Asteroids Deluxe

[DanP]

Symptom:
Occasional resets, sometimes blows pokey chips, killed a known working
boardset (now has a dead short somewhere on the 5v line).

Action: Looked at
edge connector. It’s looking very
old. Tried prising the connector pins
out again to give them a bit more ‘grip’ on the PCB edge connector. Improved situation but still has occasional
glitches.

Fix: Replaced edge connector (slow and laborious), and
now have jumpers from 5V and GND direct from the AR board to the test points on
the PCB – have done this on all my Atari vector games.

 

[DanP]

Symptom: 5v measures 6v at lowest adjustment on the AR1

Action: Found R29 (10ohm resistor) measuring over 1Kohm

Fix: replaced R29

 

[DanP]

Symptom: Audio very quiet even at max volume

Action: Tried another AR2 and audio was fine so not a problem with the board set. Replaced the TDA2002’s on the AR1 and audio is now fine.

Fix: Replace TDA2002’s

 

[DanP]

Symptom: Audio has a loud hum/buzzing

Action: Measured resistance between the AR1 and PCB ground – found to be 50ohms! Added jumper wire from AR1 GND to PCB GND and sound now fine.

Fix: Add jumper wire from AR1 ground to PCB

 

[DanP]

Symptom: Random resets

Action: measured AR1 5v voltage and found it at only 4.8v

Fix: increased 5v line to 5.1v and game now OK

 

[DanP]

Symptom: Graphics glitches

Fix: tightened monitor molex connector pins and secured with the molex with a cable tie

 

[DanP]

Symptom: Game plays blind – spot killer not always on

Action: Turned up brightness, now have image showing the retrace lines. Suspect the Z circuit. Found Q02 (2N3904) with broken middle leg.

Fix: Replaced Q02