Totem (Gottlieb System 1) issues

MmSadda

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Hey guys, I've got a Totem by Gottlieb that I've had for years, and its minor (I think) issues are starting to bug me a bit... figured I should take a run at fixing it.

My major issue is that most of the lights on the playfield never dim like they're supposed to. For example, the strings of lights for the bonus and bonus multipler (vertical lines of 10 and 4 lights.) Any idea what could cause this?


Also, while we're on the subject - there's a fair bit of paint chipping around the bumpers and stuff. How do you guys prevent a machine from getting any worse once it gets to that state? Are there any protective overlays that can be put on, or anything to that effect?
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Could certainly be grounding issues. Check the cable going between the MPU board and the driver board, and make sure there isn't acid damage on any of the pins. You can re-pin the cable, or simply buy a replacement.

Good troubleshooting information:

http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/index.htm

and

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_1

Between the two of these, there's a lot of good reading and troubleshooting suggestions you can follow to isolate the source of your issues.
 
Pinball resource has mylar protectors for system 1 pop bumpers. Some people hate them, some people dont. I use them.

You can touch up the paint if you want. I use water based paint from the hobby store. There are guides online that detail the process.

Also, the link the person before me posted about fixing/bullet proofing System 1's. DO IT. Do all of it. Do the cap swap, do the grounding mods, do the diode hack into the harness between the CPU and Driver. Its worth it.
 
Awesome, thank you both for the advice and the links! I've actually had this game since I was 7, so it's pretty special to me. My dad got it cheap at an auction, so that was Christmas that year.

I'll look into doing the grounding mods, as that seems a likely culprit as you guys said.

KrisK, do you know where I might find a write up on the pair touch up process you use? How do you go about tracking down paints that match?
 
There are various blogs, sites, and posts that talk about individual experience with specific machines and doing playfield restorations; Clay has his advice and lots of good, detailed information on his site (same site linked above for System 1 info): http://www.pinrepair.com/ - and the pinwiki (also linked above) offers advice and links as well.
 
My major issue is that most of the lights on the playfield never dim like they're supposed to. For example, the strings of lights for the bonus and bonus multipler (vertical lines of 10 and 4 lights.) Any idea what could cause this?


0201132206a_zps9dae1a7a.jpg

I am pretty sure you have a problem with your driver board. There is some good data on pinrepair concerning this.
 
I am pretty sure you have a problem with your driver board. There is some good data on pinrepair concerning this.

Cool, I will look into this.

All of the lights go on and off when they should; the scoring works perfectly fine (except I think the A and D rollovers may have "tied themselves together), problem really is primarily that the lights don't dim fully when they should. Would that be a driver board issue, not grounding?
 
Cool, I will look into this.

All of the lights go on and off when they should; the scoring works perfectly fine (except I think the A and D rollovers may have "tied themselves together), problem really is primarily that the lights don't dim fully when they should. Would that be a driver board issue, not grounding?

It literally takes like five minutes to ground the driver board and computer board. Try that first. If its not that, Then I would look at the driver board.

That reminds me I should rebuild my system 1 power supplies tonight si i can play my Jker pker and buk rgrs tonight
 
Will do! Only reason I haven't done the ground mods already is I haven't yet had a chance to make it to the specialty store that carries the parts I need for the memory capacitor mod and replacing the power supply cap (which I would be attaching the main ground wire to.)

Looks like the transistor test on the driver board is easy enough to do; I may go ahead and pull that tonight and check it.
 
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