Of all the games I have owned through the years, CFTBL has been the biggest, ongoing technical headache for me. Every time I think I have the game stabilized, something new always seems to go wrong with this game.
So here's the latest issue I need some help with: I'm having a great game tonight when suddenly the DMD goes blank and both flippers die. The game DOES NOT reset. The bowl popper randomly fires a few times as if a ball was there (not machine gunning, but firing every few seconds as if a ball were present) and the game keeps running.
The ball in play drains because I can't flip and the game ends normally (it was ball three). I can hear the game asking me to enter my initials, which I can't do because the flippers are dead and the DMD is blank.
There was no drama when the failure occurred,, meaning there were no big bangs from the backbox as if something shorted, no smoke, no odd or burning smells or other unusual things.
A couple of notes:
First, the game has a ColorDMD installed.
Second, about a year ago I had the power driver board completely gone through and rebuilt by John W because of resets. My baseline assumption is the power board is solid.
Third, I checked all of the fuses (out of line) both on the power driver board and the DMD board and they are all good.
Fourth, the game boots and will start just fine (albeit, with no flippers). When I do start a game, I get the same random bowl solenoid firing that occurred when the game initially failed. Here's a video of the game boot up and game start with the bowl popper firing and the DMD dark:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuNvMH5MAYNOj_sFqjFTCMuCnoFRuQ
Lastly, the ColorDMD appears to have no power.
The guide says for a blank DMD to check HV power from the DMD board -- but the ColorDMD isn't powered from the DMD board. So I'm not sure the DMD board is the culprit here. The LED on the DMD board is lit -- so the board is getting power.
I'm looking for suggestions on where to start diagnosing this. What's odd to me is the flippers and the DMD are both completely dead and the only thing really in common with those two things (IMHO) would be the power driver board or perhaps the CPU board.
It feels like something else has failed on the power driver board.
Any thoughts from the experts out there?
Thanks Pinside...