We turned on our GBLE today and the backbox LEDs are not working at all. We turned the game off and back on. The LEDs flash and then do not come on at all. Machine works, we have played a couple of games. I have gone to the menu and checked backbox brightness and it is at 100%. We have also done a factory reset.

Any assistance of where to start looking would be greatly appreciated

Bump! I am fairly sure it is the CPU board. I would like to know if anyone else has had the same issue. A bit disappointing when the game is less than 3 years old and has less than 2000 plays on it.

The issue still persists. We have been playing the game as we are on holidays. Back box LEDs are off most of the time. Occasionally they work. Please see below response from Stern.

Stern have said that it could be a bad LED and as they are connected in series, this will cause them all to go out. The LEDs are something that can be replaced on the board.

The bad LED does not take out the CPU board. Game works fine. The backbox LEDS work intermittently. Sometimes they are on, sometimes they are off.

I totally respect that people are on holidays until the 7th January so I have not chased anything up yet. Stern answered our emails while they were on holidays and let us know the LEDs can be replaced if required. I have updated the thread to reflect this. We live in Australia so I do not expect Stern to help us out. I know our Distro can get us sorted if we require. Like you, I like to diagnose and get the issue sorted myself if possible.

We have a repair guy in Australia that can replace some SMCs if required. I cannot see this as being a big issue. As the issue is intermittent, we will either have to wait until the LED fails completely or maybe change all 8 LEDs. I cannot see this costing very much money, i.e. less than $50.00. Issue may also be as simple as a broken leg on the LED in which case I can fix myself. I have not investigated the issue fully myself yet.

Spike is here to stay so we have decided to make the most of it and learn as much about the system as possible. Make repairs as required and share them on Pinside. I believe system is extremely reliable and that is why there are not too many posts about repairing Spike yet. I am sure this is going to change over time.

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Thank you very much for your kind offer. We live in Australia so postage from the USA is a killer.

We have already thought about installing a LED strip and we can import direct from China all the parts we need. The backbox LEDs have worked every day since we started the post.

Nice internet site!

We have considered a few options. We are confident our repair guy can fix the board, however the LEDs have worked every day since we put the post up. We need for the LEDs to not work so we can test, find the faulty one and replace. I have not removed the CPU to check it, the issue may be as simple as a broken leg on a LED. Why Stern would install the LEDs in series is is beyond me, shows a little inexperience from their electrical engineers. Hopefully these minor design faults are corrected as Spike matures. If we get stuck with repairs our distro is always willing to help us out.

Replacing the CPU is not an option, cost will be too high. We would buy a simple LED strip and install it ourselves. We have a few machines and have had to learn over the years how to repair them ourselves. We have found a couple of board guys (local) that do great work but as their are no Spike schematics diagnosing a CPU board is quite difficult for us. We got a long way to working the issue out and need help from Stern. I could not get my head around installing LED s in series. Like the old Christmas lights, one goes out, they all go out!

The machine is getting played on most days at the moment, so we do not wish to take it out of service. I will update post once we have a resolution. Hopefully around the end of the month.

Update:

Our board repairer recommended we change the backbox brightness before changing the LEDs to make sure we have a faulty LED. We changed the backbox brightness settings from 100% to 97% about 4 months ago. Backbox LEDs have worked ever since.

Update.

The LEDs on the CPU in the backbox have gone out again. If anyone can help out with a part number for the LEDs or supplier that would be greatly appreciated.

The LEDs are in series so it may only be one that is out. Chas (RIP) helped us get to the LEDs so I do know there is one or more of them that are not working. I have a guy that can swap them out for us. I just need to buy the LEDs for him.

Thanks very much! That is really good info. I will definitely have a look.

Yes they are definitely small and I cannot read a part number on them which is what makes things difficult. We have a really switched on board repairer and if I can get the LEDs, he can definitely replace them all for us.

We prefer to keep our games as close to original as we can. I appreciate the input and we may go down this road.

Thanks very much, I have it but I need help reading it. You have given me the part number as per the schematic. I am fairly sure I can do the rest!

I very much appreciate the help. If I can get this resolved, I will post to help others.

I have found the right ones at Comet Electronics.

That is some really great help.

Thanks

Update.

LEDs were all replaced today. Problem still persists, LEDS flicker and are mainly off. Next step is to change the LED drive chip AP8801SG-13.

Thanks for your help. We have ordered the chip. Once it is replaced I will post again.

We are determined to fix it. I know it is not just our Stern Spike that has this issue.

Success! Led Drive chip replaced, backbox lights are up and running again.

Thanks very much to @schwaaggs for the circuit diagrams

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Thanks for your help. I needed the diagrams. Thanks to you and Pinside for making this possible. Years ago I would have driven my wife crazy complaining about how much the replacement board cost.

It is U33. The chip to the left of the red wire. I watched the kid swap it out by hand with a small heat gun. He had a camera over the top in magnification so he could see what he was doing. He primed the legs of the replacement chip with some solder and used the heat gun to solder the new chip on. Checked all the connections and handed the board back. He made the repair look so easy because he is that good at this sort of stuff. No special tools needed that I know of.

Our normal board guy does the same thing with the surface mount chips. He does not want to do all this smaller stuff.

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That heat gun looks similiar, I cannot tell you if it was the same one or not. I have shown Ben (repair guy) the boards on new Sterns, CGC, and Spookys. He said if I can get him the parts, he can swap them out. All the boards and chips including the micro CPUs. He also has a heat robot for doing smaller stuff. I am sure that is not cheap.