I own a nice 1978 Earthshaker that worked for many years.

I have everything working and have played it numerous times but...

In order to play it, I must press the reset button on the motherboard.

I cannot get it to go into game mode no matter what I try.

I thought the auto/up man/down switch may be bad but i tried both bypassing and 'shorting' out that switch circuit with no changes. If I play it and than turn off and on again, it jumps back to programming mode.

I have the manual but have not been able to find anything relevant.

TIA.

Oops, yep.

This is the switch I have to press to get it to game mode.

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Battery was a little ugly but I don't think awful. Cleared out bad batteries and installed new high quality ones.

Best pic I have with me cropped from another.
The exposed one was by far the worst of the 3.
Batt 1 was 100% clean.

earthshaker2.PNG

Thanks. I'll check it out when I get home and take a better pic.

If they are bellow that point, what does it mean/ take to fix?

My meter is at my office, Ill have to remember to grab it.

Here is the area:

WIN_20140323_195952.JPG

Thank you all for the advise.

I'll get a new holder and install it as soon as possible. I'll post my results as soon as I can.

Seems odd that this has the potential to cause the issue I am seeing but it should be an easy fix to try first.

Any specific holder recommended or will any 3 battery unit due?

edit: Nevermind. Found what I needed and a nice tutorial. Thanks again.

When I thought about it, I had the right size compartment from a string of battery operated Christmas lights.

I installed it tonight but I get the adjust failure message upon start up.

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Thanks, I'll run through that tonight if I get home at a reasonable time.

Didn't realize you had to cycle it all.

I really should read the manual cover to cover.

Still not working right.

I went through and made all the changes I wanted and than could not get the program to save.

I believe the auto up/down switch is bad. When I was at 70, I jumped the auto up/down switch and than pressed advance. It did than go into the game mode, but did not save the program. When turned off/on, it went right back to 'Adjustment Failure' if door closed, 'Factory Reset' with door open. Seemed to be the same if I left the jumper in or left it out after entering game mode.

Any ideas?

Could the remote battery not be installed correctly? I do have +4.6v at the motherboard.

I figured it out. Diode D2 between the battery and pin 24 of the RAM U25 is bad.

I only get voltage on the banded side. Zip on the other.

Instead of trying to completely remove the diode from the board, can I snip off only the diode and solder the new one to the pigtails off the board?

I need to add thanks to the author of this webpage for thorough troubleshooting guide:

http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index3.htm

Replaced the diode tonight. That was the problem. It hasn't worked this well in years. Took the time to do a little tune-up. Also did new bulbs, soldiered a few connections from over the years, remote battery installed. I did decide not to remove the old one completely and just snipped off the diode. Got a nice bond so I am not worried. I had no desire to pull the board out of the chassis.

Does anyone know where to get the right red switch for auto/man? I need that and 1 box of 555 bulbs.

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