Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair

What's my first step? Sinistar - not working

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geocab:
Just like everyone here, I've loved video games ever since I was a kid and one of my favorites back in the 80's was Sinistar.  Well, back in 1993 I had a chance to buy my own used upright of Sinistar and I was thrilled.  It worked fine for about a year and then started to exhibit some problems with the sound going in and out intermittently.  I looked inside and since everything was foreign to me, I just let it be.  Around the year 2000, I went to a local pinball shop where they sold used games and asked if any of them could look at my machine and repair it, but since I didn't buy it from them, they declined.  At that point the sound stopped working and my screen started to act up.  Again, since everything was foreign to me and I didn't know where to go for help, I just stored it in one of the spare bedrooms and let it be.  

Fast forward to today and I've found this wonderful site and even if for a short while, my hopes are renewed that I may one day play my Sinistar cabinet again, and hopefully restore the cabinet too.  

I've been browsing this site the past couple of days trying to gather ideas for a MAME cabinet, but I didn't realize there was a Restoration section here as well.  Very cool.   I don't have a lot of pics just yet as I just unburied the machine an hour ago, still have to dig it out.  I don't have a basement so my spare bedroom is a storage room.  (I shouldn't even think about building my own arcade machine really because of the lack of space, but I've done sillier things in my time.)

Here are a couple of the front of the machine (very dusty):  



After I uncovered the machine I plugged it in and sure enough it still doesn't work. :P  This is what I get on the screen:


And a close-up:


This is a different pattern than the normal start-up "fuzz" so I don't think it's stuck in Service Mode or anything.

Here are some various pics of the inside:






I have a question about this board, should this be lit?  I thought I remembered this lighting up when the machine worked, but maybe it has to be at a certain point first?  Any idea?


And I'm assuming these batteries are for high score retension?  I hope the leaky battery didn't do any more damage, I didn't think about them being in there when I gave up on the machine in the past.


One last question that has always bothered me too, this cabinet only has one speaker, but I remember that the sitdown cabinet had stereo sound.  Did they release machines with different sound boards for both mono and stereo?  Or would it be possible to convert my machine to a stereo one?  Just wondering.

Anyway, my first priority is to know if I can fix this machine.  What would be my first step to determine why the screen is like that and the game doesn't start?  How do I troubleshoot this?  

Any help, as always, will be appreciated!
George

Level42:
First: Welcome !

Nice machine ! I've recently worked briefly on a Sinistar.


Now, officially I would have to say that you should try and fix the boards, power supply, connectors, battery section etc. but since you already indicate you're not quite an expert in electronics, may I suggest something else ?

Actually, your timing seems perfect. About a month ago Jrok released this wonderful product:



Here's the product page:
http://www.jrok.com/hardware/wsf

I also started a thread about it on this forum here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83897.0

The wonderful things about this board:

-all the hardware on the several boards in your cab are included on this tiny board
-this omits all the troubles that Williams hardware can show like poor connectors, bad power supply, bad RAM chips etc.
-it's not emulation. It plays 100% the same as the real hardware
- you can play more games on it (BUT if you would build this in your Sinistar, you can't play the other games because Sinistar is the only vertical game)

Even if you have to forget about the other games, this is the easiest and most rock solid solution to get the cab up and running again.

If you're all for purity, you will have to take the long and hard and dive into the electronics. Yes a lot of the Williams issues are known but you should decide if you want to go that way. Another option would be having someone else repair the boards, but you still can have lots of connector problems.

Anyway that board costs $165.-
You'll need an adapter to be able to connect it to the original wiring harness but Jrok also sells those. That will require a good original wire harness and power supply of course.

Alternatively you can choose to use a new switching power supply and wire the cab up with a Jamma harness. That would eliminate any power supply and wiring/connector issues, but is a bit more work


If you want to keep the original hardware I would say that that screen is an indication of bad Ram. The 4116's are known for failing. They also need 3 different power supply voltages. Most people replace the 4116's with 4164's because they are more reliable (don't get so hot) and only require one supply voltage.
You can either do a very easy mod to the board to be able to use 4164's or you can use an adapter connector. Here's more info:
http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/techwilliams4164.html

You should rebuild the PSU with a rebuild kit. This doesn't include the big capacitor though and I think that should be replaced as well as it is the main filter for all power.

I see on your pics that a lot of connectors have already been cut off and soldered directly to the board. Williams games are known for the poor contacts on the connectors (actually, they simple drove to much current through some of the pins of those connectors).

About the battery: get rid of them, get rid of that terrible quality battery holder and install this:
http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/techwilliamscpubattery.html



I'm not an expert, and I haven't fixed the Sinistar I've been working on yet but I know there's lots of knowledge around.

RayB:
As great as Jrok's board is, it would be a REAL SHAME to dump out all those original parts and replace em with this.

Level42:
Where did I say that he should dump'em out ? I never said that did I ? He can leave them in there and still have Jrok's board in there.

CheffoJeffo:
I agree with everything that Level42 said.

Check your voltages, rebuild the PS and change the RAM. I would also check for continuity in the harness and check/reflow all of the header pins on the boards.

And then you can decide if you want to dive deeper, send the boards out or drop in jrok's board.

One of the really nice things about jrok's board is that you can install it without doing any harm and then repair the original stuff at your leisure. I am queued up to buy my 3rd board from him specifically for Sinistar, for the day when I come across a suitable cabinet.

That cab looks great and your worst case scenario is being able to get it back up and running reliably (monitor aside) to about $200 (new board, conversion harness and power supply).

 :cheers:

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