Intermittent System 11 General Illumination

vipe155

Active member
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
Messages
550
Reaction score
41
Location
Florida
I have a System 11 game that was working 100% until a few nights ago. To give a full background, when I picked up this machine it had a hacked and messed up interconnect board. I sent the interconnect to a repair shop (Coin-Op Cauldron), and they fixed the screwed up traces and header pin hacks. The playfield GI didn't work before this, and when I got the fixed interconnect back the lights worked perfectly.

Well, a few nights ago I started having an issue; an issue where the playfield GI sometimes works fine, sometimes it comes on when you power the game, but then goes out after a short time, or doesn't come on at all. I have checked the connectors, the power connectors, etc. The odd thing is that a bank of playfield GI lights located at the top of the pf work 100%. These lights are part of the same connector (J9) the non-working rest are, and will shut off if I unplug the J9 lower playfield GI connector.

Could I have worked something loose when doing other things around the playfield? I don't get why a few of the playfield GI lights would work 100% but not all of them.

Also, is it normal for a game like this to have a low hum when it's turned on? Not loud, but a steady low volume hum? The game does have a proper 3 plug cord, and seems to be grounded properly.
 
the hum could just be coming from the speaker, not an uncommon thing to hear if there is a lot of electrical noise in the area. Does adjusting the volume change it?

I'm assuming you have a later System 11 with the GI on the interconnect board? If it's not burned connectors somewhere, it may be the under-field relay. Try swapping the playfield and backbox relays, see if the problem moves.

-Hans
 
Yeah, it does have the GI on the interconnect board. There is a J6 connector with power to the GI, then a J9 GI Lower Playfield connector. Those connectors, and their headers on the board are brand new. No burning or anything.

The relay thing is something new to me. I haven't dealt with those before, so I guess I'll have to figure out where that is.
 
Last edited:
There are two GI relays on there. One for the backbox, that's on the back of the score panel. The other one is somewhere under the playfield, which controls the playfield.

-Hans
 
Well, I swapped the relays back and forth, and no change.

So, it's not the relays, and I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be a connection issue at the interconnect board. I mean, if some of the playfield GI is working and getting power, plus the backbox GI is getting power, I don't see how it could be a connector issue.
 
They are pretty simple circuits, just a matter of tracing the voltage and the wiring from the power source until you find where the break in the circuit is.

-Hans
 
Well after checking the connector again, looking under the playfield, etc. I thought about trying something simple (plus, I had no other ideas). So I replaced the fuse for this part of the GI. Now it works.

Sign of some other problem that needs to be addressed?
 
Could have been a barely failing fuse. Could have been a bad fuse clip.

If it keeps blowing, switch in a bunch of #47 bulbs in place of the #44's, to reduce the power draw. Williams always pushed the GI circuits to the verge of death with too many lights.

-Hans
 
Back
Top Bottom