Hi all. I own a Fighting Mania machine which has been working fine up until last week when during start up the error message "RTC data read error" appeared on the screen. All the saved settings are initialized. I've done some research on this and found that it relates to the Real Time Clock chip on the PCB which has a lifespan of ten years (Fighting Mania dates from 2000 so it is more or less on time!) and after that period it will need to be recoded. Can anyone help me with this? I am a complete arcade noob, although I have owned this machine for five years I've never had to do more than change settings in the service mode. However I am more than prepared to get stuck into the technical side of it if I can continue to preserve this machine. Thanks!
Not only re-coded, it also needs repair or replacement. I own a SGI Indy R5000 which uses an similar RTC chip from Dallas. Almost impossible to find an replacement here. I was able to break it's epoxy box, remove the depleted battery and then I fitted an socket for a new batter (which can now be replaced easily). After that I ran the procedure to re-write the mac address and initialize the RTC. So if you can't buy an replacement RTC chip, you can salvage the original with some "trickery". :thumbsup:
Thanks very much for your reply! What kind of hardware do I need to re-initialize and re-write the mac address?
Super common issue with this hardware. See here for more: http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=14012 I haven't seen one up close, so I don't know if it's possible to just change the battery on it.
Even if it doesn't suicide, the module needs to be replaced or repaired to get the machine to keep the settings again. The example I used with the SGI workstation was mostly to show it's a "doable" repair. :thumbsup:
So I loaned one of these motherboards from a friend. Unfortunately, the RTC chip is covered by a plastic compartment that's one solid piece (sometimes there's a lid on these things, not here). I'll try Dremelling the top off.
You can: 1st: Remove the plastic top (mark the remaining epoxy block so you know which pin is pin 1. 2nd: Identify which part of the block has the battery in. 3rd: Slowly Dremel until you find the battery. Actually I used an chisel to break the top of the epoxy block off and then de-soldered the batter terminals. From that I added wires. And finally I found this link: http://www.rotteneggs.com/site/stor...0-8585-cda61f05aee7/dallas_chip_battery_hack/ I did this myself without reading the site before, but I was already fairly familiar with how these things work when I did my RTC hack ...
