New Life Games LLC
Arcade Games, Pinball, Crane Games, Redemption Games and Other Stuff => Pinball Games => Topic started by: kmarrocco on November 11, 2020, 08:11:52 PM
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Hello,
I just picked up a Williams Sorcerer Pinball machine. The person who gave it to me said it is from 1984 and doesn't currently work. The model number on the back of it is 532. When I power it on, everything seems to light up but nothing else seems to happen. Any pointers on where to get started troubleshooting it? I would love to get it up and running. Thanks!
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Batteries likely dead or hopefully missing. Try turning it of and then back on quickly. If all is well, it should boot. (Would be great if it was only the batteries.) Otherwise, time to search for some System 9 Repair or Troubleshooting guides. Many to be found out there.
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Thanks for the advice. Upon looking at the battery area, the batteries are in it and have leaked out. I will have to look into it further as it has likely damaged the circuit board.
When I switch it off and then back on quickly, it does not boot.
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Hopefully there isn't too much corrosion on the board.
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Here is a YouTuber (Joe's Classic Video Games) that has lots of good pinball repair videos.
Some acid damage repair videos with in depth repair.
https://www.youtube.com/user/LyonsArcade (https://www.youtube.com/user/LyonsArcade)
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I just pulled the CPU board out. At first glance, the battery leakage doesn't look too bad on the circuit board. But the battery holder is corroded off. I notice that several of the connectors have pins broken off. Anyone know of a resource to check if this is normal based on configuration?
Also, there is some dark marks near 1J7 and the resistors in that area.....overheating?
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A couple more close up pics. Anyone know a good way to test out the board ar a place to shop it to for testing/diagnosis? It looks like tested replacements are hard to find and pricey.
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Thank you for the YouTube link and the advice so far, it has been very helpful. I spent some time this weekend watching videos and was able to power up the MPU board outside of the machine and am getting a "1" on the seven segment display. From what I read this is likely a problem with the U18 chip. I had already ordered a 6116 nvram battery eliminator chip to replace this off of Ebay, so now I need to wait for it to arrive to try it out. I will update when I have more information/progress.
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I replaced U18 with a 6116 nvram chip hoping this would fix the issue and it did not. I am currently waiting on some other parts associated with the memory protect circuit (U16, U34, U41, U43, Q52) to see if they fix the issue. Those parts should arrive on Friday for me to try out. But I am wondering if there are other tests or checks that I can be doing in the meantime. Any advice or suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Side note: I am also noticing that the relay (K1) does not engage every time I power on the board. I am not sure it is related to the error code 1, but I find it interesting and it may be a second problem.
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So after finding issues with the reset circuitry and some other chips, I found that the driver chip for the 7 segment display was bad and giving me invalid digits on the display. The replacement part arrived (U8) and I put it in and now I am getting valid data on the seven segment display. I am getting the wonderful "0" meaning everything is booting properly. I still need to get a few power resistors for 3 of the light driving circuits, but am able to put the MPU board back in the cabinet and play. The remaining list of items to resolve is getting shorter, so this is progress.
Next issue is that the sound and speech seems to only work at the initial power on. I noticed that when I turn the cabinet on and hit start, it says "Sorcerer" and then as I play it plays a few sounds and then the sound stops. When I press SW2 on the MPU board for the sound test it makes some noise briefly but sounds kind of garbled and then stops. I have also tried the diagnostic test through the cabinet menu and it seems to play some sounds but perhaps not all of them (I don't know what a known good test sounds like). It is playing no sound on "00", playing sounds on "01" through "04", says "Feel" on "05", and there are no sounds on "06" and "07". Any diagnostic tests recommended or common problems that may solve this one?Any diagnostic tests recommended or common problems that may solve this one?
Lastly, the player 4 display (7 digit) is shot....wondering if anyone has a good source for just the one display or has an extra they would like to sell. I may just leave it as is because they are quite expensive on ebay.
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If you haven't run across this in your travels, try this link for information: https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11
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Have you investigated Rottendog replacement boards?
I use these in most of my restorations where the client isn't concerned about the machine having the original boards.
Just FYI... :)