Hello i have been trying to troubleshoot an issue i have been having with FH. The ball when it is draining is not registering. Its also not kicking out a new ball after a ball is locked. I assumed this meant there was a loose wire somewhere on the PF. As i dug, i started noticing that several of the lamps were also out. In all i noticed that the "Light Extra Ball" light on the mirror, Million Plus, Mirror Value, Blue Bumper,3 x blue flashers in the red,white,blue collections Left & Right Gangway, Shoot Again, all 6 of the orange triangles above the Shoot again,Steps Open, 9,40 & 45 on the clock.. So yep, quite a few. I checked the appropriate fuses and been repairing any possible loose wires i find along the way. Can anyone see a pattern of where i should be looking for the main culprit? And are the lamps likely linked with the ball trough issue?

Its driving me insane, feel like the answer is staring me in the face but cant figure it out! spent about 5 hours on it so far. help!

I can see it is most likely an issue between Yellow/Brown & Red/Brown - but i cant get anything to work. any advice would be great

Think it might be possessed. Should i try holy water?

I have been still trying to solve this. On the blue bumper, the red/brown is connected to the banded side of the diode. When i switch the this wire to the open side of the diode, the blue bumper and the left/right gangway lights work - however it is not correct format as the blue bumper does not flash in sequence.

I have tested the 3 trough switches and all 3 seem to test ok. none are staying open and when manually pushed, they test fine. To confirm, the ball when it is draining is not kicking into the right side of the trough.

in switch test mode i am gettibng a reading of

Dummy Jaw Opto swithc 51
Steps Hotdog opto 55
Trap door closed - 76
Switch 24 - Always closed

On the solenoid test everything is testing out except for the RED bumper & the outhole.

The fact the red bumper is not working has really confused me as i dont see how it is linked to everything else at all.

Another change in the machine is getting a loud hum from the bottom of the playfield. I cannot completely find the source, but i have done a speaker upgrade installed by a friend recently in the last week. It was working fine and sound appears to be fine currently. Unsure if the hum/buzz is from the speaker, appears to be around there (ie back for the playfield)- but not convinced its coming from that speaker as if i unplug it, the buzz continues. I think its coming from the power box that the power lead runs from on the right side of the cabinet. I mainly think this is if i put my ear on that side of the cabinet i can hear the hum very loudly. It appears to be coming from around there, but cant say for sure. How this is connected to the other issues really has me stumped. Am i just getting a variety of different issues at once?

I know this is a real horrible, confusing mess - but if anyone can help direct me i would really appreciate it.Spent about 6+ hours trying to work this out and its really frustrating me

Thanks, the stuff on wires to bumpers re diodes was in reference tO the lamps, not coils. The coils on my bunpers are actually diode-less. They have been diode-less since i had the machine, so doubting this is part of the issue?

As the machine had been working fine i assume all the wiring is correct - its more a matter of finding out why the specific pf lights, blue flashers are out, along with the outhole & red bumper. Its got me totally stumped

Did some more checking today - tested both coils in the outhole & the Upper right Bumper with a MM in the machine, powered off, and both tested ok.

Re-did some connector pins on the PF and headbox.

Re-soldered some wires just in case and have continued to scour for a wire break - still nothing. Havent managed to get any improvement whatsoever.

All lights still out on Row 1 & column 1 + all the flashers associated with Blue (including bumper)- still not working.

Still no action from outhole and Upper right bumper.

What am i possibly missing here?? Is it possibly a board issue? I am no good at testing for board issues so its the only thing i haven't tried yet. If anyone can possibly direct me through some further testing that would be great. This machine is breaking my already fragile spirit....

SOLVED: Finally & the answer was not what i expected. tarted looking more in the backbox and was going over the connectors for possible re-pinning. Decided to wiggle and shift the wires around whoile the machine was on to see if i got any reactions. Noticed that a couple of the clock lights came on and off when i moved the ribbon cable. Turns out, one of the ribbon cables in the backbox was faulty! Swapped it over with another machines and literally every issue was fixed. I cant believe it & very relieved. Gosh i love/hate pinball