Fireball 2 Sound Issue

[FrizzleFried]

I picked up a Fireball 2 today.  In 'CHIMES' mode... I get all chimes... and voices.  I switch to sound effects with background sound and that is where the problems hit... most sounds are non-operational... I get a sound from the pop-bumpers...and the slingshots... but nothing from the roll overs... drop targets... etc... about 3/4 of the sound effects are missing... and the background sound isn't working.

Whats up?  Again... the chimes all seem to work when in CHIMES mode... so I know the switches are working (plus the score increases obviously)...

[FrizzleFried]

UPDATE: The sounds ARE there.... but very very very very low volume.  Did the amp go bad?  Since the chimes and some effects work...I can only guess there are multiple channels and one or more of the channels went bad... suggestions?  Recap?

[FrizzleFried]

There should be a volume pot near the coin door and another one on the sound board (though I believe it's a variable resistor on the sound board)

I had an identical issue with same symptoms on my Spy Hunter, the VR on my cheap squeak board was dirty. 

There are two VR's on the S&T...one for voice the other for sounds.  The one for sounds includes the chimes...which are working. 

The pot IS dirty and will be replaced as Bob includes them in his S&T rebuild kit... which should be here tomorrow.

[FrizzleFried]

Fireball 2 is a S&T...

...and since the thread title says Fireball 2...

[FrizzleFried]

Welp...

sucks to be me.

I'm still having the same issues.  I've re-capped the board.  I tested R41 (196.5K) as good... I replaced the pots... I pulled U13 and U14... added sockets and tried to switch them... unfortunately the problem didn't follow the chip...it remained the same...

...I'm now dumbfounded.

[ChadTower]

Always start with the connectors in a pinball machine.   They are like beer - the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

[FrizzleFried]

Always start with the connectors in a pinball machine.   They are like beer - the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

Not in this case. 

There are 3 channels to this S&T board.  A "voice" channel.  A "simple sounds" channel and the "effects" channel...  The voice channel works.  The simple sounds channel works (chimes and a couple of the effects) but the 3rd channel... it no workie workie...

...well,  it WORKS (you can hear it VERY faintly) but it's not amplifying.  Due to the nature of the issue it HAS to be something on board... right?

[FrizzleFried]

Have you replaced the amp section?  Can you jump channels from the quiet one to a working one?

 

I'm working my way there... I'm not too experienced at this stuff but I have a friend (in Canada) who is working through the board with me.

We believe the problem lies in the pre-amp as I do believe there is a single amp fed by 3 pre-amps.  If the amp was the problem,  none of the sounds would be working (again,  a hypothesis).   Unfortunately,  the two chips I socketed and swapped were key in the pre-amp circuit and the problem didn't follow...

[FrizzleFried]

I got a lot of good news and a little bad...

Good news:

Got a DAC in the mail today and dropped it in... now my background and effect sounds are working!


Bad news:

All sounds work except one.  The one sound (at game power-on and the same sound is supposed to fire when a ball is kicked in to the shooter lane) DOES fire... you can hear digital static play when the sound is supposed to play.

ROM issue?

The rest all work as advertised... and this one sound missing doesn't detract from the gameplay as it only fires when the ball gets kicked in to the shooter lane (and at power up)...

[FrizzleFried]

Bah... cleaned 'em up and popped them back in... same problem.

I then checked the continuity between the legs and the socket solder joint on the backside of the PCB and found no problem.

I guess the next step is to get another ROM set and try those.

We ARE talking about the sound ROM's on the S&T board... right?

[FrizzleFried]

Problem solved.  It turns out my 6802 CPU has a bad bit of RAM.  Installing a 6810 at U6 and jumpering the board to ignore the CPU's RAM fixed the sound issue!

W00t!

Here she is in full glory...

[ChadTower]

Yeah, really, that's a nice looking game.

[ChadTower]

For a while last year there was one at Funspot in NH.  It wasn't in the greatest shape but it was working nearly 100%.  That is gone now, though, probably died and was shoved back in storage.