Atari Football Board Repair - Cleveland, OH

[campbelldave]

Realize this is not a arcade controls question, but I needed a little help/guidance and knew someone here could probably help.

I have a 2 player Atari Football that has been working great until recently.  The game still works fine (takes credits, fully operational, etc.), but it recently started displaying some unidentifiable characters/garbage on the screen.

I would like to get my board fixed, but I don't know anyone in the area to fix it.  I have an extra board as well that does not work that I would like to get repaired as well.

Anyone out there with the ability to fix the board, as it is a little outside my ability?

Let me know an idea on how much as well.  Thanks

[Paul Olson]

Talk to Bit Slicer on KLOV. He works on those, and is a great guy to deal with.

[RayB]

Realize this is not a arcade controls question,

It's not, but considering we have an arcade game forum, I'm sure a moderator will move this thread there.

[campbelldave]

thanks for the replay, i'll give it a shot

[fredster]

I have that happen to a lot of boards. 

Some I have fixed, some I haven't.  Most of the time it's a chip going out or if you are really really lucky, it's a simple connection problem.

There are dozens of sites that can give you tips on how to fix this.  Google for "PCB Board REPAIR Tips".

In a nutshell, if it's doing something screwy, try testing cleaning all the connections to the board.  See if it has the proper voltages going to it.  Clean all of the contacts, and if you are bold go and reseat all of the little chips that snap in.

After that, if you have issues, you need to go further and use a logic probe and hope you can find the defective chip with it.  You need to have a power supply and some time and patients.  Once you find the chip, you can replace it and fix the board.

If all of that seems like it's too much, then you can hire the board fixed by checking RGVAC group or some other net group.  They always have people (as mentioned above) that will fix the board for you for various prices.

If this is ALL too much, buy an Xbox  Cause keeping these old arcade machines going is getting tougher every year as they age.