[OT] Neo Geo cabinet problem

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 17:39:28 -0800 "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: Ok, some generic advice that may or may not be helpful. Connect a good DVM (if you have a fast DVM that has peak/valley hold, that is even better) to the main power supply of the unit. I assume that the 'power supply' actually derives several different voltages, so you may have to repeat this for each individual 'supply' to find the culprit. If a supply is already out-of-spec at 'idle' that's good; it's easy to spot it and fix it. Low voltages are typically due to bad electrolytic caps, bad regulators, or associated components (resistors, zener references etc). Otherwise, test it under load. If you have a game or games that will make the unit fail reliably (I love that term), that is great. Put them in place and start monitoring your power supplies; find the one(s) that sags or goes out-of-spec under load. This is where a meter with hold features is nice, it can spot fluctuations that your eye (or the sampling / display rate of the meter) cannot. If it seems to be the motherboard slots, they can be cleaned. There was a product line called 'The Eliminator' for cleaning video game systems, that used a piece of fiber material the same thickness as the card slot, wrapped in a material made by 3M that was paper thin, very strong, and could burnish contacts. You could scrap one of these and carefully use it to clean the contacts; even better, I'd like to know a 3M part number for the stuff; then you could make your own neo-geo sized cleaner. Maybe they already exist? -- --------------------------------------------- -. William W. Layer .- -. St. Paul, MN USA .- --------------------------------------------------- -. Cheif bottlewasher, Atma-Sphere Music Systems .- -. http://www.atma-sphere.com .- --------------------------------