So Im playing a game and all of a sudden flippers go dead ball drains and no ball kick out. Go into coil test and none of my coils are working. The voltage cut off switch appears to be working as is shows it as disabled when coin door is open and goes away when you manually push the switch. Got to be a fuse somewhere, none in the back back appear to be blown, are there more in the cabinet and where?This sucks!

Are there fuses in the cabinet? If so where are they located?

It's not just the ball eject, all coils and flashers are not working.

Fuse F10 controls coils and flippers. Put a new fuse in and even without playing a game it burns that one out too. As soon as you turn the game on the fuse at F10 burns out. Something else is wrong, any ideas?

I reseated the connectors and already went through 2 fuses. At $5.00 a pop for 2 fuses this could get expensive quick. No schematics come with game? Where do I go from here? Instead of playing this pin I'm troubleshooting a brand spankin new game. How depressing.

Most likely there is a short circuit somewhere but where do you start? This fuse controls all coils and flashers in the game. Frickin ridiculous when you pay this kind of money for a game and I'm dealing with a pretty major issue.

What advice and where in the thread?

Yep game is on, all lamps working, display works, no coils and flashers. Fuse F10 blows shortly after turning game on.

Yep called Stern service but they must be gone for the weekend. The schematic shows F10 associated with J1 and J17, reseated and checked both, still blows the fuse. As mentioned earlier this controls all coils and flashers so it's gotta be a playfield wiring issue or in the power driver board somewhere.

I believe you. Why can't I test any of my coils then? Even the label in the back box says F10-coils and flashers 20 VDC. So the low voltage coils and flashers obviously. From what I can tell it also feeds back to J1? I will try the above and report back as I stepped away from the frustration for a while.

Ok tried the above and here are the results. F10 blows only when J6 is connected which are the flash lamps and low current solenoids correct? So now that is narrowed down what do I look for in that circuit? That is the playfield wiring to each of the flash lamps and low current solenoids correct? Once J6 is disconnected I can manually test the high voltage coils now so that's good. Another thing I noticed is that when J6 is disconnected the led lamp that shows below each fuse is off on F10 unless you engage the coin door then it gets power to the F10 circuit, thus when I plug J6 in it blows the fuse. Thanks for your help!

Very possible and makes sense. Checking the associated flashers that are on the playfield and associated with J6 pin 10.

Ace Hardware. Home Depot $4.00

Solved! Since I was directed towards the flasher low current solenoid circuit on J6, I started testing continuity on the flashers. Ovfdfireman was right, it ended up being a bad 89 LED lamp on the right side of the sparky flashers. I was getting continuity on those flashers to the left and right. Removed each lamp and tested the lamps. The right one had continuity between the outer casing of the lamp and the center pin. Once the lamp was removed continuity on the socket was gone. Since I didn't have a replacement 89 LED I just used a incandescent lamp. Game fired up and no blown fuse. I don't get it though, wouldn't the lamp just burn out instead of shorting the circuit? Is this only in LED's because I ran the same test on the incandescent lamp and it also showed continuity. I was reluctant to put the lamp in but went for it and turned out ok. How could just playing the game make that flasher short out all of a sudden. Is this true for all LED's? If so this is definitely a concern with all of the LED's in the machine. Is this a drawback to using LED's then? Thanks for all the help and direction! I'm back in business and having fun.

What is the deal, experiencing more problems with Metallica...I keep blowing fuses, first F5 7 amp, and F8 3 amp. I was able to replace the 7 amp fuse in F5 and I removed J9 from the board and I am able to put the fuse in F8. Therefore since J9 is removed that tells me there is something going on with the play field wiring. J9 controls high current solenoids, left pop, right pop, bottom pop, snake jaw, left sling, right sling, left flipper, and right flipper. I can visually see all the blue -## going to each coil except the snake jaw? I don't see anything loose and I don't see any diodes? What is going on here? When I check all the pins on the connector of J9, none have continuity to ground but all pins 1-7 have continuity to each other. Any help would be appreciated.

Anyone have a direction where I should troubleshoot next?

Isn't anybody else having issues with blowing fuses?

Chaz with Stern went over the issue with me and he concluded that it was a bad power board issue associated with the right lower pop bumper. As a warranty issue, Stern sent me a new power board, new coil and sleeve for the lower right pop bumper. After I replaced all parts I have had zero issues. Thanks Chaz and Stern! good to know they support their customers.