Who Dunnit pinball reboots itself

kevg

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I purchased a Who Dunnit a couple of weeks ago and have been playing it every night since. Started out every once in a while it would go completely dead and then a few seconds later, power back up on its own. Now I can't even get through a single game without it doing this. It does not seem to do it when I do something specific, seems to be random.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
start here: http://www.pinrepair.com/wpc/index.htm There is a whole section about the machine restarting itself!

I purchased a Who Dunnit a couple of weeks ago and have been playing it every night since. Started out every once in a while it would go completely dead and then a few seconds later, power back up on its own. Now I can't even get through a single game without it doing this. It does not seem to do it when I do something specific, seems to be random.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
Yeah, do the pinrepair thing. I'll bet it happens more often when you hit both flippers at the same time over and over...
 
Usually it's the solder to the Bridge Rectifiers or the harness connectors. Start by reseating all the power harnesses connectors in the head. If this fixes it temporarily, then you probably have your culprit and can put new connectors on them. I had problems with J101 on several games.

Wade
 
I am very sorry to hear your having trouble Kevin, for what it's worth,
I honestly never had any reset issues with the game at all.

Did it start acting up right after you got it home and set up?

If so I would suspect what wade has mentioned, reset all the boards connectors a few times each as something may have jarred loose during transport.

Check power cord make sure that did not get pinched or damaged at all and is seated securely,

How many games do you have on the same breaker that this guy is on? usually vid's are ok but it is suggested that only 2 pins per breaker, you may get lucky with 3 or 4 but the wpc stuff has a low voltage protection circuit and will shut the game down as you decribe if the power dips, any other appliance on the same breaker , fridge, dehumidifier etc.

The marvin site referenced is also a great resource, get your multimeter out and test the driver board test points for voltages.
 
No problem Gatordad, I know how temperamental pins can be. I haven't had one yet that didn't need some work at some point (that's half the fun right?) The funny thing is the lights that were out when I left your house were fine when I got it to my house! I am going to try resetting all the harnesses tonight and maybe I'll get lucky, but I doubt it as I have found that it resets 95% of the time now when I hit a flipper.
 
Could definately be a bridge rectifier causing that. It also could be your wall power as well.

I didn't go look at your schematics, but I think on alot of pins of this era it would be BR2.

**edit** (From Marvin's)
3d. When things don't work: Game Resets (Bridge Rectifiers and Diodes)

Read that section of the guide...

BR2 to C5 (15,000 mfd @ 25v) to F113: +5 volts. The bridge and capacitor that fail the most, and cause the most reset problems. Also replace driver board cap C4 with a 470mfd or 1000mfd cap.
 
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Well, yesterday I finally got around to trying to fix it, and I simply started by re-seating all the connections in the head and that actually seems to have worked. I played for hours last night and today as well without a single reboot. I guess for the first time in my life a "Loose Connection" was actually the problem! Lucky me! Now i'm starting to think a few of my non-working vids just probably need a fuse :)
 
Well, yesterday I finally got around to trying to fix it, and I simply started by re-seating all the connections in the head and that actually seems to have worked. I played for hours last night and today as well without a single reboot. I guess for the first time in my life a "Loose Connection" was actually the problem! Lucky me! Now i'm starting to think a few of my non-working vids just probably need a fuse :)

See my post above. It's not a loose connection, it's a marginal connection. It should be repaired, as the problem will come back. I'm betting it's J101, just reseating that fixed reboots in some of my games, but it always came back. A whole new connector is what fixed it for good.

Wade
 
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