I am having missing speech in my recently acquired Alien Poker. Sound effects all worked. The first course of action was to order new capacitors which I did. Next was to reflow the solder at the header pins. No improvement.

Afterwards, I start to go about replacing the sockets on the speech board with SIP sockets. I replaced one at a time, each time reinstalling and testing. The bottom 2 replacements went well and both worked just as before, missing speech and all. I replaced the 3rd top socket, and as I was removing one of the pins, I lifted a trace. Ok, superglue it down, installed the SIP sockets, checked continuity from the socket through the trace on the topside and backside, all good. I reinstall the chip, and now I have no sound at all.

I've attached pics of the chips before the replacements and of the backside after the replacement of the socket un question. I'm not sure if the lifted trace is the issue but it beeped out ok. I obviously screwed up somewhere.
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An after pic, and a pic of the repaired trace, 3rd from the bottom on the right column.

It beeps out ok to the end of the trace on top and bottom side.

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The 4th and 5th pin in that same column beep together, but I'm not sure if it did that before the replacement or not.

The fuses beep out good.

Wouldn't the sound work even with the speech board disconnected or not working?

I thought there might have been a bridge too, and I went in between the pads with a pick, but I'll go over it again and go in between each pad and try to get under the SIP socket as well.

I'll pull the schematics and take a look at them the next time I have a chance.

Ok, I'll take a closer look at the pins and get a toothpick or something to see if I can make the disconnection. Hopefully it's just that!

Just curious, in which picture do you think you see the splash?

Thanks guys. Good news is that I took a toothpick and ran it in between the pins and must have removed some solder because pins 4 and 5 dont beep out anymore and the sounds works again.

So now back to my original problem with some missing words, and no speech plays in test but does play in the game, but only some words.

Also, how do I verify ROMs? I dont have anything equipment to burn roms or anything like that.

The previous owner replaced the header pins on the MPU and the 40 Pin interconnect, both Male and female sides.

I'm not sure if he redid the crimps though.

Ok. Got the caps replaced and all the sockets on the speech and sound board replaced with SIP sockets. I'm still having issues with missing speech. Again, there is no speech in test, only sound effects but there is some speech during gameplay.

Would my next step be to replace all of the ROMs?

I would have to check. I know it says:
Alien
Poker
Joker
Raise

At minimum. I dont think I've hear other ones. I would replace all the roms anyway. Just have to order them (spacing out pinball purchases right now )

Yes, mine certainly does not have such a large vocabulary. It is quite limited. Some word will just play the "n" sound, so when you drain you last ball, it'll say "...n...n...n....n"

They do near the top of the leg, but the part of the leg that inserts into the sockets are fine. They've been reseated a couple of times now. The actual sound rom has 1 leg that looks like it'll break off if I handle it too much, so I'm avoiding messing with that one, since the sounds all work. I wouldn't have a problem taking 600 grit sand paper to the speech roms though, but I honestly don't expect it to work.

Can someone point out which ribbon cable I could use? I think it's a 40 pin cable, and I assume I can just get any 40 pin cable and cut it down to size?

I did open the speech board side, and it looks like a bunch of pins physically pierced through the cable. I assume, I just cut a length of cable and pierce it onto the connector?

I've been thinking about this approach. New ROMs are about half the price of a new board with new ROMs and a ribbon cable. Any reason other than stated above NOT to go with a new board instead at this point? As much as I'd like to keep and fix the original board, the new board is a more "sure" thing? I shouldn't have any reason to think that the sound board has any issue correct? As far as I know, all of the sounds are working. When I use the test button, all of the sounds cycle through with very little pause in between.

Do you have any recommendations?

I'll be honest, a lot of this is over my head, not knowing any of the jargon. Not that I couldn't learn, but I'm not familiar with any of it right now. I would need a "Eproms for Idiots" guide.

I've needed new roms for about 3 games now, and I spent <$100 so far on them, so it hasn't been something that I've sunk a ton of money on.

If you can post a picture and circle the IC, that would be helpful!

And can you post a link with what you replaced it with? I get confused because it seems that there are several options for a given chip and I'm not very PCB literate

I dont have access to another working board. This is my only Williams game at the moment, so I would have to order any new parts to try it out.

Do you know if this will work?
ebay.com link: 2pk 7442 Decimal Decoders 16 Pin Dip Package ICs

ok. i'll order them and give it a shot.

I already paid for the item. If anything I'm out $6.00 and I'll give yours a shot.

The seller has over 26K feedback and 100% positive, so there's that at least!

Installed the new 7442 IC and still having the same problem. Anything else before I try the new Souns ROMs?

New speech ROMs solved the problem!