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Sprint 2
Question from Mike: Hi Guys, first of all I want to say Happy New Year!
Okay so I recently picked up a 1976 Black & white Atari (Kee games) Sprint 2 machine in non working condition. Upon turning it on the game would only display garbage on the screen so I was assuming a board issue. After checking some things I realized that the “Normally closed” wire going to one of the coin switches was broken. This is the first time I’ve come across a situation where all three contact switches are used. Seemed very odd to me? Anyway, After a quick install of a 187 connector the game was up and running again! However I still have some issues.
My sound is intermittent, some times I have sounds and other times I don’t. Sometimes certain sounds are missing and if I do have sound it eventually fads out. Again I’m assuming a board issue? There seems to be an excessive amount of heat coming from the board about 228 degrees F when tested with my multimeter (I attached a picture of my test point) so I don’t leave it on for very long! I’m not sure how to check the power supply as I think it is part of the board is this correct? Could the transformer be faulty? And if so how would I check that with my multimeter?
This game is an absolute blast to play especially with two players I just really want to fully restore it! Thanks again for all you do and all of your help, Mike
1 answer
Response from Jonathan: Mike,
Happy New Year to you as well. Hope you had a great one.
Based on your description, it does seem like a board issue. Of course, we always recommend starting at the power supply just because bad voltage can cause a lot of problems with your main board. Just looking briefly at the manual, it does look like the Sprint 2 main board itself is switching the AC voltage from the transformer to DC voltage just like Pac Man boards and other older arcade boards. Since your game is mostly running, we can probably assume that the AC voltage getting to your board is good enough. In other words, your transformer is probably OK.
The amount of heat coming from the board is pretty high but should be within the normal operating range. Just to give you an idea, that NTE white resistor that’s in your picture should operate normally from about -60 degrees F all the way to 310 degrees F. Of course, we don’t want the board running at a higher temperature than it should so you might check out some other components in and around the section of the board that you’re testing in the picture to see if they are bad which might be causing your temperature issue. So while the temperature is a bit concerning, it should work fine.
As for your audio problem, you might just need to touch up some solder or replace some of the parts in the audio section of the board. If you look at page 61 in the manual, you’ll see the audio section in the bottom left area of the page. This tells you all of the parts that are related to the audio section of the board. You might try first touching up the solder on these parts to see if it makes a difference. If not, you many need to start testing the parts to see if you can find any that might be bad. Of course, you will need to replace any bad ones that you find. Be sure to also check out our post on Troubleshooting Games With Sound Issues for more tips that might help you with your problem.
Hope that helps. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
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