Problem Nintendo Space Fever CL - Help Needed

KoniTec

KoniTec

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Hi all

I see that there are a few other space fever cocktail owners on here so i figured i would reach out for help.

I have inherited a black and white nintendo space fever cocktail arcade cabinet. Its in pretty rough shape but id like to get it working again and restore it.

Ive managed to get the power supply working, and checked all voltages to the cpu and i/o boards, the monitor appears to work but, when i power on the unit i get no game sound and no output on the screen.

If i unplug TV out cable from the board, the screen output is a white box that fills the screen. But when its plugged in, the screen remains on but the picture is black.

Based on that i think the screen is fine, but there is an issue with the actual cpu/game pcb.

Additionally when i initially power it on, i get white noise from the speaker for about 1 second which then stops, but i can hear a faint whine from the speaker after this.

I have some electronics knowledge but im getting to a point where i cant figure out whats wrong.

Any help would be appreciated in fixing this.

Thanks in adavance

Chris
 
KoniTec

KoniTec

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Hey all

Also if anyone in the Berkshire area has expertise and would know how to diagnose/fix this please let me know.

Many Thanks

Chris
 
Ronnie Dent

Ronnie Dent

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I guess you need to pull the boards out and check all the socketed chips have clean legs, these boards also suffer from bad sockets! Maybe post some pics? Or send your boards off to Jim Askey for repair

Ronnie
 
KoniTec

KoniTec

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Hi Ronnie

Based on your suggestion, I have ordered an IC puller/removal tool, which will hopefully arrive today and I can pull and clean the socketed chips.

When you say bad sockets, do you mean i need to clean those also, or replace the sockets completely?

Many Thanks
 
C

cparsonsuk

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Hi Chris,

I have a B&W Space Fever and I live in Reading... and am also called Chris... :D

Welcome to bring your board set over to try in my cab in the first instance... at least would establish if your boardset definitely needs a fix. Could then try my working set on your cab.

Drop me a pm if you want to sort something out.

Cheers,

Chris
 
C

Clabs

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Konitec - I am pretty new to this but one of the first things i learned about removing IC's was to be wary about using an extraction tool. They sound great, but in reality, there is nothing to pry against so you are relying being able to pull the chip out evenly in one go, which is really hard to do. As Ronnie says, you are better off slowly prying up each end a bit at a time - it is far more controlled. I still use an extraction tool but I just use one leg. They are the perfect shape to get under the chip and pry up against the socket. Just alternate between each end until the IC is out.

I hope it is allowed to link to another forum but here is a repair log for a Space Fever that might help you if you decide to have a go yourself:

https://www.aussiearcade.com/topic/98452-space-fever-bw-cocktail-by-nintendo-repair-log/

In the meantime, what a generous offer from the other Chris - that should definitely help you pinpoint what is up with yours.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get along.

Cheers, Mark
 
KoniTec

KoniTec

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Hi all, a bit of an update. Went and took my board set to Chris (cNp) today, and he was a great help.

So turns out i have a colour i/o board, but im pretty sure my monitor is black and white. Anyway we plugged my board set into his unit and thats how we figured out because the connector was 6 pin rather than 4 pin.

Using his i/o board and my cpu board we got it working, so we now know the roms are good, so its now down to fault finding on the i/o board.

Once again a bit thanks to Chris for his help.
 
C

cparsonsuk

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Glad to help... hopefully you can get a fix on the i/o board now you know that is the issue.

I've had an ask about and have a lead on some corner clips to hold your glass in place, will let you know when confirmed :)
 
KoniTec

KoniTec

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Hi All.

Sorry its been a while, only just got around to trying to get this cocktail sorted. Basivcally i was getting nothing showing on my unit on the CRT except a white screen.

So last year Chris (cparsonsuk) was kind enough to allow me to test my SF boards in his very nicely restored SF-BW unit.

A few things came out of that.
1- We discovered that i have a colour SF unit and not a black and white one.
2- My cpu board was working fine, the game loaded when using his BW I/O board.
3- We couldnt test my CL-I/O board as it wasnt compatible with his CRT (Being a BW unit)

After a bit of messing around with my unit i now have a form of picture, however its just horizontal colour bars, and the speaker is just outputing a high pitched squeal.

See attached picture of the screen showing the coloured bars.

The service manual says that if the screen shows coloured bars like im seeing then to check certain ic's on the cpu board. They look fine, and as we tested that board last year im at a sticking point again.

Anybody have any tips i could try? Or know somebody who could help with solving this issue?

Kind regards

Chris
 

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KoniTec

KoniTec

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Additionally I have also noticed that after leaving it powered off for a few days, then powering it on again, there is a lot of noise on these coloured bars for a few minutes and then it changes to solid colours with very little noise.

Seems that maybe something is taking a while to 'warm up'???

🤷‍♂️
 
philmurr

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The fact that you're getting the colour bars shows that quite a lot of your I/O board is working (counters and screen timing).

As you've proven your CPU board is ok I'd first check the clock signal out of the 75361 that is generated on the I/O board and goes to the CPU. It sounds like your game code isn't running and lack of CPU clock could be the fault (and it seems to be quite a common failure on 8080 boards)
 
KoniTec

KoniTec

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philmurr said:
The fact that you're getting the colour bars shows that quite a lot of your I/O board is working (counters and screen timing).

As you've proven your CPU board is ok I'd first check the clock signal out of the 75361 that is generated on the I/O board and goes to the CPU. It sounds like your game code isn't running and lack of CPU clock could be the fault (and it seems to be quite a common failure on 8080 boards)
Click to expand...
I will see if i can check the clock signal and see how that goes.

Thanks for the tip (y)
 
KoniTec

KoniTec

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Ok so i managed to borrow an oscilloscope and checked the clock signal.

The crystal oscillator is 20.16MHz and this is what i get when testing the output from the clock circuit, so all good there.

I proceeded to check TP2 and TP3 on the I/O board, which are 2 of the outputs from the 75361 chip. The frequency of the clock here is 2.016 MHz. Not sure if this is correct, but i do get a matching clock at the 8080 cpu - pins 15 and 22 match the relevant signals that i saw at TP2 and TP3.

The strange thing now is, when i connect everything back up, i now get a completely red screen, and some game start up audio is heard.
I dont get any sound when i trigger the coin insert, or press any controls though.

I will try to attach a video of what happens.
Here are the pictures of the clock signals i see from the clock circuit, and at the 8080 pins 15 and 22.

Hopefully this makes some sense to somebody who can advise me further.

Thanks

Chris
 

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  • TP2 - 8080 pin 15.jpg
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