Fish Tales Problems - Need Help

[Smraedis]

I'm starting to feel the problems are more than what I can sort out myself. I admit I get pretty scared when it goes nuts I'm not great with repairs and don't want to make it any worse.
(typically I had been making a log of things with pictures and videos on my laptop, and then the hard drive died)

At first I was having issues with the sound going max volume after a minute, but the game would carry on running. I replaced C18 on the Sound board and it was fine for a short while.
After a while, it was going nuts immediately after switching on, it wasn't waiting and then attempting to boot. So I changed the thermistor (I could have done a better job, I think it is ok), but I understand the problem may have been the ribbon cables after reattaching the sound board.


Main problem now is the game is either failing to reach the booting procedure, or is turning on fine and then shutting off after a short period. It doesn't reset, it just locks up, shuts off and hangs, often with popping noises.

I'm not sure if the Dot Matrix Controller board is the problem now, the resistor R8 gets very hot straight away, and looks to be cooking the board some, I've not removed the board yet to look at the back for any problems.
Also the GI wiring to the Driver board isn't great, and some of the wires on the connector with the thinner wires aren't very secure, the brown (I think) wire was loose so I've removed that for now.
Disconnecting both GI connectors just brings garbage on the DMD when switching on.

I understand the more you tinker with the boards and wiring, the more can go wrong, but I'm not sure what to do now, and feel I'll need someone to come around to sort it out.


View attachment 20230126a disconnected gi.mp4
View attachment 20230126a failing to reach boot.mp4
View attachment 20230126a shutting off.mp4

 

[pinballmania]

It will be most useful for tech people to advise if we can see what is going on behind the the back box door when you switch on. The leds on the boards will give us an idea of what is going on.

 

[pinballmania]

I’m going to guess you have 5v problems. On the top right of the biggest board is a heatsink with two devices under it. Is there any clues that these might have been previously replaced. If so, they are often not fitted properly and don’t make good electrical contact.

 

[Smraedis]

Yeah I think it may be 5V related too, I did get a 5V reset board some time ago as it was struggling to boot back then.
BR1 and BR2 under the heatsink look the same as the ones in the photo, but I haven't removed the heatsink to fully check.

I should add, the LEDs on the CPU board have the first and third lit solid when it fails like this.


View attachment 20230127a power on2.mp4

 

[Smraedis]

I wiggled some of the ribbon cable headers, and was able to get it on for a short period again.
I guess that noise around 29 seconds is the 5V regulator?
View attachment 20230127s 2.mp4

 

[drhex]

Reseat all the ribbon cables and the CPU power supply, IDC connector on the righthand side of the CPU, a few times. Make sure you dont connect the ribbon cables offset, easy to do, strange consequences. Are the boards screwed down tight? Is the ground braid connected in the back on the lower left? What measurement equipment do you have?

 

[Smraedis]

Apologies for being slow to reply, but I can happily say that things seem to be back to normal and working all fine again. Have had it playing for about 10 hours and turned on every time.

I think the problem was the J101 connector on the Driver board and its header pins. The 5V area on the female connector is slightly burnt. I cleaned the header pins on J101 as they were very dirty.

I removed the Driver board and noticed that BR2 had indeed been replaced (but not BR1), testing it with a DMM reported it as working, but the solder wasn't looking too great. C11 is visibly replaced, but C5 hasn't been.


Other things I did were:
Reattached all ribbon cables
Cleaned header pins on J114
Replaced R8 on the Dot Matrix Controller board, it was getting very hot, the replacement isn't getting hot. (J101 was also getting hot but not now too)
Reflowed solder on the LM323K and BR2


I'm aware burnt connectors are not good, and will need working on soon. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.