Hi everyone, first time posting in here.

Recently I played my game for a few hours and the dmd start to get glitchy until it just wouldn’t come on, and then the game wouldn’t power on.

I reseated the ribbon cable and this let the game boot and the dmd right back up so I ordered new ribbon cables from Marcos.

Put the new ribbon cables in and the game now boots but the dmd is really displaying different random sections on/off very time I turn it on.

I tried to mix and match old ribbon cables with new ribbon cables until I settled in the new set. This time I went to power the game on and nothing.

I unplugged all the ribbon cables except from power to cpu. Fired right up, added the fliptronics board and sound board and everything works fine up until I plug the ribbon cable from the fliptronic board to the dmd board. When I do that, the game won’t power up.

The ribbon from the power board to the dmd board connected still allows it to turn on.

Regardless of the combination, the dmd still shows intermittent. I left it on for a while and played some games, looks like some of the dmd woke up a bit and displayed most of the dots but still not clearly.

I’m about to see if pushing on the U9 chip affects it tomorrow. Also if there are cold solder joints under the connector for the ribbon cable on the dmd board.

Any other thoughts??

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Here’s the back of the dmd board. My friend suggested the high voltage area be replaced.

I tried pressing on the rom chips and the u9 chip and checking for visual cold solder.

None of that worked so I’m afraid it’s the board.

One thing to note. When I turn on this pin I hear like a good jolt of electricity sort of flow through the speakers. Almost like a pop. It’s has flipper fidelity in it. As does my dr dude but I only hear it on this game.

Not sure if that helps or means anything.

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I did find this before posting.

Pressed down on the u9 chip along with every other ram/rom chip and nothing altered the fact that when I plugged the ribbon cable from the sound board to the dmd board it wouldn’t turn on. What lights were on the dmd did not get any better on the DMD either.

I’m assuming it’s that high voltage portion for the dmd board but I will post an image of the back of the dmd itself first.

Would love to get a color dmd in there.

Test the DMD controller board in another pin just now and it worked just fine. I'm going to try and get a photo of the back of the DMD. The fishy thing is (see what I did there) that when I don't have the top ribbon cable plugged into the DMD controller board, it fires up and plays fine. When I go ahead and plug that ribbon cable in, it doesn't even start up the game.

Could it be voltage related?

I finally got time to look at it today. I reseated the cable at all four connections and still doesn't start up. I even tried the ribbon cable going from the power board directly to the dmd board and still doesn't power up. For some reason, it doesn't like that cable in that spot.

I was able to check the voltages at the harness from the power board and for 5.1 for the 5v and 17.8 for the 12v.

I tested the harness at the dmd coming from the DMD controller board and got:

5v at the 5v
13 at the 12v
59 at the 62v
92 at the 113
113 at the 125

It didn't matter if the DMD ribbon cable is connected or not to the DMD, as soon as I plug in J601 the machine will not turn on.

Any thoughts?

I’ve tried with the dmd connected and not connected. Doesn’t make a difference. The only thing that dictates if the game powers up is if the ribbon cable is disconnected from the dmd controller board.

Any clue and what to do. The dmd controller board I know works in another pinball. Why is this ribbon cable being plugged in stopping it from booting?

I installed all new ribbon cables and reseated all power connections and issues persists. If ribbon cable is plugged into DMD controller board, it will not boot. DMD it plugged in doesn’t affect this so it’s data I assume coming in from ribbon cable that is screwing something up.