Bubble Bobble repair log #4

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Sep 122017
 

Received this original Bubble Bobble PCB for repair.Set is made of a CPU board :

and a VIDEO one :

Game played blind, no RGB output, only SYNC was present on edge connector pins.Each colors is generated by a single ‘PC040DA’ custom (a 6 bit DAC) 

Probing them revealed that pin 10 was stuck, this is the vertical blanking signal called /VBL on schematics:

 

Tracing back the signal  lead me to a counter 74LS163 @IC11:

Clock on its pin 2 was present but all outputs were stuck low:

The IC failed the out-of-circuit test:

I replaced it and finally had output on video but all was displayed with the only red color, green and blue were missing at all:

I checked the two involved PC040DA customs @IC85 and IC86 and found that their output pin 3 was clearly dead compared with the active one of red color:

I removed them and installed sockets:

I took the donor parts from a Rastan PCB and installed them:

Colors were restored and board 100% fixed.

P.S.

‘PC040DA’ DAC could be the next candidate for a reproduction although someone has already did it:

https://www.gamoover.net/Forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=f9cba7f099937c197dceb458d0b6a897&topic=27336.0

 Posted by at 10:16 am

Michael Jackson’s MoonWalker repair log #2

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Sep 072017
 

Got this Michael Jackson’s MoonWalker PCB (Sega System 18) for repair:

Board booted but sound was missing at all and game behaved strangely, you could no longer move your character whenever you pressed the buttons or being hit by enemies :

At first glance I thought the FD1094 custom CPU module was slightly suicided so I swapped it with a good one along with the i8751 MCU but with no luck.I began to think of a correlation between the lack of sound and freeze.Probing the Z80 sound CPU revealed /HALT line was asserted while the /INT was floating.The latter comes from one of the two YM3438 FM sound generator @IC88 :

I removed the chip and tested it on a good motherboard, it was bad.But replacing it made no difference, the shared data bus of the two YM3438 was still inactive.So I pulled the other one @IC87:

It was bad too.Replacing it fixed the board.

 Posted by at 10:22 am

Rainbow Islands repair log #11

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Aug 262017
 

This is the eleventh repair log for Rainbow Islands, almost a record for a board…

PCB was in fair conditions :

But the TC0070RGB DAC module was missing and its solderside was brutally burnt during removal :

Hence, for first I soldered back a spare module and patched a burnt trace:

On power up I was greeted by a blank static screen, /HALT and /RESET lines of 68000 were continuously going high/low sign that the watchdog circuit was active:

Usually this means that main code is not properly executed due some problems in CPU/RAM/ROM circuitry.For first I focused on WORK RAMs, two Sony CXK6864 (6264 pin to pin compatible).When I piggyback the one @IC26 I got this screen:

The watchdog shut down too, this lead me to remove the chip, it failed when tested out of circuit :

Now I got always that garbage screen.Probing the two 62256 RAMs @IC-IC4 in tilemap generation circuit revealed unhealthy signals on some data lines (good signal on the left for comparison) 

Piggkybacking both RAMs  at same time allowed the game to boot although with scrambled backgrounds:

I desoldered the RAMs having confirm they were both bad:

Graphics was perfect now but sound was faint and scratchy:

I used my audio probe to troubleshoot the sound circuit.This revealed that sound came out from PIN12 (which is the analog output to the TL074 OP-AMP) of  the YM3012 DAC already corrupted.Indeed I could measure on this pin a weak voltage :

But a bad output means also a bad input and PIN11 (the analog input) was not healthy too:

 

This came from pin 8 of the near TL074 OP-AMP (through a 560 Ohm resistor) 

I pulled it and it resulted faulty when tested :

Fitted a good OP-AMP restored the sound and fixed completely the board.

 Posted by at 7:01 pm

Sky Kid repair log

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Aug 252017
 

A quick repair for this Sky Kid (Namco) I received some days ago :

Board was in near mint condition but it didn’t boot sitting on a semi-static garbage screen (which was looping sign that watchdog was active)

Most of the devices were socketed so for first I ruled out the many custom ICs present, they were all working.Then I tested the RAMs out of circuit.Two Mitsubishi M58725P (2k x 8-bit static RAM) failed (at different address location) 

Replaced them with compatible 6116 and board successfully booted with no further issue.Job done.

 Posted by at 1:49 pm

Mahou Daisakusen repair log

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Aug 222017
 

A friend got a Mahou Daisakusen (japanese version of Sorcer Striker) board with faulty graphics.

It was playing fine with sound but there was an obvious color palette problem.

I started looking at signals around the color outputs of the PCB and quickly found weak signals on the 74HCT273 at location U12. Piggybacking the chip with a working 74LS273 fixed the colors immediately.

I replaced the chip… Board fixed.

Here is a picture of the PCB with the defective chip highlighted in red:

 Posted by at 4:09 pm