System 11 CPU board repair recommendations

jehuie

Well-known member

Donor 2011
Joined
Sep 8, 2007
Messages
10,947
Reaction score
1,672
Location
Martinez, California
Who do you guys use? I have a board with light acid damage. I buzzed out all the traces that are in the pinball repair guide list and all but one seem ok. I jumpered the broken trace but it's still having some issues so.....

Rather than hack on the board myself and risk messing something up I'd like to find someone who is qualified. Any good recommendations? Or is it cheaper to just buy a new CPU board at $250?
 
What kind of issues are you encountering? Have you checked all of your voltages on your PS board?
 
I had Ed Cheung look at my F-14 CPU. I was having boot up issues. Ed put it on his bench and let it run for a week. Never had any issues with it. Only charged me a small fee since he could not find any issues.

Real nice guy.
 
What kind of issues are you encountering? Have you checked all of your voltages on your PS board?

The top two displays are out (the alphanumeric ones) and since the CPU board has acid damage I decided to buzz out all the leads from the PIA associated with the displays. One of the lines turned out to be bad so I fixed that. But the list of connections in the pinball repair guide appears to be incomplete so I suspect there may be more traces damaged.

I think the PS board is fine since the other displays are all functioning properly.
 
You probably need to replace those PIA's...

You really think so? I'm trying to gauge what the best course of action is here for repair. I like the idea of fixing it myself partly because I enjoy working on it and also because I'm not exactly made out of money.

Also, I keep reading that some places won't work on these boards if an "amateur" has hacked on them. I feel pretty confident in my ability to just replace chips though. But I don't want to just shotgun the thing and keep guessing what might be wrong either. It may be better to just bite the bullet and pay someone to do the work.

Totally new at the whole pinball side.....
 
Well, if you had a logic probe you could check to see if your getting signalling out of the PIA's. I've fixed quite a few display issues by replacing them.

Of course, this is assuming you have proper voltage to the displays in the first place, and that the displays themselves are good....
 
Well, if you had a logic probe you could check to see if your getting signalling out of the PIA's. I've fixed quite a few display issues by replacing them.

Of course, this is assuming you have proper voltage to the displays in the first place, and that the displays themselves are good....

Well good sir, I just happen to have a logic probe. Aside from checking to see if chips in my games are watchdogging I haven't done much with it. Any recommendations on where to start?

Or should I just find someplace to order a couple from somewhere and swap out the chips in the vicinity of the acid damage just in case?

And isn't it like midnight in Texas? Why aren't you in the shop working on games? :)
 
Back
Top Bottom