Yeah, I'm still up! It's a drawback of having a girlfriend in America, heh. I don't mind having a look if you want to send them down, sure. Hmm, I need to get into repairing boards for a living if I can make that sorta money from it! I always thought that it would be a low demand thing that didn't make much money. Maybe I'm wrong!
I've been trying to raise my mate in Seattle. We went to Uni together and she now works as an engineer for Boeing. She would appear to be in sleep mode lol There is certainly money to be made in repairing this sort of stuff. Whether it would be regular enough to make a living, or just enough for some extra cash now and again, who knows? I'm turning in now though. Utterly exhausted.
Well, doing it "unofficially" for now would be good - just a bit of money here and there is fine. I might consider it once I've sorted some stuff out. Sounds like a good job - certainly an important one! Must carry a nice salary! heh.
I nearly choked on my Cornflakes this morning. I got a response from Mark. It's £80 per board x 4 = £320.00 minimum. He'd charge £25 for taking a look though, which would indicate what exactly was wrong, however he did suggest that these old boards tend to go badly faulty. I.e. pointing towards all 4 motherboards being knackered. £320.00 on a £50 cabinet... OH: When I was talking to Ordyne about it, he was telling me he used to repair these boards but no longer has the time. As a rough guess he told me I'd be looking at a charge of about £150 total. So.....
320 pounds does sound like it's taking the piss. Most old boards don't go badly faulty unless... the power supply was really knackered and killed components (although the boards do normally have some protection). the board is heavily corroded, this is a common problem on older boards, can be harder to fix. Remove connectors, check for corrosion or rust, rub lightly with sandpaper or a file, remove all the chips check legs for corrosion again sand lightly to remove and reseat. Sometimes the IC holders go bad and it will stop the unit from working. Reseat and plug the chips back in, the best way to do these on old boards is to support the back of the IC (after you discharge yourself) and press it in, so you are not flexing the board. Try gentlely flexxing the board and power up and see if you get any differences, anything might point to broken tracks. It's worth checking that the 5V is outputting 5V with load, it's also worth checking this on a chip (find a 74LS chip) as far away from the loom as possible, you may find a large voltage drop, if this is the case then it's probably corrosion, if it's under 5V but over 4.5V then crank up the voltage until you get just under 5V you may find you get life in the board. if the PSU is barely outputting 5V with the adjustment fully up then replace the PSU. I have bought a couple of dead machines (including Outrun) which worked fine after a clean and reseating of the chips. A Neo Geo 6 slotter was repaired with a simple PSU replacement. Most other faults are generally minor but finding them can be a bitch without the right equipment or tools. Re : Reversed white / brown wiring on PSU. It doesn't make any difference, although the PSU shows AC-L and AC-N, a lot of PSUs just have AC AC as it doesn't matter which way you wire them up. Ever thought why Japanese plugs are non polaritised and you can plug them either way and the things will work?
Yikes! That's a LOT! I definitely need to get into that game! :lol: I could probably make a killing even at half the price lol. Yeah, Ordy used to do them... I wasn't sure whether he'd do it or not. I knew he got busy. It's a shame the SCOTVAC meeting got shelved - that was meant to be really good! I wanted to go up but it was a bit costly!! Checking the +5V line is certainly the first step in board repair. It's amazing how often there's not enough voltage there, and how much of an effect that has! I've seen boards work one minute, then you power down for a while (leaving them in the cab) and when you come back say an hour later, you have to tweak the PSU again! See how the spare board is. If there's still no joy, I don't mind taking a look at the board for you. I know a couple of people with Hang On cabs around the country who might be willing to take a look, too.
Thanks to the pair of you for all the technical support and information. Firstly, I've handed the monitor over to a local guy I know who repairs TVs, he's willing to check over it for a few quid to make sure there is nothing drastically wrong with it. I also asked him to give the power supply (the main transformer) a good looking over and his first words were 'Holy shit, that's seen some serious usage!' so perhaps I need to consider the PSU first of all. I've not heard back from the USA seller of the Hang On boards. He was meant to get P&P costs for me to the UK and disappeared. It could be that he/she is unable to get to a post office very readily, so I will wait. The only thing I worry about is getting negative feedback for non payment. Simply put, without shipping costs I don't know what to pay! I'm going to exhaust every avenue here before I start putting people to any trouble and having to test things for me, but I really appreciate the offer of assistance. Shame Ordyne isn't doing repairs any more on older stock, but he's busy with newer cabs. He's actually getting to the point where Naomi material (early) is too old! Shock! A few people have asked about a potential Scottish 'cade meeting. I am just waiting to see how Insert Coin goes. I am still planning on attending, even if for a couple of hours as I am trying to make my plans coincide with a London trip.
I thought sellers can't leave negative feedback any more?? Either way, it's not your fault if he doesn't get back to you! eBay track the checkout/invoice thing anyway, so you can prove he didn't invoice you. Nice to hear Ordy's keeping busy! I guess there is a market for repairs, after all! Are you going to Insert Coin? It seems to have been boycotted by Jamma+ and noone can tell me why! All I know is that there's a post asking that we don't advertise it on the forum. There's another event that someone told me about which would be very interesting. He's having cabs there - and he has a Hang On! It's in Stoke on Trent in 2 weeks, though, so I don't think I can get there. A shame, as there's a guest I'd like to talk to!
Oh yeah! Ha! I've never had need to worry about negative feedback since the last idiotic policy change! I'd forgotten about that little chestnut. For once it works in my favor... however, he's been in contact so I am buying the boards today. (Once I wake up.... 6.30am...yuk!) Right... a certain person responsible for IC09 & Ordyne had a bit of a tete-a-tete on Jamma+ about 2 weeks ago. The basics of it were that Ordy complained about the 'alleged' monopoly of SegaShed as the official Sega reseller at the meet. He suggested that he'd been offered 1 or 2 pitches, but the following day he'd been informed he was no longer entitled to them. He took this to mean he was not welcome as a seller. This resulted in a query by him in the InsertCoin thread. Let's say that the organiser subsequently failed to calm the waters, AndyG posted a rather amusing, but clearly frustrated message and before long everyone was pitching in with comments and it turned into a bit of a humdinger! I'm not taking sides, but the person responsible clearly isn't versed in public relations lol. In the end he didn't come off very well, having insulted Ordyne rather than make amends. In fact he came off very badly indeed and the majority of responses focused on that. In no time at all there were people calling to boycott the meet! Oh the drama! Frankly, having been involved in all sorts of previous conferences I am aware that these arguments spring up all the time and normally get dealt with quietly, so to me it makes no difference. I was disappointed in the initial response, but the other person dealing with IC09 was much better at dealing with things and had actually managed to find a solution. Had it not been for the mud slinging the matter would have been resolved. I'm potentially down in Northampton that weekend anyway. I am planning to attend, but I'll only know in May for certain. Re the Sega Hang On cab... damn Re the guest... go on, tell us!
Ahh yeah, I missed that thread - dunno how! :lol: It all seems a bit childish - things seemed resolved until that poolchamp guy decided to keep mouthing off. What an idiot. The event is Byte Back http://www.byte-back.info/. It is reuniting some of the Ocean team, which is quite exciting. Jim Bagley is the one I'd like to talk to.. not saying the other guests aren't interesting, though! Jonathan Cauldwell will be there, also.
yeah... I didn't want to step on any toes so remained completely out of it. I have never really had issue with PChamp before, however his comments (perhaps borne of frustration) were unbelievable, especially when he slated Ordyne (a well respected guy) and then wished him ill! Pathetic really! There was absolutely no need for it as you say, it was sorted and should have been left like that. It was a thread I think the mods / owner should have jumped on the second it started getting out of hand... but it ran and ran. Ah! Ocean! I can understand the interest. I've heard of the meet, but unable to go.
The very same: http://www.byte-back.info/event_guests.html I bought my tickets on the day it was announced (or the day after); I've been waiting a long time for this event.
They produced some of my favorite Amstrad titles. In conjunction with "Ultimate Play The Game" or as a direct rip off of the 'Alien8' and 'Knightlore' titles, Ocean produced an amazing 3D 'Batman' title that I would literally play all day until my folks would pull the plug on me. http://genesis8.free.fr/amstrad/game-rom/amstrad-game.php?prog_id=485&title=batman&creator=ocean Yep, that really is 1986 you are reading there! I was already a teenager - that makes me old.
Looks pretty sweet, will have to find a copy to emulate. I was only a year old lol...sorry, probably doesn't make you feel any better.
Yeah? Well, if you liked 3D Batman, they also did "Head over Heels" (1987). Have a look at this site.... http://retrospec.sgn.net/
3D Batman and Head Over Heels were sweet games! Talking of Batman, I enjoyed that isometric Batman game, too!
The spare boards arrived from the USA. Not got the time to deal with them until Monday, but they are here!
LOL! No, I am off up North of Scotland to do some filming for my brother so I promise there will be no time to tinker lol
