Repairing Sparklies

[Grotto King]

Hello, My Donkey Kong cab is my first classic cab, so it's the one on which I'm cutting my repair teeth, and I need some help. I have a problem with "sparklies", which I understand are possibly related to 2 bad ECL translators: An MC10124 at 4H, and an MC10125 at 4F (per a post at https://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/repairs/dkjr.html). I've tried searching the forum and using Google for quite some time, but I can't seem to find answers, so I'm listing them here. Thanks for any assistance in advance.

Here is a link to a GIF and a couple images showing the issue: https://imgur.com/a/mGkH6Jr

* I believe I have a 4-board set, as there are literally four board attached to a metal plate and mounted vertically - two on one side of the plate, and two on the other. Can you please confirm that this is, indeed, a 4-board set? The boards are labeled as TKG3.
* On which board should I expect to find the MC10124 at 4H, and the MC10125 at 4F? After some reading it sounds like there's an audio board, and a video board. So I assume the video board, but thought I'd confirm.
* I opened the cabinet this morning to find the location of these two chips, but couldn't locate them on the board that's immediately accessible. I used a flash light since the room was dimly lit. After closing the cabinet and powering on I found the sparklies to be considerably worse. I haven't had the game on in about a week, so perhaps something happened since then - for instance today is the first considerably cold day since Fall began, so perhaps temperature or drier air could be at play, however I once read that direct light on the chips with the small round glass windows is not ideal. Is it possible I caused a larger problem exposing those chips to a large amount of light? If so, are those the chips I should replace, before I go about desoldering/soldering the ECLs?

If you think of anything else that may cause these sparklies, then please feel free to make suggestions. Since my efforts this morning the cabinet is practically unusable, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your help.

[YesAffinity]

Yes TKG3 are 4-board sets.

Don't worry about small amounts of light hitting the chips.  Erasing them is done with UV light.  You would need to leave them in the sun for weeks or longer to even start the erasing process through natural means.  Something like a UV eraser is used to erase them, which is concentrated high intensity UV.  I offer this as context, as shining your flashlight on the board will have zero effect on the eproms' data content.

That link you referenced is for DK junior repair.  See this site for what happens at the removal of each individual video ram/rom: http://www.brasington.org/arcade/tech/dk/

I don't see anything exactly matching your issue, and also note from that page "Note: The chip numbers shown here are for the 2 board style DK. Note: The exact 4-board chip locations within the groups have NOT been confirmed. "  So, it may not even be helpful if you can pinpoint it on that page.

I suggest registering and posting on KLOV forums.  Folks around here are players mostly, with a handful of us that equally enjoy spending time inside the cab.

[Grotto King]

Thanks so much for the detailed response. Yeah, I saw the post was on a DKjr forum, however I had hopes since the post entitled "Problem: Sparklies or Graphic glitches" noted the issue was on a DK board, and that it was common on both DK and DKjr boards. I didn't see that it said it was a 2-board set, but that would definitely send me back to the drawing board. And thanks for the assurance I didn't fry those chips. I wondered how anyone worked on them if they couldn't use a flashlight. 

I'll check over at KLOV. I really do appreciate you taking the time to post.

[Grotto King]

Following up for anyone who may find this in the future, I took the advice of ThunderBunny from KLOV (original owner of my cabinet) who recommended simply confirming all connections are solid. This came from my conversation with him where I suggested that a small drop on the floor of about a inch or less when moving the cabinet may have caused the issue. I removed the ribbons from the four boards, on both sides, blew air into them to remove any particulate, then sprayed a small amount of Deoxit. I did this for a couple other cables that I found connected to the monitor. I securely reconnected cables then powered on, and it all came up like brand new.

TL;DR: I suspect a slight drop when moving the cabinet caused some cables to shake loose. I just disconnected them, cleaned them up, and replugged. And I'm an idiot for not trying that first.

[yman]

Congrats on getting your cabinet working correctly and I like how your GIF makes it look like Jumpman is riding a conveyor belt while on a barrel board.

https://imgur.com/a/mGkH6Jr