can someone help troubleshoot my KICK machine?

[vintagegamer]

Today I decided I'd get my KICK machine out of storage and start troubleshooting it. When I brought it home in July of '07, the power cord had the end cut off of it, and the video connector going to the middle PCB card was off of the pins- I replaced the end of the cord, and connected the vid connector and after about 15-20 min, the game was up and running. I was stoked! I played about 10-15 games of it, and powered it off.

I went to move it in the garage to set it up for play, and upon powering it up again all that would come on was a grey screen with ROM 4 ERROR showing in purple text. I didn't have time to mess with it then so I put it in storage until I would have more time.....

Today I got the unit from storage, and before doing anything took the 3 PCBs out and removed and reseated all chips. I put the PCBs back in, and powered it up- the screen comes up in a light grey color, and goes no further. Once in a while some "junk" will show up (ie an "E" in purple text, sometimes no text at all). At any rate it's not going any further.. Since it had been in storage, I let it run for about 15 min thinking it might just need to get some power in the capacitors, but it never progressed any further.

The power supply had some crap around the rechargeable battery, and I removed that, I checked all of the Molex connectors, everything seems to look fine. Could this be transformer issues? Like maybe it's powering up but not getting enough juice to kick the game off? (pun intended) I have an extra set of the light blue units for the transformer, should I swap them out and try again? I almost wish the game didn't work the one time!


Thanks in advance,

VG

[Turnarcades]

Possible moistre damage the PCB can be exposed to just got worse and wrecked your PCB the first time you put power through it.

Imagine taking an ice cube and dropping it in boiling water. Cold to hot can make things crack - even the solder inside the PCB.

[SavannahLion]

Possible moistre damage the PCB can be exposed to just got worse and wrecked your PCB the first time you put power through it.

If that's the case, wouldn't the board not have worked at all that first time?

[Turnarcades]

Not necessarily. If damp on/in the circuit board was present and keeping the circuits cold, the heat generated after a few minutes of operation could have caused a crack somewhere near one of the boot roms during operation, allowing it to run but not boot again.

[vintagegamer]

Thanks guys for your feedback- to be honest, I haven't noticed any moisture in/on the machine, it was stored in a dehumidified basement until July 07 when I got it, and the day I had it running was day one that it came home from there.  But it's always possible I guess.

I did receive another reply though that indicated that this game is VERY touchy regarding the voltage it gets.  I'm thinking about just putting a switching power supply in it.  Anyone done one in one of these before?  I think arcadeshop has one that will work for it.

VG

[Pac-Fan]

After many years and owning 5 complete 3 layer boards, I have yet to assemble a fully working KICK(man) setup, even after multiple swaps of boards within the layers, chips on the board, etc. Closest I ever got was a full working one without sound, then that one died after storing for a few months and boots to a single color screen like yours, with a random graphic or two showing.

The MCR boards seem to be very fragile, especially the interconnect cables and connectors. First step is to look at and test them and repair/resolder/replace anything bad there. (Do a continuity check from the solder point on one board to the solder point on the next board with the cable in place on every single pin on all the connectors).

Speaking of randomly dying boards, I've been coming across more and more eproms that seem to be losing bits. Have we reached a end of original-programming-life on them?  A reprogram usually fixes it or a swap with a new chip, but in the last year I've found many Atari and Bally/Midway boards with this problem starting.

Good luck with your efforts.

[vintagegamer]

Thanks for the info PF- I actually have a set of the SCSI ribbon cables that I wanted to replace the paper ribbon connectors with, however I think there's more to it than just remove and replace, so I need to figure out what's involved- but I think that would definitely help out the reliability of the boards.  I know it has done wonders for the TRON boards my TRON machine uses today.

I really do think though that this may be a voltage issue.  I will keep you posted if I get the power supply swapped out and what the results are.  Damm I really enjoyed playing this game too.  Even have a classic arcade pic showing one "out in the trenches".

VG

[vintagegamer]

Pac Fan,

I just got an update that might help your machine too..  There is a PURPLE WIRE that goes from the power supply board on the left wall, to the PCB boards on the right..  CUT IT.  It powers a reset circuit that apparently locks up on these things all the time-  the guys at KLOV recommended it, and I cut the wire and got a step closer on mine!  I have my old ROM error again, but that should be easier to troubleshoot than the other prob I was having.

Give it a go and report in!

VG