Not completly giving up on Millipede just yet, kinda

[Hawk Daddy]

Ok here is the problem, when I plug the board in, it displays two colums of letters and numbers on the the screen, what could be the cause of this?  Also is there anybody on these boards that repair pcb boards for people?

Hawk

[modessitt]

First make sure your self-test switch is off.  It is on your auxiliary panel (probably inside your coin door).  Then cycle the power.

[2600]

Yeah, I was waffling on buying it from you.

First thing to check is the power supply and then the cables and connectors.   I'd say a very high percentage of the people here who have an Atari board issue here solve it by replacing the Big "Blue" Capacitor.  It is the huge capacitor in the power supply.  Second to that is probably some sort of power supply or cabling and connectors.  After you check that, then I'd worry about a pcb board problem.

[Hawk Daddy]

I clearly state in my post that it doesn't work and explain the issue, I wasn't trying to pull a fast one on anybody, and it's still for sale, but once, and if I fix it, then I'll most likley be keeping it.  I'll make sure that the self test switch is off, and then I'll look at that big blue capicitor, and see what I can do with it, where would I get a replacement at?

Hawk

[2600]

Um, I never said you were trying to pull a fast one.  Just mentioning I was debating on buying it from you, but thanks for helping me make my decision.

Good luck on getting it working.

[Hawk Daddy]

Oh I thought that you thought that I was trying to sell it as working, sorry for the mis communication.  And thanks for the good luck, I just hope it is something as easy as that big blue cap on the power board.  Where could I get one of those at?

Hawk

[RayB]

Bob Roberts.

But don't go buying parts without measuring voltages. Every arcade owner / restorer should own a multimeter.

[Level42]

Yeah, the basics:

The Electrolyctic Capacitor known as Atari's "Big Blue" has only one purpose: filtering out any AC components out of the supplied voltages to the PCB.
I'm sure it can (and will) go bad over time, but f.i. I've got one in my Centipede.
I measured all DC voltages on the PCB but then with my DVM set to AC. This is to see if there is any "ripple" (AC "left-overs") in the DC voltage.

I can fairly say that these are close to non-existant with my Centipede. And I'm pretty sure (close to completely sure) that the Big Blue was never replaced on my cab.

I'm not saying it can't cause problems, I'm not saying it won't go bad, but it's NOT the cause of all problems on Atari cabs as you sometimes get the impression....

By the way, www.arcadechips.com also sells a replacement: http://www.arcadechips.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_30&products_id=122