Road Show shutting off

[Kraken]

Hey guys, newbie here. Just got into the pinball scene a few months ago. I'm looking forward to contributing on these forums, and hopefully meeting some of you. Right now, I need some help though. I bought a Road Show machine a few weeks ago, and everything worked great until today. I was in the middle of a big multiball, with lights and shaker motor going crazy, and then the machine just reset. I played for another couple more hours and everything seemed to be fine, until it happened again. Similar circumstance as last time. Big multiball, and the machine going nuts, then BANG, off. Now it won't even turn back on. When I flip the power button, the machine makes the normal "powering up" sound, but nothing happens after that. No lights, or DMD, or anything. Anybody have a guess where I should start? Like I said, I'm a newbie, so I'm pretty lost. I have been working on a couple other machines I bought recently, so I know the basics, but this seems like a software issue maybe. Any info is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Dropshot]

Try unplugging and plugging back in all the connectors in the back box. I know the shaker motor sometimes would knock loose the sound.

[revtest]

hey dude this is Jake we talked a bit when you picked up the game. not sure what your experiance level is but like Aaron said if you go into the backbox where the boards are and open the manual to 2-2 that will show you what is what in there. reseat connector "17" it is a ribbon cable from the Power Driver Board to the CPU if that solves the problem then that is where to start. rebuilding or replacing connectors can work wonders. also you should have a DMM (digital multi meter) you can check fuses with that. I have the old pin repair guides i can email to you I'll send you a PM with them they help tons!

[eric]

Please do not reseat every connector in the backbox as 90% of these have nothing to do with the boot cycle. Plus, if this does happen to provide a temporary fix you'll have no idea which connector was the culprit.

You need to approach troubleshooting in a methodical way, otherwise you'll just end up chasing your tail. Start by checking for missing voltages on the power driver board. There are LEDs on the board that give you an easy visual indication as to whether or not a given voltage is present. If these are all good, check voltage at the 5V test point on the power driver board and compare the reading to the voltage at pin 32 of U6 (game EPROM) on the MPU board.

Start by looking at these and report back.

[Kraken]

Thanks for all the help guys. After a quick check that none of the connectors were loose and no bad fuses, I whacked the backbox a few times and it came back on. I know that's not the right way to do things, but at least now I know it is a bad connection somewhere in the backbox. I'll play if for a while, and when it does it again, I'll troubleshoot it better. In any case, I'll continue to update my progress in case someone else ever has the same issue.

[eric]

Ha! Nice work. This definitely sounds like an intermittent connector, probably somewhere in the 5V chain. Likely culprits are J101 and J114 on the power driver board and J210 on the MPU. There's also a z connector coupler between J114 and J210 that's a common failure point. Next time the machine won't boot, try reseating these one at a time (with the power off). If the machine boots after reseating one, you've found the connector you need to rebuild. You can also remove the z connector entirely and simply splice the wires together. Won't be original, but it will be more reliable.

[Kraken]

Well, it happened again, and now it won't come back on with my prior adjustment tool (fist). With the power on, it looks like only about half of the circuit boards have their little red led's illuminated. I will try your suggestion of going one by one to find the bad connector.

[Kraken]

Okay, I broke out the multimeter and checked a bunch of stuff. First, all the z connections and connectors to the board tested fine. Then I started looking at the power driver board closer and I finally understood what Eric was talking about with the voltage led's and test boints. I figured out I don't have 5V on the power driver board. I'm sure what that means exactly, but I'm hoping one of you will. Here's how all the test boints and led's read on the power driver board. Info. in parentheses is what is printed on the board, and following that, is what the multimeter read when testing them.
TP1: (12VU) read 14.1 V
TP2: (5V) read nothing
TP3: (12VR) read 12.1 V
TP4: (ZC) read nothing
TP5: (GND)
TP6: (50V) read 71 V
TP7: (12V) read 21.3 V
TP8: (18V) read 27.6 V

LED's working: 1, 5, 6, 7
LED's off: 2,3,4

I don't really know what the hell I'm doing, so can anyone recommend what my next step should be?

[eric]

Has fuse F113 blown? Don't just look at it - pull it out and test it with your meter in continuity mode.

[Kraken]

I checked continuity on all fuses last night and found only F109 was bad. It looked fine, but didn't work when checked with the multimeter. I replaced it with one from another machine. I double checked F113 again tonight, and it is fine. Not sure what to do next. BTW, where's a good place for fuses? Are these the same as automotive fuses?

[Opto]

Oddly enough . . . Radio Shack is good for fuses.

[eric]

Automotive fuses are usually 32V and you'll want to use fuses rated 250V. Like Noah said, Radio Shack is a good spot to find them locally. I order mine in bulk through .

Something is awry in the 5V circuit. Start at the beginning and check the AC voltage coming into the board from the transformer. With your meter set to AC voltage, put one lead on J101 pin 1 and the other on pin 2. You should see about 9VAC.

[Kraken]

I never even thought about Radioshack, thanks. 9.2 volts between pin 1 and 2 on J101. Looks like that's normal.

[eric]

Check voltage (DC) at the positive side of C9.

There's either a faulty component, broken trace, or cracked header pin. The fix will almost certainly involve removing the board and some soldering work. Do you have any experience with this? If not, this probably isn't a good first project. You can easily damage the board and the WPC power driver board is not a cheap one to replace.

[Kraken]

I'll test it when I get home tonight. My soldering work is atrocious, so I'll have to find someone who knows what they're doing. Any recommendations?

[Opto]

Are you going to the NW show? Sometimes there will be folks doing board repair for hire on site. I PM'd you with Tony Page (silverball amusements) email. He's done some board work for me that was great, and he's in CA so shipping is relatively inexpensive.

[Opto]

Also - buy a good soldering iron - it'll change your life . .. maaaaannnnnn.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BR ... ZG8XY11ZDF

[Kraken]

Okay, I don't know how to check C9 Eric. I think I found it on the board though. It's a little tiny transistor or diode thingy, right? Not sure what side is positive or even how to check it. I put my meter on DC and tried touching the leads to each side, then swapped and tried again. Nothing came up on the readout.

Thanks for the PM Opto. I think I may actually go to the show, it looks fun! How much does a better quality soldering iron really help? My main problem with soldering is holding the parts steady enough while soldering/cooling. I feel like I need a solid mechanical connection to solder anything, but I can't figure out a decent way to do that usually.

[eric]

It's the tantalum capacitor thingy. If you checked both sides and saw nothing then you've isolated the problem to existing somewhere between the voltage regulator and J101. There's either a broken trace, cracked header pin, or BR2 has failed. It's also possible the fuse holder has failed, though this is far less common on these boards.

The next step is to pull the board. If you've never done this, it might help to label the connectors as you pull them off and also take note of which connectors aren't used before you start pulling them. It will save you some head scratching when you go to put it back together.

I'd start by giving the solder pads of J101 a close visual inspection, along with those of BR2 and C5. Check for cracks. Next, test the bridge rectifier with your DMM. Put your meter in diode mode. With the black lead on the positive terminal, you should see .5V-.7V at both of the AC terminals (I think these are marked with a sine wave on this particular board). Reverse the leads and you should see nothing. Next, with the red lead on the negative terminal you should see .5V-.7V with the black lead at both of the AC terminals. Reversing the leads should show nothing. If the bridge checks out, follow the schematic and buzz out continuity between J101 pins 1/2 and the AC terminals of BR2. Negative terminal of BR2 should have continuity to ground, and the positive terminal continuity to pin 1 of the voltage regulator at Q1.

You can download the schematic (page 5, lower left is where we're working).

[Kraken]

I'll be working on it this weekend and report back what I find. Thanks for the schematic.