Strange power problem (creech)

[Cryptkeeper]

A guy rang me and has a problem with his creech,
I haven't seen the game but here is how he describes the problem .
Flicks the switch and the game does nothing but click.
click click click .no lights,no leds on the boards.
could be clicking for 20mins or 5mins and then it boots.
sounds like a watchdog circuit or something?

Any ideas?

 

[Carl Spiby]

low 5v.

 

[pinballmania]

What Carl said.

 

[pinballmania]

Start by reseating j114 on the power board.

Could also be bad ribbon cable to dmd driver. Disconnect two ribbons at top of CPU and see if it boots. If it does then reseat the ribbons.

 

[Cryptkeeper]

Top stuff as usual lads .

 

[Cryptkeeper]

OK guys,
got a look at this game earlier.
CPU not booting.
All voltages tested ok,reseated most connectors/ribbons no change.
Disconnected power to the sound card and it boots fine.
Then
I connected the sound board with the power on and it resets and boots up fine.
when i left it,it was booting every time but still would like to know what was happening.

 

[Moonraker]

The connector pins oxidise over time. Reseating the connectors helps remove that (effectively cleaning them) possibly improving electrical conductivity. Suddenly everything works.

 

[Cryptkeeper]

Thats what I thought,
tried the game several times before i left and no problem!
he text me this morning to say to say he tried it and it didnt boot for 5mins
maybe next time im there i'll rub down the pins on .

 

[Moonraker]

Ah, now that sounds more like hairline crack in a connector somewhere... probably on the sound board given that the rest booted fine without it. A bit like this:
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.p...Pins_and_Cracked_Solder_Joints_at_the_5V_Fuse

 

[Cryptkeeper]

That has to be the problem,
thanks Moonraker.
It'd be so much easier if I had the machine in front of me for a few days instead of a few hours!