reset issues

[robm]

I recently sold a fishtales that i had done up, and had it working for quite a few weeks after fixing reset problems (replaced most of the bridges,caps and jumpered the connections on the back of the board as per pinrepair - also fixed a few dry joints for the 5V section), then when the guy that bought it got it home, it kept resetting - i went over and reseated all connections and it ran fine for 45 mins, then 5 hours later started resetting again.

So i swapped over a set of good FT power driver and CPU boards into his machine and its worked perfectly since then.  When i got home i put his 'resetting' boards in my FT and it ran for about 8 hours yesterday with a heap of games being played on it.....whats going on here?

I see 3 options

1 His house power is a bit dodgy, and enough to reset a board that has some small issues somewhere (his getaway runs fine on the same power circuit)
2 The problem is due to some other component on the machine (but why does it work fine with my boards in it?)
3 Something you guys come up with....

[rads]

A dodgy connector on his FT?

[Extra Ball]

what rads said

Some people are talking about a voltage pot mod for pins sucking alot of current. Before it was fixed my last FT would only reset when in multi-ball, and usually when stacking modes.

[Strangeways]

Are you in a position to leave your boards in his machine for a couple of weeks (at least) ? Sounds like it will work for a while THEN fail. I agree that his machine has a faulty connector. I think his machine with your boards will start resetting soon.

[Caveoftreasures]

i have never had the reset problem on my fishtales ever, but it sounds to me like a dodgy power supply, or at worse, a poor connector.

as we all know, just one lousy wire on one lousy pin to drive you nuts. 

[dj10555]

I had an Indy 500 which was resetting due to a fault bridge on the fliptronics board. Would also be worth checking the 5volt rail is at least 4.92v on the driver board and if not look at replacing the 5 volt regulator. Could also check the transformer is jumpered for the correct voltages.

[beaky]

I agree with the dicky connector scenario. or there could be a problem with the 5 volt regulator transistor socket, I once had a pinbot with a resetting problem (i know pinbot is a system 11 and fish tails is wpc) I tried everything known to man but it was still resetting, so i removed the 5 volt regulator transistor, (which is the transistor in the TOP3 package picured below) and i cleaned the 2 pins on the transistor with some 1200 grit sand paper, then added a smear of WD40 to the pins (be careful not to add more than a smear as this stuff is conductive, i sprayed some on my fingers and then rubbed it onto the pins without touching the case of the transistor). the transistor i reseated had a MICA insulator so i cleaned it and applied some new silicone thermal grease. (if you have the grey (silicone) insulator there is no need to use thermal grease but if you have the clear (mica) insulator then you will need to add the silicone grease. Or if it has no insulator then just add some silicone grease ( i cant remember off the top of my head if the wpc 5 volt reg has an insulator or not)

[robm]

Thanks heaps for the replies

Strangeways - i think i will leave my boards for a while and see what happens

Then look at all the connectors, and follow Beaky's suggestions

[james12]

My TZ did that.  I thought I had tried everything!
Then I found one wire on connector J114 going to the CPU was not sitting tightly in the connector housing, and was causing intermittent resets.  Thus, the problem was in the game wiring, not the driver board.
James

[beaky]

the problem could be nearly anywhere so patients and perseverance is the answer  

[johnwartjr]

The LM323 isn't in a socket, it's soldered in.

[beaky]

The LM323 isn't in a socket, it's soldered in.

ok so they must of stared soldering them in after system 11, i didn't bother to go and pull a wpc mpu out to check,