More Baby Pac-Man issues... :(

PacManPlus

Active member
Joined
Jan 26, 2016
Messages
159
Reaction score
60
Location
Florida
Hey all...

Hope all is well...

Any of you gurus that have had experience fixing Baby Pac-Man machines, this one just started having problems out of the blue. A few months ago, it worked fine. I turned it on last week and the below happens. :mad:
I hope someone has some insight...
Thanks guys...
 
Baby Pacs can be tricky since they're a hybrid. First step is to figure out if the fault's on the Bally pinball side or the video/MPU side. Check the power supply voltages and connectors first, those are common failure points. Once you know which side isn't booting, it's easier to narrow down.
 
It seems like every time I turn it on something else is wrong now. I'm debating just selling it as not-working.

Thanks, all...
 
Have you done the updates to the driver board? There are a few jumpers that should be added to the back of the board. It is hard to tell from the video but how many flashes on each board?

I recently got a Baby Pacman and got it running really well. It had all sorts of issues.

I would disconnect the wired going to the solenoids. You may have a stick switch of switch issue.

Don't freak out. It can all be fixed and it can become a solid player again.
 
Can you post good pictures of your MPU and Video board?

I had weird switch issues. Had a switch for a saucer gapped to close. Also had coin door switches disconnected and had my start switches wired wrong when I got it.
 
I have a spare clean perfect original driver board with the updates. But you don't need to buy another board. The originals are great. May just need a refresh and the updates done.
 
I can't tell what MPU you bought. Normal Bally MPU boards are different. Baby Pacman and games like Grand Slam used the -133 which had a mod to swap out a resistor with a diode. A very important detail. If the replacement board doesn't have a configuration for the -133 then that will cause issues. You can convert a Bally -35 to a -133 if needed.
 
Thank you for the replies all... I put it down for a bit because I was getting frustrated. I will try the suggestions mentioned above in a bit and report back.
Thank you!
 
It seems like every time I turn it on something else is wrong now. I'm debating just selling it as not-working.

Thanks, all...

Is this breaking the first rule of not asking if someone wants to sell a game….Im a passionate pinball owner I have 15 of em and Baby PAC would be an awesome game for me. If the debate gets too one sided in favour getting rid of it I'd be happy to send some money your way…And heck would love to come and pick it up! Where are you located in Florida?…we just sold our House in North port, but love coming south in the winter…Road trip would be a blast!!

Sorry if I'm breaking any rules….just showing interest is all.
 
Watch FB marketplace for Baby Pacman. There have been several that have showed up this year.
 
Is this breaking the first rule of not asking if someone wants to sell a game….Im a passionate pinball owner I have 15 of em and Baby PAC would be an awesome game for me. If the debate gets too one sided in favour getting rid of it I'd be happy to send some money your way…And heck would love to come and pick it up! Where are you located in Florida?…we just sold our House in North port, but love coming south in the winter…Road trip would be a blast!!

Sorry if I'm breaking any rules….just showing interest is all.
As long as we aren't breaking any forum rules, I have no problem with it... In fact, I'm still in the middle of replacing all of the headers, but so far nothing has helped. If it gets to the point where I've replaced all of the headers and it still does the same thing, I may take you up on your offer. I am about an hour and a half north of Orlando.
 
Have you done the updates to the driver board? There are a few jumpers that should be added to the back of the board. It is hard to tell from the video but how many flashes on each board?

I recently got a Baby Pacman and got it running really well. It had all sorts of issues.

I would disconnect the wired going to the solenoids. You may have a stick switch of switch issue.

Don't freak out. It can all be fixed and it can become a solid player again.
I will record the flashes for each board, and post it here. I'm pretty sure both boards make it through all of the flashes they are supposed to.

Can you post good pictures of your MPU and Video board?

I had weird switch issues. Had a switch for a saucer gapped to close. Also had coin door switches disconnected and had my start switches wired wrong when I got it.
I will do this too.

Thank you all.
 
Hello all:

I've uploaded another video, showing the diagnostic lights for the MPU and Vidiot board, and a closer look at what happens.
Any suggestions are welcome, and thank you.

 
BTW, the black .156 headers I 3-D printed, because I didn't have any (but I had the pins for some reason) :blinky:

Also, I don't know why the video is corrupting like that; it didn't do that when I watched it on my workstation and only showed up after YouTube's 'conversion'. :mad:
 
Last edited:
First step is to count the flashes on the boards. Check the manual to verify that the diagnostics are going through a full boot. Too few flashes, and the manual will tell you what the last successful test was. Also, if the MPU still has a battery on it, make sure it didn't leak and destroy some traces. I removed mine and put on a remote battery holder.

When I had mine, it worked, and one time when I turned it on, it wasn't working. An IC went bad. Replaced it, worked for awhile, and then not working again. A different IC went bad. Got it working, and one of the DIPs went bad. Replaced that, and then it worked for a long time.
 
Thank you! - in the video I count the flashes; both boards are making it all the way through (Vidiot 10 flashes, and MPU 7 flashes). The MPU board (top right) is the first one I replaced a long time ago due to the battery leak corrosion.
 
It looks like the leads on the 40-pin video IC have turned black with oxidation. If so that needs to be cleaned and reseated. Maybe at some point the DIP socket replaced as well. I think that chip runs a bit warm. I added a clip on 40-pin DIP heat sink on mine.

Do you still have your original driver board? Was that working. There are a few updates to help but if you still have that board would be good to refresh and keep as a spare.
 
I had the same problem 8 years ago, no video and the right saucer kicker world repeatedly fire over and over till it blew the 1-amp fuse under the playfield. Mine turned out to be a bad IC socket on the MPU board for the PIA chip closest to the 5101 ram IC. The damage to mine was cause by battery leakage. While yours may or may not be caused by battery corrosion it sure sounds like a bad connection on one of the plugs or possible a bad PIA IC. Look at my video's there are 4 and see if it will help. With mine boot the game up and press the test button on the Vidit board and the monitor came to life, then you can push the test button inside the coin door to run though the different tests. See if you have communications between the MPU and the Vidit board. The Vidit board has a PIA IC on it too. Hope this helps.
 
Back
Top Bottom