I am at my wits end with this machine and need to send my SAM boards out to someone to be looked over and possibly repaired. Suggestions??
(Topic ID: 181852)
Hopkins, MN
I think chris only does Whitestar Stern's and not SAM. I've been in talks with him the past few days about it. Thanks guys
Quoted from pintechev:Clive at Coin Op Cauldron
Spoke with Clive this morning and he does not do SAM
Quoted from PinballManiac40:What is wrong with the boards?
CPU has save and reset issues
Quoted from bigd1979:I thought i saw a post on Facebook where john or chris fixed a sam board....not sure which it was tho
John has no test bed for them yet and the components are to small for chris to work on
Quoted from DCFAN:Doesn't Stern have someone that fixes boards?
Stern will fix them themselves, but for the slow turnaround that I am hearing from people that have dealt with them I may as well buy a whole new board.
Quoted from sohchx:Stern will fix them themselves, but for the slow turnaround that I am hearing from people that have dealt with them I may as well buy a whole new board.
It would be nice if they had an exchange program to get re-furbished boards.
I repair SAM boards all the time. OP seems to want it repaired yesterday. Understandable, but my schedule just doesn't work that way.
Maybe it's time to implement a Priority Service system. I've tried to avoid such a thing because it just seems unfair to me, but seems like something people want.
--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com
Quoted from Borygard:I repair SAM boards all the time. OP seems to want it repaired yesterday. Understandable, but my schedule just doesn't work that way.
Maybe it's time to implement a Priority Service system. I've tried to avoid such a thing because it just seems unfair to me, but seems like something people want.
--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com
Might want to be careful with that. The people that want things done yesterday also tend to be the ones who give you the most headaches.
Quoted from Borygard:I repair SAM boards all the time. OP seems to want it repaired yesterday. Understandable, but my schedule just doesn't work that way.
Maybe it's time to implement a Priority Service system. I've tried to avoid such a thing because it just seems unfair to me, but seems like something people want.
--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com
Yeah I'd like to have it back asap. I completely understand your schedule restraints Rob so no worries, we all have them. Heck, I have to turn playfield restorations down on an almost daily basis because people want them done yesterday. I definitely hope to do business with you in the future though, being that I have heard nothing but great things about you since I first got into pinball. My thing is, my frustration has gotten to me with the thing and I've had it. I waited a whole month just for it to arrive and it has been problems ever since, then worse after I simply did an update. I got to enjoy it for maybe 2 weeks up until yesterday. I threw down a big chunk of change on the machine and just want to get back to playing and enjoying it. It's like buying a brand new car and the keys didn't come with it. It totally sucks.
Quoted from DCFAN:If you want it quick it may be worth your money to buy a new board and also have the bad one fixed in a normal repair time period so you will have a backup that you could always sell if you never needed it.
I had actually thought about that being a strong possibility.
Quoted from Borygard:I repair SAM boards all the time. OP seems to want it repaired yesterday. Understandable, but my schedule just doesn't work that way.
Maybe it's time to implement a Priority Service system. I've tried to avoid such a thing because it just seems unfair to me, but seems like something people want.
--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com
Usually the people in the biggest rush are the hardest to deal with. Turn around time can weed out headaches =P.
Quoted from sohchx:Stern will fix them themselves, but for the slow turnaround
What is the turnaround time that was quoted from Stern?
Did the board/game work when you got it or did it have problems when you acquired it?
I've repaired many SAM boards but if you don't know the full story on what happened (often, what someone did) when the board first showed problems they can be much more difficult to repair. Not to mention working with SMT components sucks.
Have you tried a different Driver board to rule that out?
Quoted from PinballManiac40:What is the turnaround time that was quoted from Stern?
Stern doesn't quote their turnaround time, no surprise there. What I was told today was that in order for Stern to do a repair the board or boards have to be sent to them through an authorized Stern distributor. I spoke with one of those distributors today and they said that they sent boards to Stern months ago, and they still have yet to be returned. For me that was an immediate turn off and a no go.
Quoted from ReplayRyan:Did the board/game work when you got it or did it have problems when you acquired it?
I've repaired many SAM boards but if you don't know the full story on what happened (often, what someone did) when the board first showed problems they can be much more difficult to repair. Not to mention working with SMT components sucks.
Have you tried a different Driver board to rule that out?
The game worked perfectly fine from the day that I got it, but had one issue where none of the settings would save to memory. Then ,two days ago when I did a system update it began having reset issues, was maxed at 255 credits, would not go above 37 in terms of volume, and would not start a game. I love working with SMT components and do it extensively on a daily basis as my job, so I wish that I knew exactly what was wrong because I would have no hesitation in doing the repair on my own. I did not try a different board as I really didn't want to risk damaging another one of my machines boards.
Quoted from sohchx:The game worked perfectly fine from the day that I got it, but had one issue where none of the settings would save to memory. Then ,two days ago when I did a system update it began having reset issues, was maxed at 255 credits, would not go above 37 in terms of volume, and would not start a game. I love working with SMT components and do it extensively on a daily basis as my job, so I wish that I knew exactly what was wrong because I would have no hesitation in doing the repair on my own. I did not try a different board as I really didn't want to risk damaging another one of my machines boards.
So the ram is corrupting for some reason. Can you check / replace the coin batter(ies). That should be a through hole part.
Another user posted about SAM games with memory save issues recently.
Quoted from barakandl:So the ram is corrupting for some reason. Can you check / replace the coin batter(ies). That should be a through hole part.
Another user posted about SAM games with memory save issues recently.
Battery was checked and at 3.00V. I also went as far as buying a second one brand new and installing it but the issue remained. Before this I searched all over here and through google for two days straight and found nothing on the issue. I also spoke by phone to Stern tech support and three other board repair person's and they all said that they had never heard of or seen such an issue and were baffled by what is going on.
The MPU board (CPU/Sound) has a problem that's a bit odd.
I worked with sohchx to test VBat at the test point, but not at the memory device itself, which (I think) is a very fine pitched static RAM. Getting those off is pretty easy. Installing a new one requires better equipment than I have at this time. I can fix some issues with S.A.M. boards, especially the driver boards, but when it comes to the very fine pitch surface mount parts, the options are much more limited. Same goes for the (modified) side of the WhiteStar (modified) CPU/Sound board. The left side of that board has several very, very fine pitched surface mount parts.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/contact
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info
Looks like U11 is the battery backed RAM. It is in a SO-32 package. The FM16W08 is also standard outline. They are half the pitch of standard dip parts. Not too bad to do even point to point. I can put it down OK as i do nvrams every day, but i dont have the gear to remove the original.
If you have a board to compare against, scope on all the CE, RW, OD legs and see if anything looks odd and work backwards. If all looks good, replace the ram????
If battery backed ram is U11 then it's doable. I guessed that U44 is where the data is stored.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/contact/
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info
1 month later
Alright guys I need some help if you could please. Sent my SAM board out for repair over a month ago and he can't fix it apparently, so he sent it to Stern without my knowledge, which probably means I won't see it again until Christmas. It would have been nice had I gotten a phone call or email telling me that the board was sent elsewhere, instead I find out after I called to see what the repair status was. With that being said I think I will just buy a brand new SAM in the mean time. I can no longer take staring at a pin that I paid allot for and cannot play. Now, this is the first time that I have ever needed to purchase a SAM board, so I don't know exactly what else it is that I need to get this running in my game as far as chips etc. nor do I know where to obtain them. Could anyone help please??
What I plan to purchase...
Quoted from sohchx:Alright guys I need some help if you could please.
I hope you can find out what number/version is in your game. I ran into some differences when I checked on one for POTC. Or call Stern tech support to see what will work in your game. Check Marco too.
LTG : )
Quoted from LTG:I hope you can find out what number/version is in your game. I ran into some differences when I checked on one for POTC. Or call Stern tech support to see what will work in your game. Check Marco too.
LTG : )
Will do thanks!!!!
11 months later
Horbury
Interested reading this as I have an Iron Man Vault Edition Pro with 520-52350-00 (sound/mpu) and 520-5249-00 power board. I'd like to know where it's possible to get replacement boards whilst I look into getting these fixed (I posted a thread on the problem on the forum).
I'm aware new boards are not cheap 
It seems there is some issue with UK compliant boards too, I'm in the UK and don't know if that really affects me or not. It's not like just buying a Williams power or MPU board 
Cheers.
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