Pin is not starting now, was previously working

animesuperj

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Ok, I have no idea why this is happening, so hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I had my Bally Game Show pin working, and was playing it the last week or two with no problems. I just finished cleaning/waxing the playfield, put it back together, and played a couple games. Turned it on and off, and still, no problems.

I flipped it on the other day, played through one game and went to hit start for a second game, since it's on freeplay, and now it won't start. The button does nothing. The game is still on, attract mode going, but hitting start won't actually start the machine for a new game.

I took off/on the molex connectors on the board for the switches that had the credit button and still nothing. I'm not really sure where to go from here, so anyone that can help, let me know.
 
Get into the switch test and see if the start button works. If not be sure the button triggers the switch, and that the switch works. Then check continuity of the switch wires back to the board. You can have a broken wire at another switch or connector causing this.

All this assuming the game has remained on free play and not slipped back to coin play. LTG :)
 
Also, your batteries might have died and your settings could have been cleared. Let the attract mode go through and see if your high scores are intact. If they've been reset, you might just have some dead batteries.
 
Also, your batteries might have died and your settings could have been cleared. Let the attract mode go through and see if your high scores are intact. If they've been reset, you might just have some dead batteries.


Dead batteries, or the classical bad battery holder.

I recently had to replace my batteries on Game Show with remote mounted PCB battery holder.
 
Check your ball trough switches, might not start a new game because it doesn't know all the balls are there. You can try taking one out, and hit the button a few times and see if that works also.

But check those switch test mode and make sure that all the ball trough switches are active (as long as all the balls are in the trough).
 
Thanks for the help everyone. I'll double check what people have suggested tonight. The batteries might have died, because the last note is they were replaced in '07 or '08. Also, the machine is still in freeplay, and it appears to remember all of my settings. I don't remember what the high scores were, but I'll see if those were reset to default.

I might just replaced the batteries in general and force it back to default. Then just see about adding a coin and if it'll start then, as gutz mentioned.
 
Alright, so I replaced the batteries last night, which restored everything back to default. I went into the switch test, and tried the credit button; and another happened. Tried the coin mechs, nothing happened. Tired some other switches on the playfield (like drop targets), and those registered. Seems like the credit, coin and in/out lanes won't register.

I tried jumping the pins, like the manual said, to see if the cpu board was still working. Jumping the credit pins registered, so it seems that the issue is somewhere in the wiring/playfield. I tried tracing back the problem, but wasn't able to find where the issue was coming in.

Another weird thing that happened, was the first time I went into the switch test the "TRUCK" drop targets registered when pushing them. The second time I went into the switch test (forgot why I went through twice, just ended up doing so), the same targets didn't register anymore. I'm guessing it's all part of the same problem, just weird that they would work and then stop within a couple minutes.

So what's the best way to figure out where the issue is in wiring? Just trace back from the board and see what the first switch is that doesn't register?
 
Alright, so I replaced the batteries last night, which restored everything back to default. I went into the switch test, and tried the credit button; and another happened. Tried the coin mechs, nothing happened. Tired some other switches on the playfield (like drop targets), and those registered. Seems like the credit, coin and in/out lanes won't register.

I tried jumping the pins, like the manual said, to see if the cpu board was still working. Jumping the credit pins registered, so it seems that the issue is somewhere in the wiring/playfield. I tried tracing back the problem, but wasn't able to find where the issue was coming in.

Another weird thing that happened, was the first time I went into the switch test the "TRUCK" drop targets registered when pushing them. The second time I went into the switch test (forgot why I went through twice, just ended up doing so), the same targets didn't register anymore. I'm guessing it's all part of the same problem, just weird that they would work and then stop within a couple minutes.

So what's the best way to figure out where the issue is in wiring? Just trace back from the board and see what the first switch is that doesn't register?


Does the game have a switch test? It would save you the trouble of doing that manually.
 
Does the game have a switch test? It would save you the trouble of doing that manually.
I believe it has two different ones. One tells you which switches are closed and the other allows you to trigger the switch to tell if it's working. Going into the first mode, I had the two trough switches activated. I reset the balls, and those went away. Going into the second and pressing the credit switch did nothing. Pressing other switches activated them, but again, nothing for credit, coin, in/out lanes and five of the drop targets.

Edit -- I see what you're saying. Go into the switch test and see which aren't working....derp...brain not working. I kinda did that last night, and checked the wires around those switches that weren't working. The drop targets seemed to be the furthest "up" the playfield towards the backbox that weren't registering; but I didn't see any issue as to why they shouldn't be working.
 
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