Recent content by Chris M

Relay on the solenoid driver is starting to fail, OR, you have cracked solder joints to the connector pins on the solenoid driver board. Pull your board and check them/reflow if necessary. Good luck. Chris

Tanner IS the DFW metroplex Holy Grail for all things related to electronics parts and tools/supplies. Other than that, BGMicro in Garland is another excellent resource. We are spoiled here. Fry's sucks unless you want to pick up solder, heatshrink, flux remover, or solder wick. Their parts...

Yes. I have a Pharaoh in my shop that needs reassembled - I have NEVER played one, so it promises to be a new experience. I also bought both a Fathom and Centaur sometime back, had never played them before. Chris

Should be a straight drop-in, THOUGH you will need to check the jumper to the right of the 74ls139 chip above the roms to be sure it is in the correct position (check documentation). Then, as long as flipper and game ROMS are in proper slots (ROMS 14, 17, 20, or left to right, flipper 1...

Points taken, let's all move along, we ARE just guessing! Just hope these ideas help the guy out. Chris

Bullshitting? Have worked on hundreds of these games. Besides, the power supply does NOT provide 5V to the logic, it provides 12V, which is stepped down to 5V through the solenoid driver board. The only 5V that the power supply provides is 5.4VDC to the controlled lamps. A "random spiking or...

Dropping 5VDC would pretty much render the MPU board activity dead, not send it off into test mode!! Not sure where you derive that conclusion. The power supply has nothing whatsoever to do with his issue, though rebuilding it is a reasonable recommendation for long term reliability. Chris

First, swap U10 and U11 PIA's, and see if anything improves, OR, if you eliminate the original issue and create a new one that shows up elsewhere. That would be the first step. Report back please! Chris

Just sold one at the Texas Pinball Festival with a condition 8 PF, condition 6.5 cabinet, decent plastics, fully shopped and working, with repro backglass (John Greatwich in Canada did a handful of these a few years back) for $800. Fun game, classic Stern goodness, nothing I wanted to keep; I...

With the basics covered (caps, especially), check: 1) The resistance on the speech and sound volume pots. The pots DO go bad. 2) In your game self test mode, make sure that setting #16 is set to "03" - which is full sound option (voice with background). Connector problems rarely if ever at all...

The pond "has been fished hard". I can remember auctions back in '98 where you would have Medieval Madness, Theatre of Magic, Circus Voltaire, Corvettes, Creatures, Eight Ball Deluxes, Fathoms....... The warehouses have been slowly emptied, the remaining ops out there know what they have now...

Got to visit during setup - floor looks great, lots of excellent titles, interesting things (reverse wedgeheads, new Stern titles, classic Stern titles, WPC, EM's - a great mix) - some still setting up as of an hour ago. My Seawitch never made it to the floor - it got bought right out of the...

TRUTH - alot like antique cars - the guys driving around and/or collecting the really old stuff (Model T's) are usually much older themselves. I suspect that a great deal of what WE collectively are interested in now will unfortunately go by the wayside with future generations; the only folks...

Got a pic? Need to see it.....or lead me to a site where I can look at it. Chris

Frax: The Seawitch will be in the "The Pinsmith" booth at the show, he is a friend of mine who has an exhibitor booth. Hope to see you there. Chris