I've had this Blue Chip for a few years. Every once in a while when you go to start a new game on the backglass it would count the balls up to 10 and the stepper unit kept going. You could just power it off and try to start a new game and it would work but now the stepper keeps running no matter how many times I power the game on and off.

I thought it was a problem with the ball count unit so I just now took a look at it. If I manually activate the step up and down coils it steps up and down cleanly. Everything looks clean and I'm thinking I serviced it when I first got the game. I'm not an EM tech but any stretch of the imagination so I could have done something wrong but it worked correctly for a while so I'm thinking it's something else telling the ball count unit to keep stepping.

Does anyone know what I need to look at next?

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance!

There is a post that sticks out, but when the stepper keeps firing it's on the opposite end of the spectrum- see pic. This is the position when I turn it off and it says ball # 10 on the backglass.

I found the extra ball jones plug, unplugged it, no change, even switched it over to "credit" then "novelty" positions but no change. I cannot find any jones plug labeled special; I looked all over the mechanical panel, underside of playfield and in the backbox. Do you know where I can find it?

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The Jones plug that I found has 6 pins and the connector has two pins on it. I have attached a picture of it.

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Yes, both the coin and reset relay are pulled in as the ball count unit continues to step.

I blocked the switch you are referring to and the ball count unit is not stepping. When I go to push the start button the coin relay just makes a buzzing / vibrating sound.

Thanks for the info! When i get a chance I will check the switch on the game relay you mentioned. The game is currently set on 5-ball so I will find/figure out what switch 5B is and check it out. Would it make sense to move to 3 ball to see if the problem follows?

I went over the ball count relay when I got the game; all of the wipers and contacts are clean. I will check the pressure on the wipers and to make sure they aren't touching the next trace.

Yes, the score motor keeps running.

The switch on the game relay that connects the yellow wire to the red-white wire does open.
I'm set up for 5 ball. Score motor switch 5B does open and I see no evidence of any shorts.

I thought I would try switching the jones plug from 5 ball to 3 ball. The first time I went to start a game it counted up to 3 balls and stopped on ball 3 instead of going to 10. I completely forgot the game did this- it counted the bonus up on the playfield to max and everytime it counted up the bonus I noticed it also fired the outhole kicker. It only did all of this once, then I went to start another game on 3 ball and it the ball count unit kept stepping. I changed it back to 5 ball with the same results.

Yes, the score motor keeps running.

I tested it with the switch open that has the red/white and yellow wires. At first I got .8 ohm then I spun the score motor, when 5B opened it got an open circuit, no continuity.

Can you tell me which plug is for the 1 coin 1 play/2 coin 3 plays adjust? I did the 5 and 10 cent adjust, a couple of the others plugs in the front that I thought might be the 1 coin/2 coin, tried in different combinations, but no change in behavior.

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Ok, I can ask fellow blue chip owners where the 1 coin 1 play/2 coin 3 plays adjust is if you think it will help us diagnose.

I have the game set on free play and I start a game just by the start button.

Last night I noticed a spark on one of the switches on the score motor but I can take a closer look tonight and report back.

I really appreciate all of the help you have provided so far!

Cool! I think that is the one to the left of the fuses in my picture. I tried unplugging it and several combinations with the 5 and 10 cent jones plugs but it acted the same way the whole time.

I messed with it a little at lunch. I stood the playfield up so I could see the relay bank mounted under the playfield and look for sparks there and elsewhere. The only sparks I saw were on the score motor relays. I then unplugged the jones plug for the 1 coin/1 play and something interesting happened when I tried to start the game next time. The score motor and ball count unit ran for about 15 seconds then one of the chimes rang, the score motor quit, it was on ball 5 on the backglass and I heard a coil stuck on. I figured out it was the coil for the 10,000 score reel. I tried it a few more times; it wouldn't do it everytime, but maybe every 3 out of 5 times.

Does what I described above indicate anything or should I go ahead and do the procedure you described in the above post?

I'm not sure if it reset correctly; I'm guessing it did. I figured out what was going on with the 10,000 score reel- it was what you said; one of the spinners was stuck on from the playfield being stood up.

I was messing with it more and it appears to have something to do with the bonus unit. I figured out that most of the time if the bonus unit is at the home position and I go to start a game it will go to 5 ball and play normally. Sometimes the bonus unit will keep counting and so will the ball count. Sometimes the bonus unit will keep counting and if I drain the ball it will end the game. Sometimes at the start of a ball it will count up to a random amount of bonus and it will play normally unless the bonus maxes out.

I manually stepped up and down the bonus unit and it operates cleanly.

Any ideas on this? I do kind of remember it adding random bonus amounts, but not sure if it maxed out or not.

No, sorry. I got carried away with the whole bonus count discovery.

When it starts a 5 ball game the coin relay does not lock on so I did not do as described in reply # 25. I can try unplugging the jones plugs that mentioned in 27. I'm guessing you want me to unplug all 3 that you mentioned in reply # 19 and/or try them in different combinations?

The coin relay was locking on when the ball count unit wouldn't quit stepping. Yesterday the ball count unit started working somewhat regularly; sometimes going to 5 ball and sometimes going to 10, sometimes it would keep stepping as before so inconsistent results. I believe this is due to the bonus unit which is what I was trying to get it at in post # 28.

I don't know if it's supposed to do this or not but when the ball count unit continuously steps so does the bonus unit from what I observed last night.

I had some time to mess with the game tonight. For a while it would not do like it originally did to where the score motor would keep running and the ball count unit would keep stepping. Eventually it went back to this and I did as suggested in post # 25 and inserted a piece of paper between the switch on the coin relay. The score motor stopped and so did the ball count unit. When I removed the piece of paper the score motor and ball count did not activate again. I'm pretty sure the coin relay let go when I put the piece of paper in there and that's why it didn't reactivate.

I had a couple different results when I checked the continuity as we did in post # 17. With the relay pulled in and the switch open at first I got 63 ohm then got 0 ohm when I rotated the score motor. I switched the jones plug to 3 ball and got 1.7 ohm, spun the score motor and got 0 ohms. I then went back to 5 ball and I got 0 ohms with the score motor in both positions, not sure what was the cause of this. Last time I checked this I got the correct reading of right around 1 ohm and then 0 when I spun the score motor and it opened 5B.

I will have to double check the game relay switch to see if it releases the coin relay. I messed with it last night, but I was only able to get one switch to do anything on the game relay and it made the ball count stop stepping when I opened it. I am going to say more than likely it did not release the coin relay because the score motor kept running and the score motor stops when the coin relay releases.

It sounds like this is more likely the culprit since I do have the same problems in 3 ball games. How would I go about testing this, run a test wire from the jones plug socket to where it goes on the score motor for both wires?

I tried for about an hour and twenty minutes to get back to where I was yesterday when opening the appropriate score motor didn't change the resistance but I couldn't get it do it today; I tried both 3 and 5 ball settings. I tugged on and moved around the wires on both switches on the score motor and the 5ball / 3ball jones plug but no change of any sort that I noticed.

I thought I would shoot a video to show you what it's doing and how it usually won't act the same way twice in a row.

Do you think this a problem at start up or during game play also?

I have both problems figured out and kind of fixed. When staring at and checking things this weekend I noticed the bonus relay stayed pulled in even after the power was off then it would release. By manually engaging it I could get it to stick. I put a piece of electrical tape behind the armature plate and the bonus unit quit acting so erratically. I still get 5000 points, the minimum bonus, lit at the start of a ball, but I will probably start a separate thread on that. I suspected maybe the same problem on the coin relay even though I couldn't really get it to stick manually so I put electrical tape on that one and it helped, but upon reset I still get some weird behaviors, but much much better than before.