I just got a funhouse that was pretty cheap by today's standards, When I went to the guys house there were two things that he didn't let me know before I drove close to 3 hours to get there (probably wouldn't of stopped me anyway). The outhole coil wasn't working and the sound didn't turn down. he said hadn't turned it on in a while, and seemed pretty suprised that it was acting up (his kid said they had an electrical surge that blew out a few tv's in the house a month back/ not sure if it's related).

fixed the outhole coil by replacing a fried transistor. Had to do a little reading on the sound issue, all I could find was that it would be a good idea to recap the sound board. I ordered the correct cap's from digikey and newark, I'm hoping that will solve the issue. but since I've never dealt with anything like this before I was hoping someone else had some insight on what else to look at. I cleaned and reseated the sound roms. (guess I could re-burn them). to clarify the issue when you turn the game on the sound is on full blast and when you try to turn it down it stays at the same loud volume. Guessing the pot (wherever that is) could be bad.
really dirty also but plays great, just have to unplug the speakers from the sound board otherwise I risk blowing out my eardrums.

ahhh... ok, I also forgot to mention the batteries really don't do anything. the rom always resets back to factory default settings. I tried installing batteries into the battery holder and it didn't retain any values. so I took the batteries back out and the bottom of one of the clips came with it. so I ordered another battery holder as well. wouldn't of guessed that would fix the issue, Just assumed the batteries were so the rom could retain the values with the power off.

guess I've never tried turning the volume down on any other game with the batteries out. yeah, I already tried the minimum volume override, the sound is turned all the way down to nothing and it's still super loud.

the cpu board has no damage that I could see I checked both sides. The power driver board on the other hand has had extensive work done to it, but I don't think that's where the issue lies.

yeah, I've installed one in CP. was kinda of a pain, but not horrible. mainly since one of the traces lifted. going to check it out today and I'll get back with you. thank you for the offers.

I actually bought two a while back. Just installed the second one in funhouse, ( bought a pace solder pump a couple months back, finally got a chance to see what it can do. Think I'm in love).
sadly, this did not solve the loudness issue. The game is no longer resetting to factory defaults every time. It would be cool to check out your collection some time though.

to answer you other question about the loudness, since I've never actually played anything other then the virtual pin version, I'm going to guess and say it seems like everything is the same loudness.

ok, yeah I was curious and checked out the sound board schematic. really hoping that that's the issue.
I really appreciate the help from everyone. let me know about the pot.

thanks again.

yup, the buttons work fine. the batteries weren't even in the game when I received it. there was very very minor damage on the top side of one of the battery terminal holes. I've already removed the old battery holder and cleaned up the area. now you were be hard pressed to find any corrosive damage. think it was mainly on the leg of the battery clip that broke off in the board.

yeah, I went ahead and ordered some the same day you all suggested it, since I needed to grab a few other items. I'm sure this won't be the last time I'll run into an issue like that. I think they came in on tuesday, replaced it and everything works like it should. I just added led's, there are a few ghosting ones, but I think that's because there are a few transistors that are leaking current which needed to be replaced. I have the same issue on my RFM, can't seem to get that one working correctly though.

thank you all for your help, very much appreciated.