So I have a White Water here that I knew prior to getting it had an issue with the sound - turn it up too loud and it distorts extremely badly and too loud equalled barely audible thus it needed fixing. So I set to work on it assuming it would be wiring or the ribbon cables or something on the board.
The first thing I tried was to try another set of speakers - I had a spare panel with speakers on, so plugged it in and hey presto working speakers with no crackle. Now here's a reason NOT to work on something late at night. I quickly changed over the speakers from the good panel onto the White Water panel, plug in and the sound was....... the same awful crackly horribleness.
I then realised that there was a junction off the original loom to the bass speaker, something which has to be connected for the speakers to work (and was connected when I tested the other panel by the fact it was junctioned in to the original loom) so I realised it had to be bass speaker related and changed that - still the same. So I started on the board and changed the cap on the bass speaker line - still the same. Luckily I got tired and went to bed.
With a fresh approach today, I took one look at the game and realised there was an issue with the grille so I took off the speaker and behold CARDBOARD!
I guess that a previous owner wanted to reduce the volume and so they decided on the most obvious course of action, which is clearly to unscrew the speakers, cut out some cardboard, then place in between the speaker and grille.
The first thing I tried was to try another set of speakers - I had a spare panel with speakers on, so plugged it in and hey presto working speakers with no crackle. Now here's a reason NOT to work on something late at night. I quickly changed over the speakers from the good panel onto the White Water panel, plug in and the sound was....... the same awful crackly horribleness.
I then realised that there was a junction off the original loom to the bass speaker, something which has to be connected for the speakers to work (and was connected when I tested the other panel by the fact it was junctioned in to the original loom) so I realised it had to be bass speaker related and changed that - still the same. So I started on the board and changed the cap on the bass speaker line - still the same. Luckily I got tired and went to bed.
With a fresh approach today, I took one look at the game and realised there was an issue with the grille so I took off the speaker and behold CARDBOARD!
I guess that a previous owner wanted to reduce the volume and so they decided on the most obvious course of action, which is clearly to unscrew the speakers, cut out some cardboard, then place in between the speaker and grille.
