clean picture in a working machine. The GTIA is responsible for generating the luminance, color and csync signals to produce an image to the screen.

Replacing it doesn’t change a single thing so I consult the schematics, the signals go directly to a hex non inverting buffer ( 4050 ) so I switch my logic probe to the CMOS setting and start probing the chip. Output 6 ( lum0 ) is good, lum1, 2 and 3 were all bad and all outputs were floating. I wanted to check the CYSNC line (  composite sync ) and that was also floating ( no signal at all  ).

I short the input and output pins of the 4050 ( pins 14 & 15 ) with my logic probe briefly which restores the picture to the screen.

Replacing the chip completes the job!

Now onto the next challenge, cleaning the motherboard and case!

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