My AES is dead! :(

My AES stopped working a few weeks ago for no apparent reason I'd only had it a few weeks and it had been working fine. Now when I switch it on it's just totally dead! I know it's not the power supply because I have another AES which still works fine and I've checked all the cables are plugged in properly, etc. I've opened it up and had a look at the pcb but there is no obvious sign of damage. It's an early serial number machine (3044). Any ideas on what the problem might be?

Does it have an LED?

Is it possible that the system is working and the AV cable is not working?

I posted some things to check for power problems in this thread:

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106159

Read through there and see if that helps. If not, try and give us some more info on what you've tried so that we can help you along...

Jeff

norton - it doesn't have an LED but I know it's not the AV cable that is the problem because I've used all the same cables with my other AES and it works fine.

Jeff - thanks for the thread. I've checked all the connections and I've tried all the cables with my other AES so I know there's no problem with them. I haven't tried any of the internal stuff because I wouldn't know where to start. Any other info you need to know?

1. Power amp (transistor) not shot -- usually from an overload (surge)
2. Diode in power circuit not shot
3. Misc caps/resistors/transistors in power circuit not shot
4. Actual power switch not busted

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If someone can show me photos of these I can probably get the electrician at work to check them out for me.

Actually I was thinking of doing the power LED mod myself as it seems pretty straight forward, even for a soldering novice like myself! Is it worth doing to see if I have any power to my neo?

Cheers for the advice guys

Adamaki said:

Actually I was thinking of doing the power LED mod myself as it seems pretty straight forward, even for a soldering novice like myself! Is it worth doing to see if I have any power to my neo?

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It would be much easier and quicker for either you or your electrician to simply check with a multimeter if any of the integrated circuits is getting power...

It would be much easier and quicker for either you or your electrician to simply check with a multimeter if any of the integrated circuits is getting power...

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Hey that's a great idea MKL! I told you I was an electrical novice

Right, off to Maplins...

Ok I just got back from Maplins with my new multimeter. Can someone tell me what I need to test to see where the problem is?

Jeff, you suggested a few things in your previous post: power amp; diode, resistors and transistors in power circuit. I don't even know where the power circuit is! Can someone please help me out? Photos would be very handy! I have an NEO-AES board by the way.

Cheers

Set the multimeter to the DC value immediately higher than 5v (say 10v or 20v) and with the Neo turned on put the red and black prongs (?) on the pins of the IC as shown in the pics below (but of course you have to touch the pins at the same time). If you read about 5.00 it means that the Neo is getting power.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/nassivera/test1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/nassivera/test2.jpg

Thanks MKL. I've tried that and I have power. I also identified some of the other components from the mod guides and checked those for power too. So the CXA1145 video encoder chip, the two LS273 logic chips and the bios chip has power, but the composite pick up point doesn't have any power.

So I guess there is some component on the board that is burnt out. Any ideas on how I identify where the problem is?

Adamaki said:

the composite pick up point doesn't have any power.

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???

???

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Um that resistor that you're meant to attach the composite wire to when you're doing the composite video mod that's in the guide in the neo store. Just thought I'd test it seeing as it's identified in the guide as carrying the composite video signal. I'm using scart rgb though so I guess it's not so important.

So what do you suggest next?