I picked up a Black Sheep Squadron a few days ago. In excellent cosmetic condition, but not working right at all.

At power on, the MPU doesn't always go through all of it's flashes. If the game sits for a while, you can power it up and it will complete all flashes and start up a game, but the mpu light goes out and all goes dead but the GI. If you turn it back on within a short amount of time, the MPU doesn't even get through all of the flashes before the lights on the MPU go out.

So, first things first: check power board. All voltages are solid and present. Next, check for cold solder joints. Found cold solder joints on all boards in the back box (mpu, lamp driver, solenoid driver, and power board.)

All connectors were cleaned up and re-flown. I removed all chips in sockets, cleaned their legs off, and reinstalled them.

Put it all back together. No change.

**Although, I would like to mention that I can almost guarantee that I saved myself headaches later on by doing all of those steps, as those things are usually critical to getting these old solid state games going reliably. Don't mess around with old boards until you've taken these steps. Then you can see where the game is really at.**

From here, I tried swapping the PIA chips. No change.

Replaced the 6800 chip. Bingo!

We are now getting through all of the flashes every time and not losing power ever. You can now play a game!

There are lights out, and the score displays are still flickering away, and there are 2 displays with 1 full digit out. A 1's digit on one and a 10,000's digit on another.

Went into test mode, all switches tested good. All solenoids tested good. Displays all step through proper numbers with the exception of above mentioned digits out.

Re-flow and clean display connector and display glass. No change on either display with a digit out. Change the associated resistor with that digit on each display and the digits are now all working on all displays.

Displays are still flickering away, but have all digits. Check voltage in the HV section on the solenoid driver board. Voltage won't adjust to over 130. Problem found.

Swapped out a known working solenoid driver board from another game that has the HV dialed in at recommended 170V (in this case it came out of a Bally Blackjack). Display flicker is gone! Astro board needs the HV section rebuilt and re capped. Parts ordered (same as bally board HV kits).

Onto the lights, removed 100% of lights in the game and installed all new #47 lamps in place of the older 44's that were there. All lights are working now except for one in the bonus section. Pulled the lamp driver board, found associated transistor as per manual/schematics and put a new one in. Lights are all working and game is now up and going 100%.

Sweet!

Rebuilt the HV section on the solenoid driver board and this project is complete. Another one bites the dust.

I don't remember it being on Craigs List, I've bought a few games from Seth in Dundee and he had messaged me that he had it so I went out and picked it up. Very nice shape too.