My F-14 Tomcat runs like a top and is generally in GREAT shape! Occasionally, at an unpredictable frequency, it will power down and right back up. Usually I notice it while I'm playing, it will just power down and right back up which happens over the course of probably 1-2 seconds then the machine resumes waiting for you to start a new game. I would guess it happens at most every 50 games or so. I just ran the burn in mode and it went for an hour or so then powered down and back up just like when playing it, the next burn in session it went about 2 hours and did the power down/up thing, on the final burn in mode it ran for over 12 hours at which time I turned the machine off. I turned it back on and there were no faults found and it obviously ran for over 12 hours with out having the power down/up glitch.

Anybody have any ideas???

Travis

Okay I have more info to report that may help someone figure this problem out. I recently shopped the machine, replaced all four flipper coils and some other random stuff. Everything works great, plays as expected.

Here is what I have narrowed down:

It will randomly power down during attract mode or game play, but seems to be doing it more and more frequently (every couple minutes now). When it powers down the GI lighting stays on, but the flipper function, strobes, music and back box all stop working - power off. This will last for about 2-3 seconds then the game will come back to life, make a "ding" sound, as if you just turned on the machine using the power switch. I have watched the diagnostic light while it happens and nothing comes up In fact when it powers down the diagnostic & blanking lights turn off but the 5vdc light stays on.

It seems like another clue is that when it goes into attract mode it will typically power down just as the machine starts the attract mode with "Now you DIE!", it will at times power down as soon as it gets to this part of the attract mode (maybe coincidence). As I write this, it is starting to power down as above described, about every 1-2 minutes, cant stay running (other than the GI lighting which never so much as blinks).

Another clue, if it starts doing the power down every 2 minutes or so I can turn off the machine, wait 5 minutes turn it back on and it seems to last longer before it starts up the power down problem!

I am looking for any diagnostic advice, it seems to me that the power to the 5vdc is consistent and good but whatever other power supply for flipper, back glass, strobes, audio and such is faulty. There must be a common power supply or failure point for these systems?? Any advice is GREATLY appreciated!

Travis

Last night I powered up the machine and as soon as the switch was flipped, it did this weird thing where it made a loud humming noise, the play field and GI lights dimmed then went super bright then flickered for about 10 seconds, then the loud humming sound stopped and the playfield/GI lights stayed on like normal and about 2 minutes later the back box turned on and it went into attract mode just like everything was fine. Played the music, flashed the lights the audio and everything was just like normal. So I took this opportunity to measure the voltages at the CPU and the power supply. Here is what I found:

On the CPU – IJ17 pins 4, 5 & 6 supposed to be the 5+vdc each had 4.84VDC; Pin 12 is supposed to be 12vdc but was only 10.4vdc. On the power supply at 3J6 I got the exact same readings as from the CPU, all 5+vdc was 4.84 and the 12vdc was only 10.4!!

So it seems like I am not getting the right voltage?? I'm really hoping that just replacing the power supply for one of the new age replacement power supplies is the solution!! Is replacing the power supply the solution if I don't want to replace individual capacitors and such on the original power supply?

Travis