I own one that I'm currently working on restoring. It came to me non-functional and I now have it in a relatively playable state.

Things I have done so far: replaced all the capacitors, power supply board component upgrades, new headers on power supply and MPU boards, replaced burned out transistors and resistors, replaced burned out coils, rebuilt all flippers, added remote battery pack, added rectifier fuses, 40-pin connector replaced, all bulbs replaced with 47s, replaced chip sockets on sound board, new rubbers, new shooter sleeve, springs, tip.

Still a few issues: Sound board doesn't work at all, despite proper voltages, working speaker, working amp. One or more of the 5-bank targets isn't triggering the all-down series and it doesn't pop back up during gameplay.

Improvements still in progress: gradually replacing all headers, wiring harness contacts, and chip sockets

REQUEST: If your Flash (or similar age other Williams game) has a memory protect switch at the coin door, would you please post a photo or two of the switch area? I'm hoping to add one to my early System 4 machine. Thanks!

Hi Pinofffski, how is the playfield swap going? I'm expecting my new PF to arrive this Friday.

I've been underwhelmed with the more generic plastics on Flash, so I made one to replace the 3-drop target plastic. If it doesn't delaminate or overheat, I'm going to try changing the ones on either side of the rollover lanes.

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My Flash just started a issue and I have never worked with special solenoids before.
The left slingshot has stopped working, no solenoid action, no sound and no points. The two switches at the slingshot do not register in the switch diagnostics.
I don't see and broken or loose wires around the slingshot assembly below the playfield.

I thought I would reach out for some diagnostic help because I am not sure what makes this special.
How does the special solenoid operate and where should I start with the issue I am having?

Thanks.

The activation switches will never show in switch test - (the ones that poke through the playfield) - the switch in the matrix is the scoring switch which is near the pivot point of the sling arm. You can pull the sling arm forward manually in switch test until it contacts to make sure the score is working.

The way the special solenoids work is that ground is switched by those 2 activation switches to an input on the driver board which fires the coil without cpu intervention. The input to this circuit is connector 13 upper left on the driver board, these inputs when grounded will fire the solenoid. Put the game in audit mode you should be able to fire pop bumpers and the other sling fine there. Disconnect the connector and use a jumper to ground the input pins on that connector, do not hold the ground on for more than a moment or 2 (these are not 'one shot' circuits, they stay on as long as they are grounded).

If it fires you have missing ground from the activation switches to the driver board. If it doesn't fire you need to go farther into the circuit. Oddly, pinwiki is currently blank for special solenoids in system 6, but you can read up on what's involved in the system 11 section:
https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11#Special_solenoid_problems

Sometimes it's something easy like a bad connector/cold solder joint.

If you don't have standard williams board setup (i.e. rottendog or something other than stock) ignore the above other than the ground inputs as it's going to be different.

Great write up, your info got me a lot of answers quickly.
Shorting the Special input per the list attached, the left sling does not give me a reaction or board output compared to the right. All other tests worked as you described.
I can pull the board and look at the back later for poor connection.

Is there a list of outputs and transistor location?

Thanks.

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Also you can briefly ground the tab on the transistor for the left sling and see if it fires - while that doesn't tell you that the transistor is good, it will tell you that the wiring to the solenoid is and that the solenoid itself is as well. They are the ones in the upper left corner of the driver board Q2, Q4, Q6, Q8, Q10, and Q12.

The inputs are on IC chips 6 and 7. IC's 8 and 9 process the inputs and actually tell the transistor to turn on and fire. Highlighted in the image is a typical path, if you have a logic probe you can test the inputs and outputs to narrow down where the issue is.

You can compare a working one to the non-working one to get the proper signal levels.

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Mine did that and it was because the little spring ramp on that connector broke off. It's probably worth looking at before you start pulling boards out.

Worked on my machine a bit today
Grounding the tab on Q10 to fire the left sling had a notable draw on the power, so I cut the wires to the coil and measured .2 ohms on the coil. I had a new one laying around and it was around 4.6.
Swapped the coil and it will now fire when Q10 tab is grounded but will not fire when the input is grounded.

This is a Rottendog board and the schematics look different than your description.

I do not have a probe, any ways to narrow down the defective component ?

Thx.

RD_Driver.pdf

Recently picked up the most original amazing condition flash I have ever seen. Looks like it was unboxed last week! I’ll get some good pictures later. Was in the same basement and location since it was purchased.

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Wow!

Wow. That's like a time capsule.!

I was preparing to install a new Inkochnito bridge board today when I discovered this lovely chafed spot on the 34Vdc line, where it lay across the edge of the hole leading down into the cabinet. I've been trying to figure out why lifting my playfield with the power on invariably corrupted my settings - possibly this short was doing it?IMG_2261 (resized).JPG Anyway, the short is repaired and the Inkochnito board went in nicely, after I figured out how to rearrange wire bundles.IMG_2263 (resized).JPG

...all of which raises a question: That white/red wire runs from the bridge rectifier to the on/off switch for the game, then back to the line filter where the 120Vac comes into the game. What's going on inside the line filter that allows that wire to be such a small gauge?

So....I did a dumb thing...While doing the obligatory board work on my Flash MPU, I pulled the PROMs and ROMs at the bottom left in order to replace old garbage sockets and COMPLETELY FORGOT to take a picture. I was *sure* I could replace them from memory - or - at least using the manual.

Well, I've swapped the chips back in (I also burned the updated GREEN ROMS) and the damned thing won't boot. ROMs read just fine on my ROM burner, so I'm sure I've just got the chips vs sockets all mixed up.

Can someone be a pal and take some high res pics of the bottom left section of a working Flash for me so I can restore my sanity (and a working game)??
SPECIFICALLY: IC26, IC22, IC21, IC20, IC17.

Thanks so much in advance.

Like this?

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As of tonight there is one more Flash out there that will never have problems with the horseshoe drop targets again I highly recommend the NMP sensor system

Did Blackout yesterday

I sing the praises of these at every chance.

Just replaced all the caps on the soundboard with one of those big daddy cap kits. Every went smoothly and it works great. However I noticed the sound is now more base-like and muffled. Any ideas why? My big 12,000 mfu was cracked and leaking which is why I did this so I figured I would replace all. I noticed that c10 old was a 33 40v and the big daddy was a 22 at 50v.

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Update. Switched back c10 to the original 33 40v and sounds normal again vs Flash muffled underwater sound using the 22 50v that came in the kit. This guy was the culprit!

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Thanks, but that appears to be a Sys6 MPU. My Flash is still running the original Sys4 hardware.

Anyone else?

This style board?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-owners-clubofficial/page/9#post-5780364

Never joined the club, but I should have a couple years back ... and looking like I'm about to exit the club this weekend.

Here's my well-played Flash that's been my SO's fav game, and is a firm second fav pin now that a STh LE found it's way to our place and took it's spot in the line up

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Sharing a few pics from the SECOND "Flash" I acquired (last March) at the local dump. A friend messaged me to let me know "some pinball machine" was sitting out in the trash there. He sent me a picture and I was ON MY WAY. Pretty much all complete (except backglass) and the PF is actually a little nicer than the one I was already doing a refurb on.

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wtf....boggles the mind that could happen nowadays.
Awesome you saved it!

Wow, that playfield is in shockingly good shape. And... am I right in thinking the MPU doesn't have battery alkaline corrosion?

it was GREAT meeting you on Sunday, talking pins, and hanging around a bit afterwards! great to know Flash headed to a new home where it will be loved, played, and appreciated for the gamechanger it was when introduced way back in 1979

When playing a game and hitting right flipper in a fairly firm way the game goes dead. GI stays lit but all working coils and score display are dead. Turn off, turn back on and the game plays no problem. Until the next time I hit the right flipper hard.

Normal pressure on the flipper does not cause the problem. Only a harsh hard hit of the flipper button.

Any suggestions of what might be causing this?

Yeah, that blew my mind as well. Of course, after I had spent lots of time repairing the battery corrosion damage on my original board.

I'm sympathetic! I spent an immense amount of time fooling with battery corrosion and then gave up and bought pinballpcb boards.

Hard to imagine changing rules on flash.. I get ideas on a lot of other pins, but flash is pretty good out of the box.

Thought about lane changes maybe that came later with Firepower, but I think that would be a bit OP, so happy to just try to nudge the tops when needed.

Yea, even the guy who rethemed Flash into Mega Man didn't really change the rules any. Though I think turning the shot up to the top into a hit-target was a good idea.
https://ausretrogamer.com/mega-man-pinball-a-retheme-of-williams-1979-flash-pinball/

I suppose that depends on how much the tweaker understands the original code. It's actually easier to start from scratch in some ways vs getting things to work in a hack basis.

I just added his new rules and audio to my Meteor.
Fantastic. Will not go back to original rules.
It's made a good game exponentially better.

Their is a ROM upgrade that exists that adds lane change to Flash - I thought it would be worth trying but I could not get the ROM to work for some reason.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/does-williams-flash-have-lane-change#post-5492810

Picture needed!

Hey guys, I'm trying to help someone with a Flash. The Pops and the bottom two rollovers on the righthand side are out during gameplay. I lifted the playfield and there is a Yellow/Blue wire that was detached. I want to reattach it but I'm not 100% sure where it goes! It looks closest to the middle rollover on the righthand side but there are so many wires I can't say for sure.

Thank you in advance for any attention you can give to this.

Here are some pics of mine when I took it apart. It looks like there is a blue/yellow going to the coil

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Thank you but wrong end of the playfield. Do you have any pics of the upper right? Its wgere the 3 star rollovers are...here are a couple pics i took of that area...

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Hey all. When Covid hit I was told to stay home for almost a month. I had nothing to do, so I dragged my old Williams Flash pinball machine out of my shed where it had been sitting for about 20 years. Long story short it was covered in Mylar (may have been something else) either from the factory or early on. It took me a week to fully peel it all back and the play-field is mint. I've replaced all the displays and power supply. Anyway, I'm in the process of replacing all the switches and I found it's much better to just buy some cheap switches and reuse the old parts, only replacing the contact arms. My machine has at least 90% of the switches installed incorrectly with the switch closing pad to back of rivet vs. pad to pad. I guess this is normal? Anyway, it'll work much better with new switches. I'll post pics when I'm further along. I added a bunch of mods.

I figured out where it attached on the 2nd rollover lamp, right hand side.

Hey all, I'm restoring a Flash and wanted to post a few pics. I just received the new backglass today and it's perfect. Paid $260 off eBay plus $50 to ship. The artwork on this machine is so bad, The faces don't have the eyes centered and she looks like a fat lobster from the chest down. Anyway, in 1979 I was 17 and spent a lot of time on this machine. We'd ditch school and the entire arcade was ours in the afternoon. So far I've rebuilt the pop up bumpers, flippers, and kickers with new coils and parts. I'm also replacing every switch because they were all built wrong, because the contact on one switch hits the back side of the contact on the opposing copper blade. It's really fun going through these switches because someone worked on this machine and they didn't know what they were doing. One horseshoe contact had gobs of solder on it to try and make contact. I rebuilt the drop targets with all new parts including the plastics and then found out about the magnet mod from oldschoolbob so I bought a kit from him. Instead of rebuilding the ones I already rebuilt I think I'll just build a new set off eBay parts. There's a lot of parts the cross between these machines of the same era. I'll be turning it on in a few weeks so I'm sure to have questions. Thanks for all the great info.

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So an update on my flash I refurbished approximately
2 years ago.
Plays fantastic but about 4 months ago noticed chipping
of clearcoat(Minwax Polycrylic) in pop bumper area.
Sanded it out after trying Mylar rings which were just a band aid.
Sprayed 2 cans.of Spraymax 2k and will sand level this weekend.

So word to the wise. Use Spraymax 2k for clearcoat.
Polycrylic works good for initial fill of inserts but not
for total playfield coverage.

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hey, sorry to take so long, I was out with covid. Your original post said "bottom 2 rollovers" so I took that to mean the bottom of the playfield...oh well, I am glad you figured it out. If you need pics I have them!

My Flash appears that the game shuts down every time that BOTH right and left flippers are engaged at the same time. Display goes dead. Game stops.

Turn on and off, game boots back up.

Any ideas on where to trouble shoot?

How did you do it? Heat Gun or Freeze? I would like to do mine. Did the artwork come up at all?

The mylar was lifting up and I didn't expect it to come up easily. I removed everything from the playfield and just grabbed an edge with some pliers and slowly pulled it. It took me a few days working couple hours a day to finish it. One tiny spot on the guy's arm came off and one spot of black, which was easily fixed. It looks new now. I didn't use heat or anything else.

After reading how to clear coat sand and wax the playfield, I opted for an overlay. With an overlay there was no issues with raised areas around the plastic insert pieces. If I ever sell it and a purest wants it waxed, they can remove the overlay and do what they wish.

Curious about opinions on overlays. How does it play vs. a waxed playfield?