Williams Space Shuttle speaker hum

trickman

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The game hums pretty loudly in attract mode, and it gets pretty annoying when I'm surrounded by 8 silent arcade games, and the only thing I hear is that hum from the pinball. Whenever lights come on, it hums louder, especially when the lights start chasing in attract mode.

Any idea how to reduce or eliminate that noise?
 
Got all the mounting screws tight on the sound boards? Poor ground can cause that.
As can old capacitors in the sound circuits, and bad connectors.

-Hans
 
Check the grounds at the power supply too, have a Taxi that the grounds were just corroded and had smae issue, cleaned with sandpaper an no problems since...
 
Check the grounds at the power supply too, have a Taxi that the grounds were just corroded and had smae issue, cleaned with sandpaper an no problems since...

Good idea. I'll do both those things and see if the hum goes away.
 
If you mean you sandpapered any pins in there, STOP, and throw your sandpaper away.

Do not sand ANY pins on your pinball machine. You may make the connection improve for a little while, but you have effectively ruined the pin and it will go bad quicker.

Richard

Yup, all true. A stiff nylon bristle brush (such as a "very firm" toothbrush) is really as abrasive as you want to go with any plated pins or connectors. Sandpaper is only good for solid brass contacts, which you really never see in a solid state machine. Maybe use a brass wire brush for anything really nasty, but at that point you'll probably want to just replace the pins anyway.

-Hans
 
If you mean you sandpapered any pins in there, STOP, and throw your sandpaper away.

Do not sand ANY pins on your pinball machine. You may make the connection improve for a little while, but you have effectively ruined the pin and it will go bad quicker.

About the only contact points on a solid state pin (and generally only the older ones) that are OK to sand would be the high voltage contacts for the flipper buttons, end-of-stroke switches on flipper assemblies, and that's about it.

Keep it simple: tighten your boardset screws, make sure none are missing, make sure the cabinet ground straps are connected. If it didn't quiet up, you can go from there.

Richard

Whew, I didn't do it yet. Good thing. I'll start with the boardset screws. Thanks!
 
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I did not sand the pins, the ground leads on/near the xformer supply at the bottom of the cab, they had corroded form moisture, ..800 grit sp to them and no issues with it since...
 
Sanding is fine as long as you don't go crazy....1200 grit can work fine.I've done it many times with no issues....However,as stated it can be damaging if you go overboard.
 
I'll say it again: please keep the sandpaper away from connector pins.

I've gotten games where hack ops/techs have sanded pins in the past and they always have problems.

Richard

Yes,but we're gonna assume this guy isn't a hack...as I said before 1200 grit is fine if you don't go nuts....
 
Well, I tightened the screws on the board. Worked like a charm. Noise is reduced by about 75% of what it was. I can barely hear it now. Funny thing is, the screws were already pretty tight, but when I tightened them more, the hum dissipated. There's one part of the board (left side) where the screw is obviously stripped b/c it just keeps turning. I might replace it and see if the hum goes away 100%.

Thanks for all the good advice!
 
Good work. They'll generally always make a *little* bit of noise. To me it's part of their charm. You could attack some of the filter caps if you want it to be even quieter, but to me that's kind of going above and beyond. They were never meant to be whisper quiet. If the noise is bothering you, hit the start button and play a game, you won't be able to hear that noise anymore. ;)

I turn the attract mode sound on with all my games, so I'm used to them being noisy when I'm not playing.

Richard

It was bothersome before, but now it's fine. I can't expect too much more from a machine made in 1984! :)
 
Space Shuttle is a great game. I plan on buying an overlay for mine. It won't be original anymore but it'll look a lot better once it's on there so I'm okay with it. My PF isn't too bad but a nice flawless surface would be much nicer.
 
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