Just a quick question to anyone that can help. I have a Bally Vector that's in fantastic shape but for one thing, the displays all have a very tiny flutter (not even enough to call it a "flicker") to them. Happens constantly at a steady pulse, and isn't even all that noticeable but I'd still like to find out the cause.The solenoid driver board has had the update mods done to it by the previous owner, and a new C23. Everything looks great, like good voltages on the displays (175v) solenoid driver board, MPU, but not the Lamp Driver board, the 5v is only 4.8 on it.

Is 4.8 too low? Could it be the cause of the display flicker/flutter/anomaly somehow?

I've re-flowed the solder on all the displays, checked voltages on them, pushed the wires in on all the connectors everywhere, pins look good, and this has all helped but I can't get rid of it entirely.

I tried running it without the auxiliary lamp drivers to see if they were what's causing it but no change.

I tried swapping in another working solenoid driver board, and a lamp driver board but no change. Both lamp driver boards were running at 4.8v. Where would the loss in votage be coming from, and again could it be the cause of this? Or? I've scoured the internet for every post I could find on the topic and so far I can't find the answer. Like I said it's not a big problem, I just hate it when things aren't right.

Thanks for any input, just some gratuitous pics below with no real connection to the post lol.

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I did measure the AC ripple on the C23 if that's what you're referring to? It measured 0.1 so that was good anyhow.

And thanks for the tip on the chicklet cap KenH, I will check into that, it's probably original. I'll report back any findings, thanks!

Wow, thanks for the effort Ken, much appreciated! I'll check on it after work today, might even have a cap laying around that will work.

Thanks for your input guys! I don't have a scope, or any way to check frequency on c26 (unless I can check it with my DMM?) I had a new Alltek board in another game that I decided to throw into Vector to see if it solved the problem and it did. This tells me it's something to do with the MPU. So I had an old MPU kicking around that I took a 0.1uF, 100V cap off to try on my C16. It did the trick! Only thing now is after playing a game I noticed my playfield score display (Vector has one under playfield) started acting up, the rest are fine. It looks like it loses power a little from time to time at certain points in the game, and goes very faint and choppy looking, and then it's fine... Could it be the cap I replaced? It wasn't new by any means, just worked better than my old one it seemed. I'll be pulling the display out to check the usual connections and soldering etc, but I have a hunch it has something to do with my work the mpu today... I've recently had it out and went over all that though so I don't know, I'm sure it never had this problem till now. Crap! I guess I should also check the connectors at the MPU to make sure the wires didn't come loose taking them on and off a few times...

A scope is top on my list of equipment to buy, and then an EPROM programmer.

Edit: Ok, it was the wires on the connectors coming a bit loose after removing them a few times. I guess new connectors might be in order as well! Thanks again everyone, and you were right Ken! Cheers.