Welcome, nice choice for first pinball. Let's give you a few first pointers and a few links....

The 5 "bomb dropping" noises and the ding are OK. If the display was working, you'd be seeing an error message about Factory Settings being restored, which is because the batteries are missing. The correct action then is to press the button in the coin door, which resets things and lets you continue. If the batteries were in place, you'd only get that first time around.

So - yes, the machine will run without batteries, but you'll need to get through the factory settings message each time before you can play.

The 5 flashes you originally were telling you that U41 was bad (probably from the battery corrosion looking at the picture), so nice job replacing it. Continuous flashing is what it should do if it's running properly.

For the power supply, as usual check the fuses. The power supply board is the one top right inside the backbox, check all the fuses there. It's not uncommon for the high voltage section for the display to blow on an old machine, so if you replace a fuse and it blows again it'll need some more looking at.

Some more resources which you'll find invaluable.....

IPDB (internet pinball database). The F-14 page is here, you can download a copy of the manual with schematics if you don't have one already.....

http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=804

Pinwiki. This is a constantly growing collection of information on repairing and maintaining pinball. This is the link to the section relevant for F14 (which is a "system 11" pinball).

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11

Pinrepair. This was originally "the" place to go for repair information. The site was taken down a few years back as the information was getting outdated, and also because pinwiki was up and coming. There are a few mirrors kicking around though, this is one of them. Some links are possibly broken, but still worth nosing around.

http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index1.html

Feel free to post away with more questions, we're a friendly bunch (mostly!)

Mark

Major congrats! An excellent first pickup! The PinWiki/Pinrepair are excellent sites/guides. I just used them yesterday to fix my F14 displays.

As snug mentioned the next step would be checking fuses. I'm guessing if you can replace that U41 you probably already know this, but you want to take the fuse (at least one end) out of socket to test its continuity. The next step would be to test your voltages to make sure you are getting 100V. If that all tests out, if you have a friend nearby with a working display that you can swap in would be the easiest/fastest way to diagnose if it is the display or something on the board. If not I would check the solder joints at the inputs I would replace the ribbon cable.

You might find with your first pinball if its not running really well you will spend more time fixing it then playing it. But it depends if you like tinkering more then playing. In hindsite i should have paid the cashola and gotten someone to fix it, play it and then slowly learn about pinballs.

For me its way more fun playing pinballs rather then fixing them. Thats my 2 cents. Heaps of info about repairs are out there, just takes time.

System 11 are awesome games

Nice work!

Sounds like something may be wonky in you high voltage section. Knocker wires being cut is pretty common. At least four of my system 11's had their knocker cut.

Here is the section from pin repair on displays

"Blown high voltage score display Fuse(s) in the Backbox.
Every system 11 game at least one fuse to protect the +100 and -100 voltages which power the score displays. Later games have more than one fuse. These are located in fuse holders in the backbox. If these fuse(s) are blown, try replacing them, and power the game back on. If they blow again immediately, you will probably need to rebuild the high voltage section of the power supply board.

Also a blown UDN7180 chip on the master display board can cause the high voltage fuse(s) to blow on the power supply board. These chips can short the +/- 100 volts directly ground, and blow the fuse."

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

After several months of dinking around with my System 11 Space Station, I now have a perfectly working and fun machine. I had issues with my aux power board among many others. I found the following two links to be very helpful, both referenced above

http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index1.html

http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11

Also not much on System 11 machines but loads of more info at

http://pinballrehab.com/

I am now starting on my second machine, a 1980 Bally Skateball.

Disconnect all the cables from the display, replace the fuse again and power up. If it blows again it's the power supply. If not, it's the display (probably).

You have another couple of options for fixing. The high voltage section is prone to blowing in an old machine. A number of vendors sell kits containing just the components you need to rebuild it. Given you're obviously handy with a soldering iron, should be an easy 'tinker'. Less than $4. Worth a go.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=wan-hvp-kit

Replacing the power supply with a more modern version is also an option, as you suggest. The final more expensive option is to replace all the displays with LED versions, lots of vendors for those. They don't require the high voltage supply and run from the 5v (and some 12v) in the machine. If you fit those, you can remove the 100v fuses. You're likely looking around $200 for new displays though, so the other options are cheaper.

I've had about a half a dozen system 11's. The rebuild kit works just fine, but you are getting ahead of yourself. You really should isolate and diagnose before throwing $$$

It may not be the PS. It could be a bad connector or shorted connector going to the display. Your problem is very isolated. Take the thirty minutes or so to diagnose. I have the afternoon off and will look at my F14/schematics today and post a bit more detail n where and how to check the voltages, etc.

As Snux has mentioned remove the display and fire it up. That will help rule out the display. If you are going to order new parts replace the ribbon cable going to the display as a precaution. They tend to be problematic. Luckily there aren't too many on the 11's.

If you do need and get a new modern power supply, send the old one in for repair and keep as a backup. Or see if the place you buy the new one will take it as trade in or fix it and you can sell it...

I would recommend getting one of these from Great Plain. They are handy to have on hand if you have a pin. Also GPE is an excellent source for many pinball bits. I use them quite a bit. Great prices on the components and low shipping.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/products.asp?cat=56

This thread goes into how to make your own. It will save you from blowing up fuses while you figure out what is going on.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/making-and-using-a-fuse-breaker

If you're just wanting to see if the power supply will blow with the display disconnected, you can use the 1/2 amp. If the power supply is bad, it'll probably blow the 1/2 amp too. Those breakers are cool though, one of the things that you don't need very often but are great when you're trying to dig around a knotty problem.

*** Williams System 11 Power measurements and test points ***

Logic power
MPU IJ17 Pins 4,5,6 = +5.03 VDC @8.1 mV AC ripple
U26/U27 ROM Pin 1 = +4.91 VDC

Audio power
MPU IJ17 Pin 9 = -14.04 VDC (Unregulated)
MPU IJ17 Pin 8 = +12.02 VDC (Unregulated)
Audio board U11 (U17 on Sys11B) Pin 8 -13.9 VDC @250 mV AC ripple
Audio board U11 (U17 on Sys11B) Pin 4 +11.8 VDC @50 mV AC ripple

Controlled lamp power
PS 3J4 pins 5,6,7,8 (Sys11A) or backbox bridge 6BR1 (Sys11B)= +15VDC to +18VDC nominal.

General illumination power
PSU 3J8 (Sys11A) or Interconnect board output 2P7 (Sys11B) = 4.5 VAC to 6.3 VAC nominal

Display power
3J5 pin 3 (Sys11A) or 3J2 pin 3 (Sys11B) = +90 to +110VDC nominal
3J5 pin 4 (Sys11A) or 3J2 pin 1 (Sys11B) = -90 to -110VDC nominal

Flipper power
Game specific@flipper supply board outputs= +65 to +75 VDC nominal

Solenoid power
PS 3J3 pins 6,7,8 (Sys11A) +32 to +35 VDC
Interconnect board F1/F3 (Sys11B) +41 VDC
Interconnect board F4 (Sys11B) +75VDC

NOTES
Reference test games used:
Williams Pinbot - System 11A/D-8345-549 PS
Williams F-14 Tomcat - System 11A/Rottendog WDP-011A PS
Williams Taxi - System 11B/PinScore PJ-12246 Rev. B PS

Nice work! Check the connectors and the pins going to and from the display board. See if anything is broken or a miss. The ribbon cables are notorious for acting up. At this point I just get new ribbon cables whenever I pick u a new machine. I was tracing an issue for days on my BSD that turned out to be a bad cable.

Marco has them for 10.00. And you can stock up on some fuses too.

Marco or Great Plains. Great Plains tends to be cheaper on both fuses and cables.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/categories.asp?cat=99

Yes, it does. Most likely (not certainly) some part on that display board is a lot warmer than it should be when you have that board in. You might try, very carefully, touching some parts on the board.

Which display did you buy?

I would return it and buy the Xpin displays. I installed one in my F14 today in under 5 minutes and it looks amazing. He has a version for both the early and late machines. No modification required.

http://www.xpinpinball.com/shop/catalog/xp-wms11415

http://www.xpinpinball.com/shop/catalog/xp-wms11610

You may want to take a reading and see how much juice they are getting. It could be related to what took out your previous display. It could not. I wouldn't do this though if you are planning on returning/exchanging it.

While never impossible to have two failed display boards, very unlike - but it is common to have problems caused by failed ribbon cables. If you have already ruled out the cable, I would say you have a problem with the CPU board.

The *usual* pattern of failure for these is the switch gets stuck on for one reason or another (bumped,improperly gapped) and this holds the pop on when it is supposed to be momentary (early System 11s do not have the special solenoids under CPU control). The high current for too long shorts and burns up the driver transistor - sometimes hot enough to take out traces and possibly burn the board. If you are lucky in this type of situation, just the driver transistor and/or coil fries (though sometimes other problems can result in the same type of symptom). Usually just a clean replacement of the driver & the predriver transistor for that solenoid channel resolves the problem. Some helpful info here:

3b. When thing don't work: Checking Transistors/Coils (locked on coils)
http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index1.html

OK, so you have power and this should measure ok, since you have many correct looking digits. Shift focus to this being a data problem. If I am current with what you have done so far, you've ruled out the display board and ribbon cable, and it appears to be a problem with the CPU, correct?

Next would be to look at the circuit output for data to the displays on the CPU board. Start with a thorough examination of J22 display data connector (look for cracked solder, cold solder, solder shorts etc...) Next I would shotgun replace the PIAs U41,U42. After that, all that is really left to check would be the SRC packs - there's three of them buffering the output of the PIAs before the data heads off the board to the displays. If it is still a problem, then you'd probably need to get a scope on those data lines after identifying which segments are the failures and matching it up to the notation on the schematics (it identifies on the schematics the segments by letters, such as 'j', 'k', 'dot' etc...)
Hopefully you won't need to go that far.

Check the outputs of U44 pins 8-15 with a logic probe. They should be high with low pulses. If one is stuck it wont pulse the display it will just stay on causing it to be brighter then the rest.

wayout has you pointed in the right direction, with out seeing the gibberish I cant narrow it down any further then U 41 or U42.