Puzzloop Bootleg - please read

[GeorgeSpinner]

I purchased a puzzloop Bootleg.

It worked when seller shipped it.

When I power it on the PCB boots to what appears to be a background slide show. The slide show contains some animated scenes.

There is no audio and the controls don't SEEM to do anything. It's hard to tell if they sometimes change the background. I have my doubts. Pressing service button locks up the PCB.

Trying to go into service menu with dip 1 results in the PCB not booting.

I've changed the battery. Pulled/reseated and cleaned the 4 Actels and 3 socketed chips.

Nothing has made a difference.

Here is a video of the performance:

View: https://youtu.be/KpyFjxpPCwE?si=cWHsyy-DRRm9Jjx4


I'm using a HAS supergun with SUZO HAPP power supply. I have tested between 4.6 and 5.12 volts. Performance is the same.

I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts or knows anyone that might be willing to take on the job of attempting to repair it

 

[opt2not]

This was my board I sold to GeorgeSpinner. As I always do before I ship out boards, I tested and played through this one. It was working 100% before it left my hands, so I'm thinking it might have got jarred or bumped in transit. My suggestion was to reseat all the socketed IC's.

I also shipped it well padded, with antistatic bubble wrap.

Other than that, maybe look for any physical damage? There wasn't anything else hard in that box to scratch or break any traces. So my bet is something was jarred loose, or perhaps shock to some solder joints.

@GeorgeSpinner have you tried pushing down on some of the bigger IC's when the game is running? Maybe a solder joint cracked on route...

 

[GeorgeSpinner]

I did try pressing on the ICs while it was running. I didn't see any change at all.

I also physically inspected the board with a magnifying glass and I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[GeorgeSpinner]

I loaded the game in mame and I understand what's going with the "slideshow".

They are the backgrounds that would be displayed if everything was working correctly. Coin insert is working and the game is technically starting but the foreground layer is missing. As well as the sound.

 

[GeorgeSpinner]

I did a little more testing.

There are 4 Actels on the board.

I tested with each of them removed (1 missing at a time).

3 of the 4 being missing resulted in the board not booting.

1 of them didn't impact the performance at all.

That leads me to believe that it's something related to that Actel.

 

[Hammy]

It's rare the actels actually go bad.
Check out the surface mount rams or the SH2 soldering.