(Topic ID: 139066)
Linked Games
Tri Zone
Williams, 1979
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Findlay, OH
Repairable? Yes.
However, there's a lot of time and effort that would be needed. It's the labor charges that would be a determining factor. In this case, I would buy either a rebuilt original boardset or go with purchasing modern reproduction boards.
That's kind of like giving up before trying. The main rom is missing, I think I should at least try that before investing in a whole new board set. Replace the battery holder, test/replace components, maybe redo the connector... Any other suggestions pinsiders?
IMO you got it so cheap that I'd have to agree with what Ken says and just send the board in for repair or replace them all together. If you had spent considerably more on the machine then it would make more sense to at least try to repair it yourself. If you feel confident that you'd be able to get it to do something, definitely go for it!! I deal with board repairs everyday, but on automobiles so I have the knowledge and means to do the repairs but no way to thoroughly test afterwards when it comes to game boards. Some I was 100% successful with, others were just so bad that my repair wasn't enough so I sent them out. That board actually looks like a good candidate for self repair and I'd definitely take it on if it were me. I like that those boards have the battery holder in the lower right instead of near or at the top like other manufacturers. Make sure you reflow all those Molex's also.
Toronto, ON
Neutralize that acid with some vinegar. Use this to guide you along https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-bulletproofing-williams-system-6
The linked guide from eh97ac is spot on in regards to tackling corrosion. Get a good size fiberglass burnishing brush/pen and physically remove the corrosion followed by the vinegar treatment. Be careful when burnishing or desoldering corroded areas/components as the corrosion can/does eat away at the metal material which can cause traces to fall off and through holes to fall apart. Such damage may be inevitable but usually can be repaired with a good stitch. I think both boards are viable candidates for rescue but to be honest you should consider the hours and money that will be needed vs. getting a new board(s). It shouldn't take long searching around to find a good system 3-6 MPU and Driver board for a fair price. If you have the tools and can solder well enough this can be a "fun" adventure project.
I was leaning more towards the fun/adventure/learning side for this project. If I totally screw up the board(s), oh well, there's always rottendog, and I work for cheap when working for myself, so nothing really to loose, just lots of tinkering and experience to gain.
It's repairable. You'll need to be patient though. Anything the corrosion has touched needs to be cut out, neutralized and cleaned up til you have nice shiny clean traces. Then replace everything you removed with new parts and test/debug.
If you're looking for some inspiration I recommend this five part series of this Stern Galaxy - Extreme Repair.
There is a part that touches base on some decent battery damage as well and he brings it back to life. Educational and even entertaining video if you're into electronic/pinball repair.
Boards are out, battery holder removed. I purchased a fiberglass burnishing pen and scratched out a lot of corrosion. Then, cleaned with 50/50 white vinegar/distilled water and followed with denatured alcohol to clean up the mess. Here are the after pictures. I noticed some issues with the 40 pin connector. The female side is missing a few contacts and the male pens are corroded, looks like both will be replaced...
You'll need to do more than just use a fiberglass pen. In some areas (the dark green spots) you will need to scrape away the solder mask to expose the trace so that you can remove the corrosion. You may have to sand off the corrosion, scrape it, or hit it with a Dremel and a wire brush. The main thing is to get rid of it and neutralize it no matter what your method.
Still gotta remove the chips so you can eliminate the damage under them. Read the first few pages of the bullet proofing thread I post before. Put an order in to Ed at GPE for the driver and mpu board components. Add in the chips you will be ripping out + some spares and SIP sockets. You'll have this thing reliably up and running. While you are at it, your MPU will thank you if you smooth out the power on you PS https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=W36-PEC-KIT
Quoted from eh97ac:Still gotta remove the chips so you can eliminate the damage under them.
Yes, I didn't mention that but if this wasn't part of the plan it needs to be. I've worked on plenty corroded boards that were "repaired" by cleaning up the corrosion and not going far enough. Later the board fails again. I've also repaired boards there were "fixed" by removing the IC, installing a socket and new IC, but the underlying corrosion was not removed before installing the socket. They also failed again. Do it right and do it once.
2 weeks later
Well, progress has been made. MPU passes the diagnostic test and I can get to attract mode, which seems to work perfectly. I can ground out the start button and get a game to start, but only 1 flipper will flip, the other is very sluggish. Most switches work, but some do not. The pop bumpers, kick out, sling shots, ball return, and drop targets do not work. Sound seems to work fine. Any ideas on why all these major components do not work?
Try running the solenoid test and see if any of them work. It sounds like you listed just about all the solenoids so it may be a open fuse. As for the flippers I highly recommend a complete rebuild kit like the one found here:
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1159
But I'm not sure how far/how much you want to invest into this pin as I could definitely recommend a few more parts if you would order.
As far as the credit score thing I'm actually not too sure at the moment. When player four scores does it 'score' on the master display board?
2 years later
So, a lot of time has passed and this machine had not made much progress until recently. The boards proved to be more work to kill the corrosion than I wanted to invest. I picked up a set of boards (MPU & driver) from a parted out Alien Poker. When I plugged in the new boards, the game fired up into attract mode with the Alien Poker rom installed. One difference between the board sets is that the new ones only use 3 rom chips on the bottom row (2 green flipper roms and the game rom) while the original set used 5 chips and appeared to be missing the game rom, but still started a game. I still don’t understand how that happened. Anyway, my issue now is that the game sometimes starts up in audit mode, not attract mode. I have been able to quick cycle the power and get it into attract mode until earlier today. The game would not come out of audit mode. Out of desperation, I removed the CMOS 5101 (not soldered to board) and reseated it. Then fired up the game and it surprisingly went into attract mode. Then it even started a game. All seemed well and I shut it off. Does anyone know why removing the CMOS and reseating would have fixed this? I’m guessing the issue will pop back up sooner than later, but I would like to permanently fix the issue.
1 week later
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