Do I Need New Capacitors?

[LIME LYSTA]

I just bought a Vectrex is near mint condition. No wobble on the joystick, no giant scratches or anything, it was an amazing find at 150. 

 

I need to play it again tonight, but last night for for a little bit I was having some problems. When I'd start minestorm my ship would rotate endlessly. I could use the fire, boost and warp buttons just fine but can't counter the spin. It does not spin when the controller is unplugged. 

 

I plugged it into another power strip. After resetting twice controls worked just fine. And the controls have worked fine since. Then the sound faded to almost mute. After a while the sound came back then disappeared. 

 

I plugged it in directly into the wall and control and sound is perfect now. Now, im not stupid enough to think the wall plug in method magically fixed anything. At first I thought it was a controller issue, but now I'm thinking it could be capacitors. 

 

I have no kdea how to do those or how to tell if they need replaced. If anyone else has a better idea let me know. 

 

Thank you.

 

[LIME LYSTA]

Well, its been fine today. Any chance it can't get enough power from a surge protector? Haven't tried going back to it (out of fear), so it might have been the system ane not the protector. Didnt think that would be an issue. My pc runs off the surge protector just fine so I dont get it. 

 

Maybe the system just wasn't played for a long time and needed warming up lol, no clue. 

[+KylJoy]

Maybe the ICs could use reseating.  Might not be worth opening to do that unless it keeps acting up.

[LIME LYSTA]

I've been talking to Sean about this. Seems my sound chip needs replacing. For those who might have the same issue, now you know what's wrong with yours. Unfortunately its not socketed like some peoples, and needs a solder job. 

 

If anyone has any recommendations im all ears. I can source the part, thank goodness that's easy at least......

 

 

[Vectrexer]

14 hours ago, LIME LYSTA said:

I've been talking to Sean about this. Seems my sound chip needs replacing. For those who might have the same issue, now you know what's wrong with yours. Unfortunately its not socketed like some peoples, and needs a solder job. 

 

If anyone has any recommendations im all ears. I can source the part, thank goodness that's easy at least......

 

 

Whenever you find a person to work on the board, have then add a set of sockets of the DIP ICs to make future maintenance easier.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Vectrexer

[LIME LYSTA]

On 2/16/2022 at 12:46 PM, Vectrexer said:

Whenever you find a person to work on the board, have then add a set of sockets of the DIP ICs to make future maintenance easier.

Thats a big if. Posted this so many places. No bites to help me ao far. 

[LIME LYSTA]

We've now gone to absolutely no sound, but I have controls.

 

Not all heroes wear capes. Really could use some help :/.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

That really sucks those chips aren't socketed. I'd say you have a failing/intermittent AY-3-8912 sound chip.

 

Unfortunately you'll have to desolder the old one, and once you do, make sure to install a 28-pin socket there, that way you can swap them in & out as needed in the future, should one ever fail again (which is unlikely). You can find AY-3-8912 chips on various classic Arcade machine parts vendor sites & eBay (try to stick with GI branded chips if possible, but beware of clone chips from China, etc though). That's a good place to start.

 

Capacitors aren't the issue, IMO. However, it wouldn't hurt to remove the rear half of the cover from the back console and take a look inside to see if there's any leaking and/or bulging caps. If there are, then you might want to replace them, eventually, but since it's working for the most part, as-is, I'd say that can probably wait. Some caps have glue around the base though (mainly on the vertical power board, so just don't mistake the glue for leaking electrolytic fluid.

 

That's about all I've got for now. Good luck!