X68000 XVI problems

[gatsu25]

I was playing Code Zero last night and I believe I made it to the final level. Anyway, I expected it to load maybe a level or cutscene, but it just stayed there. No error, both lights green on my Disk Dives. After a while, I figured there was a problem, so I attempted to eject the disks. They came out, but when I pushed them back in, they didn't click inside the drive.

I turned the system off, attempted to put in another game, and the same thing, the disks wouldn't click in the drive. I have now tried the system again this morning, and it seems like the soft power switch is doing nothing. My main power turns on as there is an indicator light, but when I turn on the soft power, there is nothing on screen, disks or no disks. The disks wont load in properly. I can put them in there, but there is no clicky feeling like it is accepting them properly.

Is this a problem with my PSU? Can somebody give me any idea what I can do? I'm a bit surprised and depressed about the whole ordeal...

[CkRtech]

Hey, gatsu25. Sorry to hear you are experiencing this. From what little I know about he X68000 XVI units and their flavors, the power supplies are a big issue. I have no idea how long Code Zero is, but when you said "final level" I figured you had the system on for awhile for some serious gaming. My guess is that your power supply checked out and went on permanent vacation.

Although there are numerous specific things to check depending on the situation, I would bet that your power supply needs to be refurbished (new caps and more) or needs to be swapped out for an ATX with the appropriate adapters.

Take a look at this page here - http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id= ... ost_broken

All X68000 power supplies fail because of the capacitors. Here are a few common symptoms and solutions:

Main power is connected, front LED is glowing red but the system does not react to front soft-power switch. Check if ZD31 or anything around it is burnt. Replace ZD31 and all electrolytic capacitors. There are some cases when Q32 also needs to be replaced. In some rare cases PC31, PC51, PC52 also need to be replaced.

"System does not react to front soft-power switch." - This sounds a lot like your situation.

It is a tough read to see that in addition to caps you are looking at possibly replacing several other components -

We must replace not only caps but zener-diodes, photo couplers, some transistors, resistors, and so on. Ideally, all pars to be replaced but some parts was discontinued.

It looks like there are some good resources for performing repairs, etc. Even if you only had one component go out or cause this problem, I personally feel like refurbing or replacing (ATX) that power supply is a good idea.

There are some other troubleshooting items under the master X68000 page on gamesx here - http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id= ... ing_repair

Good luck!

[gatsu25]

Thank you for the tips, it's a big help. I bought the system a few years ago, and it was listed as the power supply being refreshed on yahoo auctions. I wonder if that was already replaced. I don't have time to get into the machine just yet, but I will check it out when I can.

It was the second time I had turned on the machine that day, and probably a bit under an hour each time.

If anyone else around has had this problem, let me know how you fixed it.

It's always caps with these old machines...

[SuperDeadite]

Sounds like a failing PSU to me. Some Yahoo sellers are quite skilled at PSU repairs, while others do it quick and dirty.

[Ed Oscuro]

When I tried turning on my XVI tower, the indicator light turned on briefly, then nothing. I've been needing to get it recapped for some years now

Your PSU could still be failing, perhaps the rails that give power to the indicator light and some other stuff are working enough to light the LED. Usually I expect capacitor failures to be a bit more like mine, where it tries to work for a moment, and then stops dead.

There are some other components in the X68000 line that are known to fail occasionally, but it shouldn't hurt to start with having the power supply checked.

[gatsu25]

That's what confused me. It seems like if the PSU was dead, the hard power switch wouldn't turn that indicator light on. But it comes on just fine. The first thing I noticed was that my disks didn't click in the floppy drive like before. I also noticed the faintest flickering on my monitor, almost a very very dim red flicker on and off for a while, but it doesn't seem like it's doing that anymore...

Does anyone have much experience and live in Japan? I wouldn't mind just paying someone who knows more than me to fix it. It worries me a bit to mess with it too much.

[SuperDeadite]

When PSUs start to go, all kinds of weird things can happen. On my old PSU, everything worked fine, except the keyboard. The keyboard LEDs would randomly turn on or off. Sometimes keypresses would work, other times it was totally dead, though the rest of the system worked fine. So I swapped in my spare PSU, and the weird keyboard issues all disappeared and never came back, and I've been fine since. I am in Japan, but I don't have the time for such a project. I put the old PSU in an old unit I didn't need, and about a week later it was totally dead.

He's not as active as he used to be, but parity_dot on yahoo has been doing quality repairs for a very long time. He's not the cheapest, but you will get your money's worth from him.

[gatsu25]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll see if I can send him a message within the next day or two. I searched him and found him on Yahoo Auctions. I assume that's the best way to get a hold of him?

[gatsu25]

My XVI is back in business!!

I want to thank you SuperDeadite for the recommendation. He was extremely thorough and did an awesome job. Very quick to reply and to work too.　　So happy to have my system back, it felt empty around here without it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Cool, I should send mine along too. Thanks for the update!