Firepower blowing F2 solenoid fuse on power up

SaminVA

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This is my friends Firepower but it been in my game room for the last 15 years. It has been working great for years without a problem but last year it developed a sound problem, sound would come and go. Not to long ago it blew the solenoid fuse so I finally got around to open it up and replaced the fuse. It also had a dirty switch in the ball hold lane. I cleaned all switches and the game fired up and played, even the sound was working but soon the sound crapped out again so it was time to figure it out. I took the sound board off and the pins for the AC voltage input had bad solder joints so I de soldered and re soldered the pins and put the sound board back in and turned the game on and the 2 fuses on the sound board lit up like a Christmas tree bulb. I pulled the sound board back out and checked the rectifier and 2 of the 4 internal diodes were shorted so I replaced it and wile I was at it I also replaced the 5 volt regulator. Put the sound board back in and Firepower fired up and was 100% working again. I played about 12 games in a row with no problem and I left it in attract mode wile I worked on other stuff in the game room. It had been on for about 2 hours every so often it would say Firepower or make some noise, sound effects, normal stuff then I heard a solenoid fire and started making sound effects. The game had kicked a ball in the shooter lane but it looked like it was still in attract mode, still flashing the hi score like normal. The flippers were energized and work but all the solenoid were dead and no targets score. I checked and the solenoid fuse F 2 had blown. Now Firepower blows the F 2 solenoid fuse on power up and kicks a ball in the shooter lane. The game appears to be in attract mode but the flippers are energized and work. I put a 2.5 amp circuit breaker in place of F 2 and if you reset it wile the game is on it kicks another ball into the shooter lane and at the same time it also fires the return lane kicker and all 3 out hole kickers. I am not sure where to start next, maybe its a bad interconnect between the MPU and solenoid board? I figured I would ask and see if this is a common problem. Here's a short video showing the problem.
Thanks.
 
This is my friends Firepower but it been in my game room for the last 15 years.
15 Years! wow! ... time to change the batteries! (seriously... before they leak!)

maybe its a bad interconnect between the MPU and solenoid board? I figured I would ask and see if this is a common problem. Here's a short video showing the problem.
Thanks.

The interconnect is a very common source of trouble in the WMS system 6/7 games. Ed at greatplainselectronics.com sells the connectors. Replace both sides. The old pinrepair.com site has removed all the repair info, but pinwiki.com is coming up to speed... check out http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_3_-_7

cheers
/Tim
 
I would start with the interconnect but the best thing to do is pull the MPU and driver board and go through them from end to end on a bench. Could also be a problem with a PIA, 7408 IC, ROM, RAM, etc...

The interconnect is the most likely, like Tim mentioned.
 
Here's an update
Firepower is working again. :)To get right to the problem it turned out to be a bad PIA 6821 at IC5 on the driver board which controls the solenoids. I de soldered the chip and installed a new machine socket and a new 6821 and it works 100% again.
Before I replaced the chip I had removed the driver board and MPU and re seated all the IC chips and re flowed the solder on a few of the interconnect pins and gave them a good cleaning all to no avail as I still had the same problem. I also cleaned the battery connectors and put a fresh set of batteries in it.The MPU was giving me 2 flashes on boot up and all the solenoids controlled by the PIA were stuck on which was blowing the fuse so it seemed that was the problem which it was.
I still might order a new set of interconnect pins and sockets and a remote battery holder so I will have them the next time I have a problem.
Thanks for all the help.
 
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