Hanging Video Problems in Driving Games

August 12, 2006 at 2:09 pm | Posted in Amusement Park Machine Repair Tips, Philippine Amusement Park Industry | 1 Comment
Tags: amusement machine repair

Have you ever experienced some problems on hanging video of any driving games in your amusement lately? Here are some tips on how to manage to repair the specific trouble you are encountering as mentioned above. I hope to help you out in some if not all the difficulties you are encountering with your amusement machines also in my future posts. You can also e-mail me or PM me on my YM address samcasuncad@yahoo.com. I am the Head Technician of the Technical Department at Tom’s World Amusement (ICC branch). Be sure to regularly visit this site for “repair tips“.

Steps of Checking for the Problem:

• First thing you have to be sure of is, if the hanging video problem of your machine is caused by some fluctuations in the voltage supply of the place/area/ or building. You can distinguish this by noticing if your place’s light exhibited a blinking or somewhat intermittent turning off of the lights. If so, you can manage to simply reset the machine by either unplugging it for about 3-5 seconds and plugging it in again or if you can access or if there is a switch located near the AC line cord leading to the machine, you can simply turn it off for about the same time(3-5 seconds) and afterwards turning it on again after the time interval.
• If the problem cannot be remedied using the “resetting method“, then, prepare the needed tools for a repair and checking of the internal power supply specially the +5 volts and +12 volts (D.C.) You will need a multimeter, a service light, set of screw drivers and small philip screw driver for a possible adjustment of the power supply and be ready to open up the machine where the main board and the power supply is located. . First, check if the necessary required voltage (+5volts and +12 volts) is met or provided by the power supply to the main board. If it is at a considerable setting, then try to let the multimeter test prods remain at a longer time in the p.s. terminals and see if the voltage is not fluctuating or does not go overload. That is if it is not dropping down from the required setting of the main board. If it is still ok, try adjusting the voltage a little bit down and up on a considerable rate (mostly 11-1 o’clock vr setting) while measuring the amount of supplied voltage (be extra careful in doing this because you might just damage the main board). If the adjustment did not cure the problem at all and upon having the proper power supply voltage value set-up to standards, it means you should proceed to the next step.
• The next step is to try and check for some loose connections os your overall wirings especially in the connectors leading to the power supply and the “JAMMA connector”. It has been a constant experience from my own log book that loose connections can be as misleading and desceptive as a chameleon. We have experienced this many many times before while trying to repair any amusement machine in our branch. Actually this is oneof the most difficult problem we have ever encountered so may times because this simple error can cause you toi hypothesize wrongfully. It has been also true as we have experienced it ourselves to cause so much headache and torture only to find out that the original culprit is a loose connector, soldered joints, parts on board, wirings and at most JAMMA connectors. You can distinguish this particular problem by trying to shake the whole wirings and trying to unplug and replug the connectors that i specified above.
• The last step to do is to try and remove all boards one by one and clean them by removing dust and wirings and bringing them back again afterwards. Thisis the most basic preventive maintenace work that we do that we sometimes find to cure hard to troubleshoot problems. And would you believe that it really works, plus it also helps you lessen the maintenance works to do because this particular and simple cleaning really prevents any amusement machine from having any unexpected trouble/s.