I recently bought a Fish Tales. It worked without problems when fetching it at the buyer. When I got it home I decided I didn't want to turn it on directly to let it get room tempered and such. The day after I decided to start renovating/cleaning it straight away (unfortunately didn't turn it on then) and started removing stuff.

What I've basically done is removing all things from the playfield topside, cleaned/polished/replaced stuff and put it back again. I remounted most stuff again except the habit rails, plastic ramp and spinner. Then I turned it on just to check all LEDs were working and such but to my surprise only a few inserts lights up but they are flickering really fast (faster than normal) and the rest of the lamps (and GI) are dead.

Facts:
* CPU status LEDs 19, 20, 21 are as they should (19 initially lights and then turn off, 20 blink continuously , 21 constantly on)
* All (unless I missed some) small red status LEDs on the power driver board seem to light up
* I get the ticking sound at startup then a single BONG, meaning audio is OK
* DMD is dead
* Fuses were all DMM checked before I turned it on today
* The only inserts that lights up are lights in Column 4 (lamp 41 to 48), all other inserts dead, all GI dead on both playfield and backbox. Column 4 blink much faster than normal though.

I've also noticed is that if I let the game be turned on for maybe 20+ seconds the GI (playfield and backbox) starts flickering all at the same time but not periodically but seemingly randomly. Not dared to let the game be on for any longer time after that so dunno if it continues.

Tried with removing J212, J205, J207, J209 from CPU board (all playfield/cabinet switches) - same issues

Tried also removing J133, J135, J136, J137 (all playfield/cabinet lamps) - same issues

More background what I've done to the game:
* Topside removed and reassembled
* Replaced all lamps with LEDs (playfield and backbox)
* Removed most connectors on power driver board to remove old tape. Was careful and only removed one at a time to not mix anything up. Rechecked them today and they all seem to be positioned correctly and not a pin off
* Rebuilt pop bumpers - disconnected them from the GI today to rule out I've done something electrically wrong there but no change
* No other circuit board were fiddled with, no other coils or assemblies have been removed (were going to do the underside after topside)
* No visible battery acid damage on cpu board and batteries are remote
* Pressed on the ASIC to make sure it sits tight

I haven't checked the fuses today AFTER the problem appeared simply because it feels like this behavior isn't related to dead circuits (no power) as some inserts do light up, GI do light up if I wait a bit, cpu leds are correct and so on.

I would really appreciate some suggestions on how to proceed from here.

I've pulled the ribbon between cpu and power driver board. Have only pressed on the others to see they are tight.

Update:

DMD fuse 602 was shot, replacing it and DMD is now back in business. Wonder why it went in the first place...

Anyway, DMD now shows the classic "check fuses 114 and 115" which basically could be anything. Verified 114 and 115 are ok with DMM outside of game.

At least I have something to Google on now

What I don't get is if something were broken why would the GI sometimes start flashig after a while and only one column light up.

I just read it and realized there is a switch check built in and I removed the switch matrix connectors as part of the problem search. Reseated switch matrix connectors and I get no more error on DMD, it shows game title now, yay.

Still, all GI is flickering randomly all the time and sometimes goes all out without coming back so something is still wrong.

Also reattached the lamp matrix connectors and now all inserts lights up, what?!?

Update:

Game still have weird behavior. Turning on game "cold" I've only column 4 inserts lit and no GI. Waiting about 30 sec or so and the other inserts plus GI come to life without me doing anything except waiting. My guess is something need to get warm before working better.

All GI flickers at the same time in a random pattern. Turning off and on again its the same behavior except all inserts are lit from the start.

Power driver board measurements in attract mode:

* LED 1 on, TP3 (12V) is 11.9 V DC
Seem ok

* LED 4 on, TP2 (5V) is 4.9 - 5.0 V DC
Varies 0.1 with changes in DMD/GI/inserts
Seem ok

* LED 5 on, TP7 (unregulated 20V) is 21.7 V DC
A little high but think its ok

* LED 6 on, TP8 (unregulated 18V) is 16.3 - 17.1 V DC
Varies with changes in DMD/GI/inserts.
Seem a bit low to me, ok?
Could it be bad C6 and C7?

* LED 7 on, TP1 (unregulated 12V) is 14.9 V DC
Seem a bit high to me, ok?

* TP 6 (50V) is 73.2 V DC
according to pinwiki it should measure 70-75V so is ok.

What do you think about the measurements above and could there be a faulty component on the driver board?

Went into GI test mode and while idling the relay on the power board were clicking seemingly randomly and GI flickered at the same frequency. That relay shouldn't turn on and off like that so something is wrong. What controls the relay?

Not sure what to do next.

Thanks for the suggestions but I already triple checked the flat cables.

I do have made some progress though. I ran the single insert lamp test while ignoring the annoying GI and realized that more than one lamp were lit all the time.

Remembered I had bought a lamp matrix tester a time ago so connected it and ran the insert test again and sure , a single column is lit all the time so there is something broken on the power driver board (and possibly something wrong on the playfield making the pcb to break in the first place, but one thing at a time).

See picture: single lamp 21 tested but lamp 41 is also lit. If i move to lamp 22 then 42 will be lit and so on for the whole matrix. Every lamp always have a twin lamp lit in column 4 on the same row.

20220514_221338 (resized).jpg

I've never had to repair/troubleshoot a power driver board so any suggestions are welcome. I guess I have to follow the broken column backwards and measure the components, probably a transistor that crapped out.

Q95 is shorted so no wonder column 4 were always active. Need to measure more and see what I can find.

I still don't get how the GI would be affected by the lamp matrix, perhaps there is a short between these on the playfield somewhere.

Short update. The lamp matrix is now 100% ok (all single lamps work in test), same with coils and flashers.

The problem left is still the GI. The GI lamps comes and goes, flickers and varies randomly on intensity. I've currently LEDs in the playfield and lightbulbs in the backbox and they all have the same behavior (at the same time) so it's not a LED specific problem. Somehow it's problem that affects many/all? GI strings at the same time.

I know the normal attract pattern for FT turns off the GI at one point but this isn’t that.

Any suggestions what to do/measure?

I already tried turning dimming off and it's no change, GI still flickers and behaves weird.

I've been 100% focused on the power driver board thinking it is a voltage problem or triac issue but they all measure ok. That got me thinking it could possibly be a cpu board problem as those signals control the triacs.

Pressed on the ASIC but it's seated properly.

Carefully looking at the cpu board I've found what looks like old battery acid corrosion on some components legs, specifically a few resistors near the ASIC (R88, R89, R22, C27) and below removed battery holder (R31 and R27). My plan is to get a donor cpu board and see if the issue dissappears or not.

All my other games have nvram in them though so if I take another games cpu board and switch game ROM to FT but let the nvram chip be seated what will happen at startup? Will fish tales even boot up with an nvram of another game present? Any way to "clear" the nvram? Will I be able to boot and do a factory reset from the menu?

I guess I could put in a normal RAM in the socket but currently I don't have any at home (clipped the legs of the old ones when desoldering to put a socket in).

I swapped power driver board from another wpc game and the GI still had the same issues so I think it's safe to say the problem lies with the cpu board.

Next test would be to test with another cpu card. I'm still unsure what I should do the the donor card nvram though. Will the FT even boot with another games nvram in it?

Good to know about the nvram, will try swapping cpu cards.

I have already tried swapping the ribbon cable and no difference.

I have some pictures of the cpu board which I believe have old battery acid damage on it. Look at the resistors near the ASIC and those below the battery holder for example. That is probably the cause of this games wonky GI behavior.

20220523_222630 (resized).jpg20220523_222636 (resized).jpg20220523_230619 (resized).jpg

Problem fixed!

Donor cpu card with same fish tale ROM on it and GI plus everything else now works as it should, yay.

The game had no GI symptoms that I could see when it were playtested before purchase. A four hour drive home and a night to acclimate inside and this strange problem occured, guess it didn't like the vibrations while moving in combination with old acid damage not properly fixed.