Re: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem

Clay, would the Low Voltage section of the board be a good place to start
with the troubleshooting? I have read up on Anders Knudsen's LV2000
replacement for the low voltage section which is supposed to fix all kinds
of problems. BTW, the URL for the LV2000 is
http://www.diac.com/%7Ejeffh/lv2000/

Dennis
http://gameroom.godfrey.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Clay Cowgill <ClayC@diamondmm.com>
To: 'vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu' <vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu>
Date: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 12:26 PM
Subject: RE: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem

>This is what I wrote in the manual:
>
>"(It's technically 'safer' to switch with the power off anyway, since
>it's less likely to damage your monitor if the CPU doesn't reset
>properly. Your Mileage May Vary. If in doubt, turn the game off before
>switching.)"
>
>I had one monitor blow the low-voltage section by switching on the fly
>when the Vector Generator crashed (back at the end of 1996). Since then
>I've done all sorts of horrible things to the boards and monitor and
>never had a problem again. To be safe I'd "officially" say turn it off
>first, then switch. Unofficially there's *lots* of people switching on
>the fly and I've never heard of another monitor die with switching as a
>likely culprit.
>
>There's always a possibility that Dennis' monitor was just going to do
>it's Rutger Hauer/Blade Runner impression that day anyway ("Time... to
>die...") and it would have konked out when he turned the power off and
>on again too...
>
>-Clay
>
>> ----------
>> From: Tom Cloud[SMTP:computerspace@hotmail.com]
>> Reply To: vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 11:38 AM
>> To: vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
>> Subject: RE: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem
>>
>> Clay,
>>
>> So I understand this then...is to NOT switch between the games with
>> the power on? I must confess, I've been doing that. When I read the
>> message below, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up!!
>>
>> So, is it ok to switch games with the power on or do I run the risk
>> of damaging my monitor?
>>
>> Thanks for the info.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Tom Cloud
>>
>>
>>
>>
From: Clay Cowgill <ClayC@diamondmm.com>
>> >To: "'vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu'"
>> > <vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu>
>> >Subject: RE: Star Wars/Wells Gardner 6100 Problem
>> >Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 17:46:03 -0800
>> >Reply-To: vectorlist@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
>> >
>> >
>> >> A couple games later, he switched it back to ESB, and it still did
>> not
>> >> display video, so he switched back to Star Wars, and now that was
>> not
>> >> displaying video either.
>> >>
>> >For what it's worth, this is what killed my monitor when I was
>> *first*
>> >working on the kits-- hence the warning about switching with the game
>> >on.
>> >
>> >Clay's techy idea on what can happen:
>> >
>> >I think you can switch and still have the code land in a segment that
>> >refreshes the watchdog, but the vector generator crashes.
>> >Max-deflection for very long = dead monitor. Someday I should
>> probably
>> >redesign the kit to have the bank-selection switch go into a PAL and
>> >then have the PAL yank reset for a few clocks after the switch
>> changes
>> >states. I'd want to *really* fix those nasty old 2212 NOVRAMs at the
>> >same time though by replacing it with some kind of EEPROM, so the
>> >project gets larger and I keep putting it off...
>> >
>> >-Clay
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
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Received on Wed Feb 3 14:40:51 1999