Ok, I talked to a guy who is pretty sure it's the clock crystal. I ordered 2 of them. I'll get it replaced when they arrive and see what happens. Here is what he said.....
"No way, what an utter ruin. It takes a life time to find and then dies. I read your thread. I'd be 70% on it's the crystal clock, they're pretty prone to going. The only problem is the daughter board is mega secured. The GAL chip needs a signal from the crystal clock to operate.
I had wondered what might happen if the crystal did die, would the GAL chip suspect tampering and the GAL CMOS die along with crystal? Your only hope is to replace the crystal. It should be relatively easy to find - but I'd get a pro to replace it. It costs about $70 in the UK to have that done. It's worth a go since you paid a fair amount for it and it's practically irreplacable. Let me know what you do? Best of luck.
Jonathan.
"Hi, I know that there are no soldering eyes on the 3.1 Turbo PCB and it may be the same for the Turbo Ninja board. It would be very very difficult to de-solder the crystal out of the board by hand (with no sodlering eyes to the pins) without damaging it - I really would employ a professional PCB repair operator to carry out the repair. Trust me, I've been taking components out of boards for a while now and you definately damage a few when you first start out even when they have soldering eyes. It's your risk but I would seriously consider doing so before taking any de-soldering iron to it.
The logic probe won't tell you if the crystal is gone and you need to be careful when prodding around with it. You may damage something else while testing for a faulty crystal. I honestly don't think the probe will reveal very much to you, I know because I own one and a range of other testing equipment. You really need an oscilloscope to test the crystal - the crystal can be dead or operating out of the correct frequency.
If you turn your Turbo board upside down (solder side) with the crystal to the left hand side you should see a PCB track running from the crystal to the GAL chip. The 5V and Ground connection tracks are to the parts side. On the Turbo board it's the bottom left pin of the crystal going to pin 3 of the GAL chip. Ideally you would put an oscilloscope probe to pin 3 of the GAL and check for a frequency of about 9.8304 MHz. There's very little else I can see that could go wrong with board. I'm assuming there's no damage to it. If it's the ROMs (the company will have performed a logic test on them, but it's no absolute guarantee) you are out of luck and if it's the GAL, again you're out of luck. It's easy for me to say now, but I would have backed up the ROM chips straight away (but I have the equipment to do it).
http://mkkombo.e-monsite.com/rubrique,les-autres-versions,231094.html
The French guy runs this web site. The Turbo and Nifty boards (at least what I think it is a Nifty board) are both mine. I thought he had the PCB plan on the web site, but I can't see it now. I made an AutoCAD drawing of the Turbo PCB (parts and solder side) if you need it. I'm waiting for a nifty board to turn up so I can see what it looks like and if that's what I've got. I know the board operates but there is no data on the large chip. I can't send attachments on YouTube so provide me with a direct email if you need the PCB plan.
Seriously, welcome to arcade preservation, although judging by the number of cabinets you own you're already there. You don't own an oscilloscope, so get a professional repair company to test and to take out the crystal, I have learned many things through experience (tragically) and wouldn't attempt to de-solder this particular board myself.
Any other info or updates let me know, I'm gutted for you - I certainly would be and on behalf of the preservation community.
Regards
Jonathan
"I wouldn't go near the GAL chip, it's not worth it. The CMOS information in the chip can be secured by the programmer once the information is burned to the chip. The chip has an internal security fuse which is blown at the request of the programmer. This protects any data contained within the chip from copying.
A while ago I spoke to a PCB repair specialist (20 years of) who explained that the data could not be retrieved from the chip. He owned a very rare mother board, in his early years of electronics ownership, and without prior knowledge attempted to back up the information contained on GAL chips within the board. Only to find that the data was now erased from the chips when the guy tried to read them in the EPROM programmer. He still hasn't forgot after 20 years.
Our GAL chips have a link to a crystal clock too, which is believed to be an additional security measure on the board to prevent copying, possibly even emulating (it really is watertight). Ever wondered why it isn't in MAME?
Which brings me back to my original thoughts on what would happen if the crystal failed. Who knows what would happen to the GAL if the clock frequency it's expecting failed. It's worth replacing, what I think, is a faulty crystal and finding out. Specialist PCB repair operator - I'll keep saying it.
Regards
Jonathan"
I can only hope that it IS the crystal, because if it's not, then I am screwed. I'll keep you all informed.
I've got a buddy with a turbo ninja add-on and I have several t-unit boards so I can compare the two and see what's up...