Make sure you have current flowing to the socket. If not it could be a damaged wire/connector or a problem on the lamp board. If all good there (which will be more often than not) you need to deal with the socket itself. What you are going to find out is that Bally used cheap bulb sockets. You can try spraying modern electrical conductivity enhancer in the socket and push the bulb in/out several times to try to get it to come back to live. If all else fails then change the socket. If the former was true and there is no wire/connector issues you will probably need to change the corresponding transistor(s) on the lamp board to fix it.

BTW .. cool game to get as a HUO one. Let’s see some more pictures!

Mike V

The scr’s to check are:
High score to date Q15
Ball in play Q16
2 can play Q18
2nd player up Q19
The first 2 are mcr106-1
The last 2 are 2n5060

Use up the #44 bulbs if you have them, they work just fine for now.

The larger bulbs are likely #63 (7v) bulbs for the flashers. Look closely at the base the bulb number is either printed or stamped into the side of the base.

Check to be sure.

Dont get into LED's yet. Its quite a journey.

Yoppcicle led sticks are what you want to LED a playboy.

https://www.cometpinball.com/products/yoppsicle-led-stick

47s are another option as they produce less heat and are less damaging on the paint/inserts. LEDs are the best for overall BUT they will require at a minimum an upgrade/change of the lamp board. Yoppcicles are a good choice but will require the most work.

Mike V

I get all my boards from Allteksystems for early Bally and Stern SS.

They are available.

You can also send them out for repair, which is preferred since your game is home use only.

There are many repair people to choose from here on pinside.

Coin op cauldron

Chris hibler

And a few others.

Go thru the basic troubleshooting here:

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Bally/Stern

Things are never what they seem.

Most problems are related to loose/corroded connections or wires that fell off or lose corroded or blown fuses..

Most repairs are easy enough to do if you just do a little research and take your time.

The major advantage to LED’s is the lack of heat that they produce. This lack of heat will serve to preserve the backglass and plastic inserts that are an integral part of the game.

If you just put in LED’s they will tend to flicker. There is a simple method to address this and I think Alltek as well as others have a plug and play modification to address this flickering.

I recently rehabbed a PB and went with LED’s but also all new lamp sockets as has been mentioned, the originals were not very good.

Yoppsicle’s are certainly an option but I chose to keep it more original and use new lamp sockets. It was just an effort to keep it more original and if one wanted to could always put incandescent’s back in or, change the leds easily to another color temp or color all together.

Great game. Fast. Fun. Easy to play without having a phd.

Enjoy!!

Comet as well as Marco sell the plug and play flicker preventers. They go in the lamp driver board. There is one wire that is then attached to the braid inside the back side of the backbox which provides power. Ten minute install fir even a novice if you choose to go that route

If batteries are still on the board get them off. Either remote mount them or replace the 5101 chip with a nvram

#44 lamps are also responsible for rectifier board female connector burn marks, because of the extra current draw of the many 44’s used in the backbox general illumination. 47’s or 1847’s are a better choice.

I’d check the other options before sending a board for repair or getting a new one. Your weakest links are the light sockets and the connectors. You are only working with six volts. Open the head and wiggle the bulb in the socket, wiggle the tab on the back of the socket, and wiggle the connector (slightly pulling it partially off and on). If no change, it’s time to learn how to use a meter. The game is 45 years old. Eventually, you will need to troubleshoot. Lighting is probably the easiest place to begin.

You'll get better replies on one of the Solid State forums. This is Electro Mechanical.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-efficiently-ask-for-pinball-repair-help-em

I want to see more pics of the game itself -

I got my first game 2 1/2 years ago, also the Playboy. This is my machine before LED and after. For me, the reasons to use LEDs far outweighed the reasons why I shouldn’t.

656D7915-8FA8-46D8-8753-9608FFAAC56C (resized).jpeg