Repair

Two of our friends came over to visit this weekend, and as I was showing my friend Tim the arcade systems in my garage, Soul Calibur III shut itself off in the middle of starting up with a crackle of static from the speakers followed by the sound of the high speed cooling fan spinning down.  The marquee stayed lit, and it sounded as though the monitor still had power.  This was not a particularly happy thing, but I knew going into this acquisition that I was going to run into problems with these arcade machines because they are a bit old and consequently they will tend to have failures for various reasons.

I also I obtained these arcade machines because I wanted to learn how to repair them.  One of my life goals is to some day own my own video game arcade.  I figure the best way to accomplish this goal is to a) steadily acquire arcade games and b) learn how to repair them, until I can c) open an arcade with a bunch of games to start off and keep acquiring more as finances permit.  Brighid wants to run her own movie theater some day where she could show classic and cult films, so the way I figure both the arcade and theater would do well to compliment each other.  It would be like a museum of entertainment as it was back in the '70s and '80s.

So I got into the internals of Soul Calibur III Saturday night, and found that the system contains a modified Playstation 2 complete with a dongle in the form of a memory card, another 8MB memory card presumably for settings and scores, and a DVD drive holding the game itself.  I had wondered why it took a while for the game to load after the system was turned on, and now I know.  I cracked open the metal shell for this PS2 unit and dusted it out, inspected it for damage and found nothing, reassembled it and then attached it back to the JAMMA board.  Someone had thoughtfully included the manual for a Soul Calibur II arcade system beneath this case, which was also released for the PS2, so I assume the hookups are pretty much identical.  While putting the case back into the cabinet I noticed what appeared to be a connector cable for a stereo speaker (based on the end) and reattached it to a corresponding connector on the JAMMA board after straightening a bent pin.  I was preparing to disassemble the power supply next when I decided I would stop for the night, as it was already after midnight and I was getting tired.

When I got a chance to look again the following day I found a burnt 5A 250V fuse cartridge inside the power supply.  I took a trip to the hardware store and bought a 2-pack of 5A 250V fuse cartridges of matching size, and also got some groceries, so it was getting a bit late by the time I returned.  I recorded the above video while I replaced the fuse, but this time when I switched on the cabinet, I no longer had power to the monitor or marquee, indicating the transformer was no longer delivering power.  Sure enough, I pulled out a scorched 2.5A 250V fuse from the transformer, and also noted that the slot I pulled the fuse from was marked 3A 250V.  Nice.  Someone was lazy.  Hopefully they weren't just intentionally sabotaging the system.

By this time the hardware stores in town were all closed, it being after 10pm on a Sunday, so I waited until after work to pick up a two-pack of 3A 250V fuses and also a two-pack of 1A 250V fuses in order to proactively replace the other fuse in the transformer, and swapped them both out last night.  I flipped on the power switch and the marquee lit up, but nothing else.  I then noticed I had detached the harness cables from the monitor and power supply and reattached them.  I flipped on the power switch and nothing turned on.  Crap.

Turned out the 3A fuse I had just put in was scorched already.  I thought for a while, then remembered the bent pin on the JAMMA board and wondered if it had been bent intentionally.  This arcade cabinet was originally used for a Mortal Kombat II system, and consequently there are a number of other detached and loose cables hanging around everywhere, making a bit of a mess on the inside of this cabinet.  I love the smell on the inside of these machines - there's that certain blended odor of compressed wood mixed with electronics that you can't find anywhere else.  I detached the cable from the JAMMA board that had been previously left unplugged, replaced the 3A fuse with the spare one from the two-pack, and double checked the connections everywhere else inside the cabinet.  I even opened up the Playstation 2 one more time to make sure there were no loose cables touching down somewhere, and verified that all other connectors I had previously detached had been reattached correctly.  I plugged the arcade cabinet back in, flipped the on switch one more time, and heard the monitor click on and saw the marquee light up, but the fan did not start spinning on the PS2 unit.

I flipped the switch back to off, unplugged the arcade machine from the power strip one more time, looked at the power supply again and noticed the 5A fuse looked scorched.  Crap again.

So this is where I'm now at - I do not currently possess a multi-meter but I'd like to acquire a good analog one that will let me test various things including capacitors without losing an arm and a leg in the purchase.   My neighbor Steve has some experience in electrical work and possesses a multimeter, and he's agreed to take a look with me to see if there's something I missed that's obvious.  He's also keen to see the Moon Patrol arcade cabinet in working condition; the last time he stopped by it was still in the scrambled state, and he was the one who recommended disassembling it and cleaning it out.

I need to do some more research on the wiring for this system (I found and downloaded a digital copy of the manual and archived a copy of it here) and on how to find shorts, bad capacitors, etc. on electronics.   Hopefully YouTube has some helpful videos in this department as well.

I'm also reaching a point where I think I will need to further disassemble the system, remove any unecessary leftovers from the old Mortal Kombat II setup (I have no desire to own a Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet from any era, but Brighid would like one, so I'll probably have to cross that bridge at some point down the road), and then trace each of the harness wires and verify they are all in good condition and properly attached.  That's probably going to be a huge project that will have to occur over several days.  I'm hoping that we can just get it running again so I can put that project off for now, but my OCD is already kicking in there, so I know it's gonna bug me at some point to where I'll just HAVE to deal with it ASAP or go crazy.

If anyone cares to contribute advice in the comments section below, please feel free.  You have my thanks in advance.

Last night I got a bug up my butt after my slim Sony Playstation 2 refused to play yet another DVD.  This time it was the new Journey to the Center of the Earth starring Brandon Frasier, which we had rented from Netflix, and just the night before it had been The Cat Returns.  We were also having trouble with a few other discs as well, and Gran Turismo 4 was even starting to act up, refusing to load occasionally.

What makes this particularly irksome is that all of the DVDs that refused to play and generated the Disc Cannot Be Read error message worked perfectly fine in a generic $23 DVD player that we've had for longer than the slim PS2.  I had initially fixed the problem about 6 months ago or so by cleaning the lens with some cleaner fluid and a camera lens cleaning cloth.  That technique was not working this time, and since we can't exactly just go out and buy a new game system right now, I decided to do some research on the net and see what other people were experiencing, and whether they had found a way to fix the problem.

As it turns out the disc read error is very common on Sony Playstation systems, not just with the PS2 slim but with the original Playstation and even the new PS3, which is actually expensive enough of a game system to justify spending $100 for repairs after warranty (apparently this is what Sony charges to repair a PS2 system out of warranty according to someone's report on a forum that I scanned).

Sadly, the only fixes I found were in regard to the original PS2 system with an ejecting CD/DVD tray, which unlike the slim PS2 featured a control wheel that could be turned to adjust the height of the laser lens, and with trial and error get the discs that would not read to read.  Unfortunately, the slim PS2 does not feature any such control wheel for this kind of adjustment.  But I wasn't just going to give up.  So this is what I did.

I started this repair at about 2:30am - Brigitte initially thought I was being silly and should just go to bed, but I was raring to fix it right there and then, and I knew if I put it off any longer it would end up with a laundry list of projects that need doing that I'll eventually get to whenever I manage to shake off my procrastinator ways - which translates to never.  Anyway - Autumn and Willow were asleep, but Elish was not and to keep her satisfied I let her keep watching Madagascar 2 on the working DVD system while I borrowed the kid's TV set and set up a work and test area in the kitchen, which has the best lighting available in our house.  For tools I got myself a mini screwdriver set, a small phillips screwdriver, a can of compressed air safe for cleaning electronics, a small wide paint brush, some Q-tips and some rubbing alcohol, and a pair of plyers I didn't actually need.

1. Before actually going through the entire process of disassembly and cleaning, it is a good idea to give the system's self-diagnostics a try - apparently it almost never fixes the problem, but it could save you a few hours of work.  To access the diagnostics, turn on your PS2 while it is hooked up to a TV but without any discs inserted to access the main menu.  From there, press the Δ key on your game pad or remote to access the system menu, navigate up to the top choice "Console", and press the Δ key again.  From there, press the X key to reach the enable/disable menu under Diagnostics, and select Enable, followed by pressing the X key again.  Then insert the DVD or game disc you were having trouble with.  If it loads, great.  If not - you may have to follow the next set of steps.  Also bear in mind that I had success occasionally with this self-diagnostics utility, but the problem returned the next time I rebooted the PS2, so you may want to test it a few times before you accept that you have solved the problem.
2. To disassemble the Slim PS2 there are 6 screws along the bottom, covered by square shaped panels.  Two panels are actually just rubber feet that are not hiding anything.  Four of the panels are plastic and look as though they are just part of the outer shell but they are removable, and I used the largest mini flat screwdriver I had in my set to pry them off.  The other two rubber feet revealed the last two screws.  I also had to remove a VOID WARRANTY sticker to access one of the screws covered by a plastic square, but this system was easily more than two years past warranty anyway.  Don't forget to unplug your PS2 before you start disassembly.
3. The next step was cleaning - I used the canned air and small paint brush to remove excess dust and debris from the system, especially from the cooling fan area.  If you decide to follow these steps, avoid blowing compressed air on the laser lens.  I also used the rubbing alcohol and Q-tip to clean the lens.  According to a Sony repair guide I found, it is recommended to saturate one end of the Q-tip, but not enough that it causes alcohol to drip from the tip.  Rub the wet Q-tip around the lens roughly 30 times, then use the dry end of the Q-tip in the same manner to remove excess alcohol from the lens.
4. While the system is still disassembled, this is probably a good time to test whether your fixes have worked. Carefully plug it back in, and put in your disc that was causing you trouble.  After you push the button in the front to turn the system on (the LED should turn from dull red to bright green), you will need to press and hold two tiny black switches, one roughly toward the center of the back of the unit, and one directly above the power switch.  This simulates the lid being closed on this unit.  While holding down these two switches, the system should start spinning the disc, and you should be able to faintly make out the red laser light through the DVD.  Hopefully, if all goes well, your disc will load.  You may want to test a few different discs to make sure everything is working properly before you reassemble your system.  WARNING:  do not look directly into the laser light, it can cause blindness or irreparable vision damage.
5. For me, the above steps made things better, but I still could not load Journey to the Center of the Earth, and occasionally the other DVDs did not want to load, or would only load if I rebooted the PS2.  So I went a bit further in my research and found a large number of laser replacement related articles and videos on YouTube.  Being a computer repair tech, I remembered that a number of times I had successfully fixed a computer system without actually replacing parts, but simply by removing and reinstalling certain ones that had perhaps come a little loose or had particles of dust trapped between the contact leads.  I decided to follow the steps in this video to remove the laser lens assembly completely, and then reinstall it. 
6. Again, before reassembling the system I tested a few different discs and had some success.  I reattached the outer shell without screwing it back down again so that I could close the lid and have my hands free, and ran the Diagnostics utility again, and suddenly every disc worked perfectly.  However, I heard a weird noise emanating from the PS2 while the discs were playing, and noticed I had not properly attached the data cable beneath the laser assembly, and part of it was poking out behind the laser and lightly scratching the surface of the DVD in an arc.  Not good.  I took everything apart once more, carefully reattached the data cable so that it was stuck in place, and put everything back together.

The entire repair, including research and testing and retesting and retesting some more, took me roughly two hours.  I'm seriously reconsidering console repair.  After completely reassembling my slim PS2, everything works perfectly.  Awesome.

Our host will be glad to hear I'm using Firefox again (and not Chrome).  The reason for it is a frustrating story to tell, but here goes...

All I wanted was to install a distro of Linux on a flash drive (a SanDisk Cruzer Micro, 4GB).  I wanted Ubuntu Studio, which is specifically designed for multimedia editing and creation.  With the operating system on an external device, that would leave plenty of space on the hard drive for file storage -- and the idea of possibly being able to boot Linux from something about the size of a Chap-Stick, but more flat, to just about any computer, anywhere...

The live CD I burned couldn't locate my CD/ROM drive.  Okay, well, this system has a DVD/ROM instead.  Seems to me the program should be able to recognize the device it's playing on, but that's neither here nor there.  This just meant I had to try another distro, then customize it myself with whatever programs I might want.

A setback, but not all that frustrating.  Downloaded Xubuntu, burned another disc, proceeded to install.  Meant to stop it from messing with the bootloader, but was distracted -- and there it is, the major issue I'm dealing with right now.

ERROR 25

The 'zero' partition has been compromised, meaning Windows (XP Media Center Edition) won't boot.

The install/recovery disc that came with this machine proves to be useless in the face of this -- unless I can trust it to reinstall Windows without erasing all our files, which I'm not sure about.

By the way, this is a family computer, 5 users.  Sees a lot of use, barely ever being turned off, as we switch back and forth between our accounts.  No Windows means no one is going to want to mess with it but me...

But wait, you say, how are you even posting this?  Went ahead and installed Xubuntu on here, hoping it might help me resolve the problem.  It didn't, except that it allows me to be online without the aggravating slowness of a live CD -- and now, I'm posting to a site hosted by a brilliant IT professional, expecting to find the solution to my problem in a comment...

One of the things I did was to boot my MEPIS Linux live CD.  Unlike most Ubuntu releases, MEPIS allows direct access to Windows files...

I used to run MEPIS on our old system, in a triple boot with Ubuntu and Windows, and very much liked the ability to grab files from anywhere on the system, move them, modify them, whatever.  The Microsoft product happened to be a Win2000 Server demo (that would shut down after 2 hours), which a friend who was studying computer science at the time at WVU Parkersburg (a glorified community college) supplied us with, along with an extra hard drive, after our Win98 fatally crashed.  I gave him a blue Flag of Earth T, and beer, in exchange...

We basically just used Windows for gaming after that, setting the microwave timer to warn us when the 2 hours was almost up...  Confusion ensued if anyone wanted to use the microwave during those sessions...

Anyway I clearly recall preferring MEPIS over Ubuntu, all the while wishing the best of both could be combined.  That distro of Ubuntu was easier to use than that distro of MEPIS, so long as you didn't have any administrative tasks to perform.  I might have a soft spot for MEPIS just because it comes out of Morgantown, West Virginia, where I (briefly) attended WVU...

...But now I'm thinking the Linux distro I want on my flash drive is a MEPIS release that will allow access to all files on whatever system it's booted to.  One thing that frustrates me about using this Xubuntu is that it won't let me access my images and mp3s (or anything else) stored in Windows.  Argh.

Tonight I had to download and install an application just so I could have volume control, for whatever music and video I can access over the web.  While I understand that any downloadable distro has to be limited to 700MB  (CD size), it sucks to have to deal with not being able to turn up the volume, not being quite able to hear some of the things people are saying, while trying to watch a Project Camelot interview.  The process of adding a new application requires more steps in Linux, if only because of the limited space...  No, that's not it.  Linux is for the more hands-on, and part of the reason it hasn't caught on with the general public is that serious geeks like to keep it that way.

Don't get me wrong;  I'm willing to go the extra mile to get away from Windows (and like so many others, can't afford a MAC).  It's just, you know, I don't like having to memorize bits of code and/or going through a series of menus to get things done.  A Linux live CD should, yes, be able to show you what to expect before you install, but then be able to access a database and download a lot more than can fit on a CD, during installation.  Setting up your new OS shouldn't feel so much like homework.

...So anyway yeah, Firefox is the browser included in just about any Linux OS, so that's what I'm using.  Use Firefox in Windows these days, and it will hit you with annoying popups (some of them, inexplicably, opening in Internet Explorer).  Freedom from popups being part of the reason I switched (along with my distrust of IE), I was thoroughly disheartened...

Some have issues with the ubiquity of Google, and resist the browser known as Google Chrome.  It's a bit different, but once you get used to it (if you allow yourself to), you'll find it to be the slickest, most awesome browser ever, even with the glitches you'll find while exploring sites that don't fully support it yet (like this one).

Firefox is working fine here, within this Linux application.  Not a single unwanted pop-up.  GOOD Firefox, nice Firefox, let me see if I can find you a treat...  Still doesn't compare to Chrome.

Have reached the point  where Camels and beer can't keep me up any longer.  Please excuse any lack of coherence I may have displayed in this post.  Amazed I can type this well...