Not the first time I blog about this, I have a warning on my site also to make sure people check for leaked batteries in their pinball machines and regulary replace them.. but still, even I get affected by them :-(
I know it's my own fault, should have listened to my own warnings; but every time I think I should check the batteries in all my games I just postpone it and then forget about it..
A week ago I switched on my Attack from Mars pinball machine and got the Factory settings restored warning message. Oops ?!
Opened the backbox, checked the remote battery holder, and saw that one of the batteries had leaked.
It had already happened a while ago, I just threw the whole battery holder away. They're cheap and I'm not bothering with cleaning it up and taking a risk the damage is still there.
The batteries were old, probably over 5 year.. same type as those in my CV that leaked last year. Can't remember when I bought and installed them.
Installed new batteries tonight (finally spent some time in the gameroom), made some adjustments (free play, 5 balls, ..) and started to play. After winter I really have to shop this machine. One rollover switch doesn't work, one popbumper doesn't work, .. not much fun to play anymore. Still need to install less powerful flippercoils (they're brutal now) and I also have new cabinet decals.
Played a few games, best result was just over 7,5 billion, just enough to put a GC score.
I should not have played but inspected all my machines to check their batteries.. but I didn't. Maybe next time I have some spare time in my gameroom. Or maybe not, they're all in remote battery holders.
Maybe I'll just wait until the next factory settings restored message;.
Showing posts with label attack from mars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attack from mars. Show all posts
Monday, October 3, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
AFM lights fixed
Follow up on my almost-never-ending AFM cpu problem.
Last year and the year before I've already posted about it here, the game sometimes didn't boot anymore, especially when touching the cpu board or its connectors.
Now the game suddenly developed another problem: no more lights on the playfield worked.
No GI, but also no controlled lights.
That's very weird as they're two separate circuits. So it's not just one fuse..
First did the regular stuff: measured fuses, checked the led, testpoint voltage, ..
on the powerboard everything was fine.
So the problem was not that there wasn't any power, it was that the instructions to turn the lamps on did not arrive on the powerboard.
With the problems I had last year with this cpu board I had suspected the ASIC ic. But then I couldn't continue problem solving the issue as I didn't have the correct ic puller. Now I have one, I have ordered it a while ago.
Pullde out the asic (very carefully). Put it back in, with enough pressure so it clicks in place. Turn the game on. And we have lights ! Pushed a bit on the cpu board and it doesn't reset anymore, so that problem is solved too.
Last year and the year before I've already posted about it here, the game sometimes didn't boot anymore, especially when touching the cpu board or its connectors.
Now the game suddenly developed another problem: no more lights on the playfield worked.
No GI, but also no controlled lights.
That's very weird as they're two separate circuits. So it's not just one fuse..
First did the regular stuff: measured fuses, checked the led, testpoint voltage, ..
on the powerboard everything was fine.
So the problem was not that there wasn't any power, it was that the instructions to turn the lamps on did not arrive on the powerboard.
With the problems I had last year with this cpu board I had suspected the ASIC ic. But then I couldn't continue problem solving the issue as I didn't have the correct ic puller. Now I have one, I have ordered it a while ago.
Pullde out the asic (very carefully). Put it back in, with enough pressure so it clicks in place. Turn the game on. And we have lights ! Pushed a bit on the cpu board and it doesn't reset anymore, so that problem is solved too.
Friday, September 24, 2010
MM and AFM cpu problems
A few months ago I had a problem with my MM. Suddenly it started to reset, hang, didn't boot, .. all kinds of weird problems :(
I had recently installed a new gamerom (the latest version, ordered from thatpinballplace.com ). But it started correct, to be sure I tried my original gameroom in it too, no difference, same weird behavior.
When I pushed in the connector at the right side (delivering +5v power) it had some effect. Sometimes the game didn't boot at all, when I played with that connector it did start. Weird..
Played a bit more with it, switched the cpuboard with that of my Attack from Mars.
Suddenly the problem was gone ? MM booted correct, AFM also.
I was happy as it was just a few days before I had a pinball party, so I really wanted these two games to be working and didn't have time to investigate (or order parts).
It's a good thing I write down here some repairs I do, as I had forgotten that I had problems with these cpus one year ago. But here in my blog I found a post about it, AFM then had weird problems and I finally switched the cpu board with that of MM and the problems were solved ?
So now the boards are in their original games again.
I've been testing a bit more with the cpu board and I think somewhere there's a bad connection on the board. It's not the connector itself as I first suspected, but it's somewhere on the middle right side of the board, because if I tighten the screws a bit more or less the cpu also gets problems.
I didn't have a tool to extract an asic so I couldn't rule that out as a solution.
Now I've finally ordered one from
dealextreme, but I haven't used it yet. (as the cpu works fine in AFM and I go by the 'don't fix it if it ain't broken' motto..)
When I have some time I'll extract the asic from the board, put it back in, and play a bit with the board to see if it always boots..
I had recently installed a new gamerom (the latest version, ordered from thatpinballplace.com ). But it started correct, to be sure I tried my original gameroom in it too, no difference, same weird behavior.
When I pushed in the connector at the right side (delivering +5v power) it had some effect. Sometimes the game didn't boot at all, when I played with that connector it did start. Weird..
Played a bit more with it, switched the cpuboard with that of my Attack from Mars.
Suddenly the problem was gone ? MM booted correct, AFM also.
I was happy as it was just a few days before I had a pinball party, so I really wanted these two games to be working and didn't have time to investigate (or order parts).
It's a good thing I write down here some repairs I do, as I had forgotten that I had problems with these cpus one year ago. But here in my blog I found a post about it, AFM then had weird problems and I finally switched the cpu board with that of MM and the problems were solved ?
So now the boards are in their original games again.
I've been testing a bit more with the cpu board and I think somewhere there's a bad connection on the board. It's not the connector itself as I first suspected, but it's somewhere on the middle right side of the board, because if I tighten the screws a bit more or less the cpu also gets problems.
I didn't have a tool to extract an asic so I couldn't rule that out as a solution.
Now I've finally ordered one from
dealextreme, but I haven't used it yet. (as the cpu works fine in AFM and I go by the 'don't fix it if it ain't broken' motto..)
When I have some time I'll extract the asic from the board, put it back in, and play a bit with the board to see if it always boots..
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
CHECK FUSES F101 AND F109, J127 AND OPTO 12V SUPPLY
This was the error message I got monday evening on my Attack From Mars pinball (AFM) machine. The left flipper didn't stay in the up position, so I had soldered in a new flipper coil. The old coil tested bad with my dmm, probably the small wire had broken somewhere internally.
Anyway I played a testgame now the flippers worked again.
Suddenly the game got confused, strobe multiball suddenly started when it shouldn't, and the game kept firing out pinballs.
Something definitely was wrong here.
I turned off the pinball machine and when I switched it on again I got this error on the dmd: CHECK FUSES F101 AND F109, J127 AND OPTO 12V SUPPLY
Ouch. That's bad. The weirdest thing was that I couldn't get past this error, the test buttons at the inside of the coin door just didn't work at all ?!
That's worse.. because I couldn't get into the diagnostics and selftests and see what else the game said was wrong or what was working.
I opened the backbox, all leds were fine though. To be sure I checked all fuses. All ok.
Measured voltage on the test points, 12v regulated and unregulated were fine. So this 12v circuit was working.
J127 was also still connected like it should be, hadn't become loose or anything. Also checked all other connectors (if I'm not mistaken J140 also is needed for the 12v circuit).
Looking at the underside of the playfield I noticed the led on the opto board was still lit. All connectors were still in their place.
Further troubleshooting. The error message means the games computer thinks the 12v power supply is broken because it suddenly can't see any opto switch anymore. These switches are more than the 12v voltage itself. There's also an opto board
at the bottom of the playfield involved, and the switch matrix itself.
I disconnected the wires on the opto board, tested again, plugged in the connectors, tested again..
I don't know if the not working testswitches were related and default behavior ? These are outside of the switch matrix
and have their own connector on the cpu board, direct input switches.
Started to think the cpu board itself was broken.
Disconnected the switch matrix connectors, then the error message changed into 'check fuses 101 and 106'.
Testbuttons still didn't work though.
Anyway as it was getting too late I stopped troubleshooting.
Read Clays guides to refresh my memory about how the switch matrix and 12v opto board worked (hoping to find
a detail I missed that would solve the problem), searched for the specific error message..
Seems not a lot of people have gotten it, there's not a lot of information to find about it and only a few people
who had it but not how they solved it..
Yesterday evening then I continued my search.
Checked the opto board, disconnected all connectors, no difference, still the error.
Plugged them back in, problem wasn't solved.
Played around with several combinations, unplugging direct switches, unplugging switch matrix on the cpu board, .. put pinballs in trough, left them out, ..
Sometimes I got the F101, 109, J127 error, sometimes I got 'Check fuses F101 and F106'. Sometimes the game even went right into attract mode but I couldn't start a game and always still couldn't use the test switches.
As the 12v was still on the board and connectors were plugged in, I focused on the cpu board and the direct input switches. I even considered if the 'enter' testswitch had suddenly become bad and didn't make contact anymore ?
Replaced chip U20 on the cpu as this IC is socketed and easy to change. Still no difference.
I first had taken an IC of my spare parts.. but maybe there was a short in the switch matrix and this new IC would be immediately broken again ?
So I removed it from AFM and put it into my Medieval Madness pinball machine which has the same type of cpu board.
MM still worked fine.. so this U20 IC was ok.
Next step: swap cpu boards.
I removed the cpu board out of AFM and put it in MM. I did unplug the connectors that power the coils, as the AFM roms would operate incorrect coils. Didn't want to risk causing damage to my MM too :-)
Much to my surprise MM booted fine with the AFM board installed. The machine started, went into attract mode, all lamps went on, .. (it gave some errors about stuck switches which is normal as MM has some optos where AFM has regular
switches so it thinks they are stuck).
But I could use the testswitches so the direct input circuit on the AFM cpu board was ok and switch matrix was working too..
Weird. So the AFM cpu board itself was fine and the wiring should be fine too ? Only thing I could think of was a short somewhere underneath the playfield of AFM (although then fuses would have been blown ?), or a problem with the testswitches or their wiring ?
So the next things I did:
- checked the connectors at the interconnect board (but they were ok)
- checked every fuse again, removed it from the holder, measured with my dmm, put back in fuse holder
- put the cpu board back in, but I did remove the batteries so it lost its memory
Switched the game back on.. and it worked fine ?
Gave the expected 'Factory Settings Reset' error because the remote battery holder had been disconnected, but the game booted fine, testswitches worked fine, and I could play.
So this problem suddenly went away ? I have no idea what exactly solved it.
Was it a bad fuse that gave intermittent contact ? Connector that was a bit loose ?
I'm not sure. I guess the cpu somehow got into a corrupt state and removing the battery fixed it (in the past I also have had a few times a weird error that spontaniously went away after a factory reset).
I don't really like this kind of problem. If something is broken, I want to find the source and solve it.
It problems suddenly solve themselves, you're not sure what caused it, and what's more important: you're not really sure it is completely solved and will not come back in the future..
I'm glad it's solved so fast.. still spending too much time troubleshooting problems on my Black Hole pinball machine :-(
Anyway I played a testgame now the flippers worked again.
Suddenly the game got confused, strobe multiball suddenly started when it shouldn't, and the game kept firing out pinballs.
Something definitely was wrong here.
I turned off the pinball machine and when I switched it on again I got this error on the dmd: CHECK FUSES F101 AND F109, J127 AND OPTO 12V SUPPLY
Ouch. That's bad. The weirdest thing was that I couldn't get past this error, the test buttons at the inside of the coin door just didn't work at all ?!
That's worse.. because I couldn't get into the diagnostics and selftests and see what else the game said was wrong or what was working.
I opened the backbox, all leds were fine though. To be sure I checked all fuses. All ok.
Measured voltage on the test points, 12v regulated and unregulated were fine. So this 12v circuit was working.
J127 was also still connected like it should be, hadn't become loose or anything. Also checked all other connectors (if I'm not mistaken J140 also is needed for the 12v circuit).
Looking at the underside of the playfield I noticed the led on the opto board was still lit. All connectors were still in their place.
Further troubleshooting. The error message means the games computer thinks the 12v power supply is broken because it suddenly can't see any opto switch anymore. These switches are more than the 12v voltage itself. There's also an opto board
at the bottom of the playfield involved, and the switch matrix itself.
I disconnected the wires on the opto board, tested again, plugged in the connectors, tested again..
I don't know if the not working testswitches were related and default behavior ? These are outside of the switch matrix
and have their own connector on the cpu board, direct input switches.
Started to think the cpu board itself was broken.
Disconnected the switch matrix connectors, then the error message changed into 'check fuses 101 and 106'.
Testbuttons still didn't work though.
Anyway as it was getting too late I stopped troubleshooting.
Read Clays guides to refresh my memory about how the switch matrix and 12v opto board worked (hoping to find
a detail I missed that would solve the problem), searched for the specific error message..
Seems not a lot of people have gotten it, there's not a lot of information to find about it and only a few people
who had it but not how they solved it..
Yesterday evening then I continued my search.
Checked the opto board, disconnected all connectors, no difference, still the error.
Plugged them back in, problem wasn't solved.
Played around with several combinations, unplugging direct switches, unplugging switch matrix on the cpu board, .. put pinballs in trough, left them out, ..
Sometimes I got the F101, 109, J127 error, sometimes I got 'Check fuses F101 and F106'. Sometimes the game even went right into attract mode but I couldn't start a game and always still couldn't use the test switches.
As the 12v was still on the board and connectors were plugged in, I focused on the cpu board and the direct input switches. I even considered if the 'enter' testswitch had suddenly become bad and didn't make contact anymore ?
Replaced chip U20 on the cpu as this IC is socketed and easy to change. Still no difference.
I first had taken an IC of my spare parts.. but maybe there was a short in the switch matrix and this new IC would be immediately broken again ?
So I removed it from AFM and put it into my Medieval Madness pinball machine which has the same type of cpu board.
MM still worked fine.. so this U20 IC was ok.
Next step: swap cpu boards.
I removed the cpu board out of AFM and put it in MM. I did unplug the connectors that power the coils, as the AFM roms would operate incorrect coils. Didn't want to risk causing damage to my MM too :-)
Much to my surprise MM booted fine with the AFM board installed. The machine started, went into attract mode, all lamps went on, .. (it gave some errors about stuck switches which is normal as MM has some optos where AFM has regular
switches so it thinks they are stuck).
But I could use the testswitches so the direct input circuit on the AFM cpu board was ok and switch matrix was working too..
Weird. So the AFM cpu board itself was fine and the wiring should be fine too ? Only thing I could think of was a short somewhere underneath the playfield of AFM (although then fuses would have been blown ?), or a problem with the testswitches or their wiring ?
So the next things I did:
- checked the connectors at the interconnect board (but they were ok)
- checked every fuse again, removed it from the holder, measured with my dmm, put back in fuse holder
- put the cpu board back in, but I did remove the batteries so it lost its memory
Switched the game back on.. and it worked fine ?
Gave the expected 'Factory Settings Reset' error because the remote battery holder had been disconnected, but the game booted fine, testswitches worked fine, and I could play.
So this problem suddenly went away ? I have no idea what exactly solved it.
Was it a bad fuse that gave intermittent contact ? Connector that was a bit loose ?
I'm not sure. I guess the cpu somehow got into a corrupt state and removing the battery fixed it (in the past I also have had a few times a weird error that spontaniously went away after a factory reset).
I don't really like this kind of problem. If something is broken, I want to find the source and solve it.
It problems suddenly solve themselves, you're not sure what caused it, and what's more important: you're not really sure it is completely solved and will not come back in the future..
I'm glad it's solved so fast.. still spending too much time troubleshooting problems on my Black Hole pinball machine :-(
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