Blade or BB3 with no sound output. Fix pics.

[Melissarmdlm]

Recently I’ve been working on a batch of Blades, four of which had no sound out of the logic. Special thanks to Bryon M for showing me this repair five years ago. 

[Melissarmdlm]

I should add that even when the RCA jack is soldered onto the board solidly. The connection to that inductor is in an inside layer which seem to come loose quite easily.

[rickhunter]

Good info!  A good continuity check would verify the need for the repair.

[Melissarmdlm]

Good info!  A good continuity check would verify the need for the repair.

If looking for continuity, there should be about .6 ohms from the core of the RCA plug to the shield. And of course near zero from the points indicated in the pics across the bodge wires. If there is variability or open between the core and shield when the plug gets moved around it's broken.   Typically in game that shows up as speaker pops.
That's valuable if one doesn't have a known good NXT 3.2 logic to measure. Nothing the audio output signal is grounded either.

[Yoeddy1]

And I need to ask/confirm a really dumb question here, but ALL NXT 3.2 CPUs should have sound if there is an RCA cable plugged into that jack, correct?  I’ve been told that some of these will only work with the phono jack?  Is that BS? 

Thanks,
Jason

[rickhunter]

If the MPU is working 100% it will work with either analog or digital.  Blades are not really wired for the analog sound.  BB2's are mostly wired for analog, although I have seen some cabinets without the analog harness.

[Melissarmdlm]

And I need to ask/confirm a really dumb question here, but ALL NXT 3.2 CPUs should have sound if there is an RCA cable plugged into that jack, correct?  I%u2019ve been told that some of these will only work with the phono jack?  Is that BS? 

Thanks,
Jason

Yes, all Blades and S23s use a digital sound only SPDIF signal. Conversion machines may still employ an analog signal(The blade amplifier doesn't even have an analog input). All Blade and S23 games put out digital audio, and the logic should too. If they don't it's broken, and that what this fix is for. Its quite a common failure on early Blades, later revisions added a steel stabilizer ring on the logic housing body so the cable doesn't get yanked as easily, causing a straight up breakage inside the board. Vibration over time will also cause failure, one could call this a "flexgate" situation, since I'm convinced there is a high failure rate, just from environmental vibration.

[Yoeddy1]

Thanks!  I’ll check it out!

Jason

[Melissarmdlm]

This machine had no conductivity between the shell and the leg. I bridge the problem with some solder. And showing the meter after repair with .6 ohms showing.

[Yoeddy1]

I just finished fixing my spare MPU using Melissa’s fix with the jumper wires.  Sound is back and working great!

Thanks for posting this, Melissa!

Jason

[Yoeddy1]

Just fixed another MPU’s sound today using this method! 

Jason