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Cocktail Arcade Machine Repair
Question from Carl: Hi,
I really enjoyed watching your YouTube videos on repairing arcade machines. I have recently bought a 1980s cocktail arcade machine which has two games, Intruder (a space invaders clone and crash which I don’t know anything about). When I switch it on the only thing that happens is that it make an arcade sound noise but then nothing, no picture, no sound and pressing buttons does not do anything. Do you know if this is a signal that indicates something specific? (As when a computer beeps a certain number of times it might mean that your ram is not inserted properly.) or it is just something that has gone wrong. Many thanks in advance.
Best wishes,
Carl
1 answer
Response from Jonathan: Carl,
Sometimes this can be a signal that a board is not getting the right amount of voltage. You might take your multimeter and check the voltage going to the board to make sure it is correct. Check out our posts on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply and Checking A Classic Power Supply for more information.
You might also try coining up the game and pressing the start button to see if you get any sound from the game. In this case, the game is actually playing but the monitor is not working. We refer to this as a game that is “playing blind.” Check out our post on Troubleshooting Games That Are Playing Blind for more information on that specific issue.
We would also recommend trying to find a manual for the game. The manual might have some troubleshooting advice about the sound that might help you out. Hope that helps. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
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