X-Men 4 Player Cabinet - Sound Problems - Help?

EDIT: Problem has been solved thanks to the input of arcademan! The issue he described was exactly what was wrong with the machine. Fires right up, works like a charm now that I cut the power to the ballast. YES!

I have a 4 Player Konami X-Men cabinet that I've had for a couple of years now. Recently, the cabinet has started giving me a lot of feedback through the speakers when the game starts (the feedback is over the game volume, which is still existant). Occasionally, the feedback will become increasingly worse and at it's peek it will freeze my unit or reset the game. Has anyone heard of this problem?


I can't seem to figure out what's wrong with it, though I honestly don't know much about the cabinets to begin with. I keep the inside dusted and all that, but beyond that I know just about nothing when it comes to maintenance.



Any feedback would be appreciated. This is the first place I thought to go since this is the only place a frequent with any real Arcade cab knowledge.


(Moved from Arcade Central because I somehow overlooked this forum first)

(Posted this in your other thread but you may not have seen it; forgive the repetition)

I actually have 2 Konami 4 player cabs: one is a dedicated x-men and the other was converted to an x-men before I bought it (originally a tmnt). Depending on whether you have a dedicated or a conversion will make a difference for the sound because the dedicated cab is stereo and many of their others are mono. Unless it has been changed the dedicated x-men is only wired for stereo sound through the four pin harness and isn't wired for sound through the jamma harness.

Have you tested the board in another cab to see if the problem is most definitely coming from the cab and not a pcb problem? Is the problem the same with other pcbs in the cab?

Does this game have big rectangular black hybrid chips next to the audio amplifiers? If so, check them for corrosion damage. They have caps on them that end up leaking. That electrolyte leakage will eat up those hybrid chips.

The only source for replacements are pulls from another board.

astrodan88 said:

(Posted this in your other thread but you may not have seen it; forgive the repetition)

I actually have 2 Konami 4 player cabs: one is a dedicated x-men and the other was converted to an x-men before I bought it (originally a tmnt). Depending on whether you have a dedicated or a conversion will make a difference for the sound because the dedicated cab is stereo and many of their others are mono. Unless it has been changed the dedicated x-men is only wired for stereo sound through the four pin harness and isn't wired for sound through the jamma harness.

Have you tested the board in another cab to see if the problem is most definitely coming from the cab and not a pcb problem? Is the problem the same with other pcbs in the cab?

Click to expand...

I have not tested this in another Cab, though my friend has a TMNT cab I could see about testing this in.


This is a dedicated 4-player cabinet, not a conversion. I really don't know a lot about these, so this is very hard to me to figure out what is wrong with it.


Channelmaniac: I will do that tomorrow after work if I have a few and let you know.


Last night I was testing out a theory someone gave me, about it being too close to my PC and the wireless adapter I use. Basically, I dragged the cabinet to another room and hooked it up there, away from the computer. I actually had no feedback for the entire first stage, then in the second stage, the bulb behind the marquee blew (and I literally just replaced it) and the feedback came back, and the screen was not steady, lightly flickering with the feedback. This makes me think maybe this is some sort of power issue?

Either way, I will check what you said channelmaniac tomorrow, and I will ask around to see about trying the board in another cab if a buddy will let me so I can try to pinpoint this problem.


The local repair guy wants $90 an hour to fix this, so if I can figure out what it is prior and say "I think that's the problem, please check that" maybe it wont cost me as much.



EDIT: Btw, I really really appreciate everyone's input. Sorry I'm such an arcade cab noob!

astrodan88 said:

(Posted this in your other thread but you may not have seen it; forgive the repetition)

I actually have 2 Konami 4 player cabs: one is a dedicated x-men and the other was converted to an x-men before I bought it (originally a tmnt). Depending on whether you have a dedicated or a conversion will make a difference for the sound because the dedicated cab is stereo and many of their others are mono. Unless it has been changed the dedicated x-men is only wired for stereo sound through the four pin harness and isn't wired for sound through the jamma harness.

Have you tested the board in another cab to see if the problem is most definitely coming from the cab and not a pcb problem? Is the problem the same with other pcbs in the cab?

Click to expand...

I am curious, why did you convert your TMNT to X-Men if you already had one?

Kind of a long shot but awhile back, I had similar issue with a game that was traced back to the game's light system. The ballast was going bad and causing interference with the picture and sound.

Neo Alec said:

I am curious, why did you convert your TMNT to X-Men if you already had one?

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The saga of my X-men cabs is an epic one, best told in song. Come. Sit. I shall regale you with tales of cab hunting.

Wait, actually, it's a pretty short story. I probably wasn't fully clear in my first post but the x-men conversion was a conversion when I bought it. It was at auction so I don't know its history but the serial plate says it came into this world a TMNT. That is the only evidence though. I later had a chance to buy a dedicated x-men at auction (it was even cheaper; I couldn't say no!). So now I have both, a dedicated and a conversion.
I've actually turned the conversion into an all-purpose multi-player beat-em-up cab though, (right now it's sporting Vendetta marquee and CP). I've wired interchangable 3p and 4p harnesses for Konami (naturally), CPS2, CPS1, SEGA system 32, and Battletoads. Yes, I likes me some multi-player beat-em-ups.

astrodan88 said:

I've actually turned the conversion into an all-purpose multi-player beat-em-up cab though, (right now it's sporting Vendetta marquee and CP). I've wired interchangable 3p and 4p harnesses for Konami (naturally), CPS2, CPS1, SEGA system 32, and Battletoads. Yes, I likes me some multi-player beat-em-ups.

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Sweet. If I owned any cabs, I would buy a 4-player one for all the boards I have.

Arcademan said:

Kind of a long shot but awhile back, I had similar issue with a game that was traced back to the game's light system. The ballast was going bad and causing interference with the picture and sound.

Click to expand...

Considering the ballast blew out a brand new bulb within minutes of use after the install, this could very well be the issue.


I didn't forget to check the other things mentioned above, I've just been really short on time and not home much this week. Lots of work. I have a day off coming up, and will pull the cabinet away from the wall to try and see what's going on and if I see any of the issues mentioned above, I'll be sure to take pictures so some of you more arcade-educated folks can see.

Arcademan said:

Kind of a long shot but awhile back, I had similar issue with a game that was traced back to the game's light system. The ballast was going bad and causing interference with the picture and sound.

Click to expand...

Wow, you were absolutely, spot-on correct. I cut the power to the ballast and it worked. Turns out there was a MAJOR short in the balance, that was giving me the feedback and messing with my machine in other various areas.


Thank you very, very much for your feedback. And thanks to everyone else who tried helping, I really appreciate it. I'm so happy this thing is working again I'm practically moved to tears. I'm going to stay up sooooo late tonight

Forgotten_Freshness said:

I'm so happy this thing is working again I'm practically moved to tears. I'm going to stay up sooooo late tonight

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Glad to hear. Now invite 3 friends over and rock out!


God I love Konami 4 player cabs.

I'm inviting people over tonight actually. Just in time for some new year's Magneto bashing!