Stern 2004 Elvis sound won't start, Help!

Biltronix

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My friend just bought a very clean, very nice 2004 Stern Elvis pinball. It's all decked out with new LED's throughout and everything works great with the exception as follows. After powerup and while on freeplay, pressing start button launches game with sound. When the game ends, a song plays. If you press start during the song, the next game plays with sound and there's no issue. However, if you wait until the song ends and then press start, the game plays without any sound whatsoever.

Is this a bug in the firmware? Is there a version that fixes this problem?

Charity tours go through the Elvis exhibit where this machine is located and people love to play it. It's a real problem having to contantly reset the power to get the sound to work. If anyone has a clue as to what causes this problem, we would love to hear from you.

The memory backup batteries are new and everything is totally clean inside. The ribbon cables and other harness connectors have been re-seated. There is no visible damage to any components on any PCBs. I'm just hoping that it's not a bad CPU/Sound board.

Thanks in advance,

Bill B.
 
That's weird....which ROMS does the game have? The most current is 5.0 (CPU and display ROMS). To check, hold the right flipper button when you turn on the game.
 
I appreciate the suggestions. I suspected a firmware issue off the top of my head. I found a Stern service bulletin, #157 from 2005 that explains in some detail sound system compatibility problems with certain O/S versions. It also explains how to determine what versions are present and how to flash the system to update it. I even downloaded the .dat file for the "Flash EPROM O/S 8". I have a universal programmer so I should have no problem installing the update. I sure hope that it works!

Bill B.
 
Problem solved. Sound system firmware was whatever version that makes LED1 flash 5 times upon powerup. CPU was at 2.00. MY friend had called Stern tech support and also a local pinball machine distributor and they insisted "you need a new CPU/Snd board" all day long. I told my friend that was BS. Anyway, I downloaded the O/S-8 bootflash rom file from the Stern site, burned a used 512k chip, used it to flash the board, and done. The whole procedure took maybe 15 minutes. All the sound issues are gone. It turned out that there were a lot of sounds, even entire songs, that never got played previously. It's all good now. I realize that one can purchase the newest eproms from various distributors pretty cheap ($10ea) but I had some good chips on hand and a programmer so I did it myself.

So if anyone ever has weird sound issues with Stern Elvis 2004, first install O/S-8 in the sound system by using a bootflash eprom. Update the CPU firmware afterward. As someone previously and kindly stated, as of this writing, the latest CPU is 5.0.

Bill B.
 
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