DDR Machine won't boot/is a horrifying trainwreck.

[RahanAkero]

Hi there, everyone. I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place -- if I'm not, by all means, move me. :x

I'm currently housing a DDR Extreme (formerly 4th+) machine for a friend who is attempting to get the damn thing to live. Unfortunately, we have a bunch of strange symptoms that are preventing us from achieving that goal. When the machine is plugged in/turned on, the monitor makes a high-pitched whine -- as if attempting to turn on -- and the speakers make a loud pop... and then nothing. The lights on the machine turn on, but nothing else really happens, aside from the coin counter (?) ticking up one coin every two seconds.

We've sent both the power supply and the monitor chassis/neckboard to be repaired and examined, but both got sent back untouched, apparently "fine". This leads us to suspect that there is something wrong with the System-573 board inside of our machine. Has anyone here ever encountered such a weird set of problems? D: Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

 

[kb0jjn]

You rellay need to check and re-check all wires, power supply connections and voltages, and your ground wires.

What lights light up?

I would really look close at your connectors for bent/shorted pins.

pics really help.

 

[roothorick]

Check continuity from the power supply to the traces on the 573 computer board itself. Make sure it's getting the right power. Crank the power supply up to where you're getting 5.1V at the board. Check for continuity on each signal wire coming off the monitor, from the chassis to the computer. If everything checks out, you've got a dead computer.... and they aren't easy to fix.

 

[RyogAkari]

Open up your 573 and reseat the bootleg mod board in it. Put a piece of cardboard under and on top of it. It sounds like it's grounding out on the cdrom drive. Assemble and watch the magic happen.



By the way for future reference your DDR cabinet is JAMMA compatible. I'd buy a cheap working jamma board for test situations so you don't have to do risky things like the disassembly and shipping of the monitor neck board.

 

[modessitt]

So - you're not evening getting any of the boot info on the screen when it comes on?

It's not uncommon to have the Disc drive go bad...

 

[RyogAkari]

I've had this problem before, a long time ago. I actually don't have to use the bootleg mod board anymore but for most (as in 99.9%) DDR arcade machines playing extreme in the united states there was a mod board installed in the system 573 that is raised up higher than the 573 case was meant to have for the chip set. Sometimes, especially after moving the mod board will shift in the case and will ground the motherboard out on the cd rom drive. After having this problem frequently happen while taking my machines back and forth from conventions back in the day I finally discovered this was the problem that was happening was this or at the very least I've never had this problem happen again.

For another test he could take the top off of the 573 case separating the cdrom drive from the motherboard and have just the digital io board and motherboard connected to the cabinet without the lights connector. This should have the motherboard boot to the point where it will fail at the cdrom drive check but should boot his cabinet. If it still didn't work I'd keep testing the mod board and reseating it. The problem is with that chip as it is the bootrom for the board. You can buy a legitimate boot rom for that motherboard on eBay as well but then you run into the problem of not being able to run that bootleg.

If this was the case, and you purchased a legitimate bootrom, install it, and it solves the problem of the motherboard cycling (that's what's happening with the coin counter clicking like it is) then it's possible his version of the extreme bootleg may boot with onboard booting enabled (turn dip 4 ON) and he might still have a game to play. However this version of the bootleg would not allow him to access the game settings in the test menu.


Again, having another jamma board for testing arcades is always a smart idea as it usually limits the problem to either the board or the arcade. I actually have a spare gx700 for my testing which happens to be the 573 motherboard

 

[roothorick]

So - you're not evening getting any of the boot info on the screen when it comes on?

It's not uncommon to have the Disc drive go bad...

573 shows a POST screen with a very unambiguous error if there's a disc drive issue (Similar to ST-V "ERROR ON CARTRIDGE" message). Even if it's intermittent, it'll still hang on a perfectly legible image. His problem is unquestionably on the GX700 mainboard, or as RyogAkari suggested, something attached to it...

 

[RyogAkari]

He must have got it fixed. He hasn't visited the site since his original post =P

 

[RahanAkero]

He must have got it fixed. He hasn't visited the site since his original post =P

Oh, how I wish that were true. :x Life got unusually complicated right after I posted this.

This here is what we get when the machine is powered on normally.

So, I turned it off and opened the 573.

There's nothing outwardly charred or ruined inside there.

I take the IC out.

It is at this point where I notice something deeply wrong with this picture.

I didn't feel anything unusual or resistant when I took the modboard out -- straight up and not wiggly -- so part of me wonders if this pin's been missing the entire time.

 

[kb0jjn]

Check the socket to see if the pin is in there. If it is, remove the pin and repair the broken leg. Should not be too hard to fix.

 

[RyogAkari]

Yep, that's almost definetely the reason as to why your machine isnt booting. I've pointed you out in another forum where to get a cheap replacement bootrom as you already know. be sure to try to clean out any broken pieces in the socket. You'll be up and running again in no time.

 

[john rainbo]

I am going to bump this, for the simple reason that I am having a similar problem, but I have a fun backstory.

My RTC stopped saving data. Okay, just an inconvenience, but still... I decided to finally change it. So, I took this apart, and simply could NOT get the chip off this stupid mobo. I have begged people to help me change it, but nobody seems to want to. So, I finally said the hell with it, and put it all back together. Now it simply won't boot. I see nothing on the screen (but I know that works, as I tried it with another JAMMA game... it's not the machine).

Here's what I did. When trying to remove the RTC, I took out the chip next to it. It's the universal looking one, and not some boot. I just took it out so it wouldn't get damaged, and I know for a fact I put it back correctly.

A friend told me to try using heat on the RTC chip to get it out, so I did. It didn't come out. I have to wonder, is this what's wrong with it now? Did I cook that so it doesn't work even moreso? I mean, before it just wouldn't save settings, but now... is that my issue? Could it be that me taking out the ram chip for a while screwed it up? I'm pretty unhappy about this whole thing.

I know I've hooked everything back up correctly, so that's certainly not it. Do I have no choice but to replace that RTC, or did I screw something else up, too? I figured that the game would be fine if that RTC chip was damaged, as it sort of is already. No, I guess?

 

[mecha]

I want you to know that I tried doing the same thing back in July, and I was unable to get it to work as well. considering our DDR is operated in an actual arcade that actually makes money, I couldn't sit on it anymore and wound up driving the board (and our Dance Maniax board, since I was a fucking idiot and tried swapping games -- don't do that) over to Betson to have them look at it.

turns out on the DDR, I had a bad trace somewhere in the pipeline. I had a bitch of a time trying to desolder it, so that sounds likely lol. I'm not 100% sure, but I think they had to replace the RTC again with one they program. they shipped it to the office in New Jersey, so the real guys had to work on it.

after all the trouble, had I known it would "only" cost roughly $300 to do, I would've just sent it away to begin with. I could be wrong too, the Dance Maniax honestly wound up costing more, and all I did was corrupt the RTC on that one trying to run DDR on it lol

 

[john rainbo]

I've read countless places that the RTC rewrites itself on these when you start it up and hold down the test button. So, I think I will be safe, there.

Are you saying yours didn't turn on like this after you tried replacing the chip, too? Or, are you saying it did this before all that went down?

 

[mecha]

I've read countless places that the RTC rewrites itself on these when you start it up and hold down the test button. So, I think I will be safe, there.

Are you saying yours didn't turn on like this after you tried replacing the chip, too? Or, are you saying it did this before all that went down?

it's hard for me to say, considering the game wouldn't boot at all after I changed the RTC. I'm saying in the case of Dance Maniax, it literally corrupted the RTC on it when I ran the DDR boot rom on it. DDR on the Dance Maniax board still threw up the same RTC error as before, even though there was nothing wrong with the RTC. I too thought if you just held the test button when you start it that it would program itself but that apparently wasn't the case there heh. it gave me a red screen error instead of the blue box lol.

I suppose you don't have much to lose, if you have the RTC installed right and you didn't damage any traces like I did, try setting it yourself. the worst case is you're out about $20 for the chip and your time and you inevitably send the thing out for repair anyway.

 

[john rainbo]

But you got an error message? I get zippo. Nothing.