nighthawk

[benrkay]

hi. im having some problems with my silverstrke bowling arcade. it will power up but all i get is no sound and a blank screen. i think the problem might be with the nighthawk. can i replace the nighthawk with any old computer. and just swap the hdd?

[lilshawn]

NO.

the software is board specific. if you find the same make/model (intel board) you can swap it...same with the videocard. but they must be identical vendor and all...

for example if its an MSI 7700 you replace it with an MSI 7700 and not an EVGA 7700. as the EVGA won't work. only the hardware that they chose is supported.

if your drive is pootched, you have to swap it out. they dont sell/have cd's to re-install either. they cornered their own market. sometimes you can get away with cloning the drive then upgrading to the next version with a USB stick that they would give you to upgrade.

that said, check your powersupply for bad capacitors...your motherboard and videocard while you're at it. if there is bad caps you can change them out for new ones and sometimes revive the hardware. ive had pretty good luck (about 99%) with boards that will still boot. even "dead" boards that don't boot at all are about 75% to work.

[benrkay]

Any idear  how to narrow done where the fault is. Could a computer shop check the  bored for me. Also if I take the nighthark out  of the arcade and  connect power, monitor,  keyboard, mouse.  What should  happen.  Atm it powers up but no sound n a blank screen

[lilshawn]

take a few nice big pics of the inside and post them here. i'm sure anything obvious would "stand out". but you are basically looking for anything like this:

[benrkay]

ive had a look and they all seem fine to me. i could be wrong. can you see any faults

[BobA]

You have a very heavy layer of dirt on parts of the board and heatsink.   You should use a can of compressed air and clean up the board and all connectors.

[lilshawn]

yeah go ahead and blow allllll that dust out of there.

pull out the videocard from inside the case and blow out the slot...AGP slots are notorious for getting drirt smashed in the connectors (due to the offset double pin connections on the card edge.)


next what you are going to want to do is grab another power supply (if you have one available or can borrow one from a computer) and just hook it up and see if it will boot up.

if not, you might have a bum processor. (as judged by the quantity of dust buildup in the CPU cooler) it may have overheated and died. you may be able to replace it easily.

[benrkay]

i gave it a good dusting with a blast of air. switched the powerpack with one that i know works. and still nothing.

 ive found a processor on ebay thats the exact same make n model so i ordered that. im hoping thats the problem.

ps, would it work with a normal monitor or do i have to have it plugged into the arcade monitor while testing 

[benrkay]

update.

the nighthawk has a celeron. but to try and test it i stole a Pentium out of my mums computer. it fits the mb so i tryed booting it up. nothing changed. does this prove that the old processor is fine. or do i need to test it with a celeron

updated update

i then put the arcades celeron into my mums computer and it booted and ran better then it ever has. so ive quickly cancelled my order on ebay for a new processor and im bk to square one.

[lilshawn]

sorry to say, that board might just be toast. maybe as one last shot, reset the CMOS. there should be a button or yellow jumper you can switch to reset the CMOS. sometimes corruption there can cause it to do all sorts of random things. just switch the jumper or press the button for 60 seconds or so then boot it up.

[ed12]

dose that nnighthawk give u any beeb's ?
if so count them
ie :1 soild,or 1,2 then soild or 3 then soild:
this tells u where u are going
i do believe 1 is mirco,2 is ram,3 is mobo..mind u on some mobos
depending on the bios used,there beeb's could be changed around..
yes by all means clear the cmos,and go as far to replace the bios bat..

ed

[benrkay]

on occasion it does give one beep (1sec) but not always. ive took the nighthawlk to a computer shop that said they specialized in mb repair. i hope they can recover it otherwise i dont know what to do.

if worst comes to worst and i cant save SSB i will have to convert it to mame. probably sell the working hdd n bored on here if anyone's interested.

i dont know much about arcade monitors so i duno if i can just plug the one in the arcade str8 into a comp or not.

[ed12]

for the record that is a post problem
mobo/ram micro
u swapped the micro
so ram or mobo

ed

[benrkay]

i also swapped out the ram, so problem is with the motherboard. i hope the computer shop can fix it. do you recon it would be an easy fix for them. i would hate to find out its not salvageable

[lilshawn]

yeh, there is likely a bad regulator someplace or a cap is loading something down.

i had a big buck hunter pro motherboard that had a few bad caps. changed the caps no problem, but had an issue with some noise in the video.

changed the power supply and checked the grounds. noise in the video still there. went poking around with my fingers and found a HOT capacitor. looked good but must have been shorted inside someplace. changed it out and the video was perfect.

so, even though the caps LOOK okay, they may still be bad.

[ed12]

u swapped the ram and mirco
guess what 1 beeb means
mobo is stuck on some thing
like the nick said chk the reg's,5-> 3.3
stuff like that
as a rule the >smd< caps will go south..done enough of them

ed

[benrkay]

Well the shop I took the Mb to says it's not salvageable. I don't know what to do now? Try to somehow find a replacment bored n the cash to pay for it. Or  covert it  to mame

[ed12]

do u have the nessary skills to replace componets ?
u will need a dmm,soldering station etc..
if so ask away we can get your board back up
there is a few raceing games that use that exact mobo
if u want to save some dollars i am going to be doing 1 this week
same problem..>mobo is dead<
but as i board level repair them
i will have it back up in short order

ed

[lilshawn]

the problem is, "shops" are in it to make money. they'd rather you spend 400 on a new board/processor/memory and powersupply from them than the time to actually fix your board though.

in all seriousness, if you are looking for a plug and play alternative, scour ebay for that exact board model (example "intel DZ87KLT-75K" <--- also not your board number  ). as long as you replace that motherboard with an exact same model, the game will work with it.

[benrkay]

The reason I took it to that shop is because they said thay specialised in Mb repair. Instead it looks like they just looked up the price of a new bored and quoted me that. (£70, I'm in the UK)

[ed12]

140.00 cdn for a night hawk mobo ?
thats not to bad
i charge ppl about 100.00 cdn to do a mobo repair
but of course this means all new low esr caps,reg's and such
olny problem i have with fleabay is u are getting used
if u can buy a new 1 ? right out of the box for 70 euros ? i would drop the coin and walk away with it..
but if it is used who is going to warrnety it ?

ed

[benrkay]

just wanted to say thank you all for all your help. with a new mobo the arcade is working like its brand new. it did cost me abit more then i was expecting (80gbp) but it was worth it.

thanks again

[lilshawn]

awesome, glad it worked out for you. That setup should last you quite a few years now.

just keep an eye on the fans. nothing kills one of these faster than a fan seizing up and something running up to 150 degrees.