Getaway: High Speed II, The
Williams, 1992**Please see latest update below-thanks
New GHS2 owner here. Curious if someone can explain what sets off the beacon. I have tested the MARS lamp & it works fine, but I have yet to see it activate during gameplay. I've hit multiball, video mode, special, "got away"...all the things I would think would set it off.
If it should be going off and it's not (but it works from the test menu) please let me know what you think could be causing something like that as well. Thanks!
Tried banging the top during multiball & got nothing. Tested a few times from test menu & works like a champ every time. Made sure that it was turned "on" for gameplay in the menu as well. Still a no-go during actual gameplay-is it not getting the signals from the board? What would I test to see if the board is doing what it's supposed to (I don't have a manual for this game yet). Thanks
If it works from the test menu, the only thing I can think of is a setting that has it disabled. Have you tried resetting to factory defaults?
Okay, made some headway & then probably made the problem worse 
Forgive me if this is long-winded, but I want to be as accurate in my description as possible.
Looking at schematics from manual online, traced all the wires from the triac back to the board & tested continuity. All wires continuity checked fine. Then I noticed what was probably the problem...the red wire which the manual states should go to J106-5, was plugged into the wrong place (J124-5). The correct place (J106) was completely empty, nothing connected.
The connector holding the red wire only has the red wire, nothing else. So I turned off machine, plugged it into J106 where it's supposed to go & rebooted...the GI lights were super duper bright, I smelled a smell, and shut the machine off. Upon further investigation, fuse F104 blew, so I swapped that out & put the connector back to where we started at J124-5.
So now everything is back to where we started which seems to be the connector being in the wrong place (so still haven't solved the beacon issue). The GI has returned to normal brightness. Now there are new problems though, the left & middle supercharger lights are on all the time. I don't know what is normal, but before this attempted fix only the middle supercharger light was on at startup. Also hold bonus, 4x, 6x, drive again & 4th gear lamps are out. I glanced at the matrix quickly, but these didn't appear to be in the same column or row. Help!
Grand total:
1) beacon still not activating in gameplay & appears to be hooked up to wrong place
2) left & middle supercharger lights on, 4x, 6x, hold bonus, drive again, 4th gear lamps out
After looking some more, it appears that column 2 as shown on the lamp matrix is out. What do I need to look at/how do I repair this?
As for the supercharger, it tests fine, all magnets work, the time is good & the MARS lamp works in test mode...but in gameplay the left & middle flashers are always on & the MARS doesn't turn on. Any suggestions?
I'm inclined to treat these as two separate issues, unless I shouldn't be 
Thanks
I would guess it is actually three separate problems.
For the beacon, I still think it's probably fine other than being disabled somehow. I would reset to factory defaults if I couldn't find any more settings that looked like they might be disabling it.
If the flashers look like they're locked on, but aren't burning up, I'm guessing it's probably not flasher voltage lighting them up. A long shot, but maybe a short against column 2? Do the flashers work properly in test mode?
For the lamp matrix, if you disconnect all the lamp connectors from the power driver board and hook up a test lamp as described here (http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11#Lamp_Matrix_Row_and_Column_Testing) does it work as expected. Note, this is on the System 9 - 11 page, but the procedure is the same for WPC.
I tried resetting to factory & the MARS lamp only spins in test, not gameplay.
The left & middle flashers are locked on, the right one flashes as it's supposed to in test mode. I've unplugged the connector to these flashers to keep the lights/heat off. I was thinking these 2 problems might have a common link somewhere (I read earlier about accelerator board).
I'll have to try the lamp matrix test later-thanks for sending that link, I had no idea. Can I use alligator clips or rig something homebrew for this? I don't have whatever that jumper cable is. After a full lamp test, these are the lamps that are out: 5 mil, 4x, hold bonus, 6x, drive again, 4th gear.
Okay, machine is just posessed. I was just playing, saw 6x on DMD so looked down & 6x light was working. Not to mention there was a part where every light was on (not sure what I did) and all those other lights worked as well. Just did the lamp test again, and now everything's working except 5 mil & drive again - WTF?
Also, the right sling flasher & (I guess) left ramp flasher are staying on during gameplay as if they are some super bright GI or something. Right sling flasher tests okay in test mode, the other one is always on even in test mode. Getting closer...
Hey there. OK first off check all wires and plugs and make sure all are good/seated well....then do the light tests and coil tests and flasher tests and see what works and what does not.
Sounds like a bad transistor keeping flashers on and the beacon needs good power/signal to function. Everyone smacking your beacon to get going have low power on start up of beacon.. I had the same thing..[even though it worked in test ,game is not running other than test so power will be available to run the beacon when game is on and running beacon will not light!].....check the resistor on your beacon power board and you will find the resistor solders have gone cold or its out of spec. Reflow all solders on that board almost always fixes the problems. I have had a couple getaways and both had the same problem fixed by reflowing solders.
Hope that helps. Also check your game cpu eprom for chip creep . Strange things can happen with ill seated chips.
Keep me posted and lets get you flipping!
Hawk
I have an issue with one of my light connectors located underneath the playfield and below the RPM dial is not making consistent contact with all the pins (I would give you the exact connector but not in front of the machine or manual right now).
What this does on my machine is shut off a light or two on the RPM display, the multiplier lamps, and/or the freeway score lamps (1 mil, 2 mil, etc.). I have it isolated to a few pins, and re-seating it alleviates the problem for a few days or plays. I need to replace the connector to fix. Maybe this is *one* of the problems you are seeing? I agree with herg... there are multiple issues in play here.
Olddragon...sounds like your header pins need a reflowing on that connector you keep reseating. If they have gotten hot or weak replace with tri-furcon style wire crimp connectors and replace header pins and it will be new again.
On the beacon topic again ...there is for sure more than one problem as herg mentioned. But check what I mentioned previously and you should be able to find and fix your problem/s
One of the resistors on the triac board (I think that's the board you were talking about Hawk) had no solder on one of the legs...figured we had it in the bag - but no, soldered it and still the same for the beacon.
Yes the triac board. OK glad you found that. Now make sure the resistor is in spec and/or that it did not hurt something else by being open [ie got hot which it did to come unsoldered]. Traces and solder pads are really easy to injure and its always best to meter everything out to make sure it is making contact not just looking like it does. Also check those crappy idc connectors. Might be best to re-pin them to avoid any voltage drop there if they are loose or suspect at all .
Deciding to postpone the beacon fix for now, want to find out why these flashers are always on. So, I figured I could swap out my BOP driver board into the Getaway to see where we stand (if flashers are normal & all lights work)...and noticed the Getaway has board A-12697-3 installed instead of A-12697-1 as per manual. Was hoping the educated around here can chime in on what the differences between J106 & J124 are on these two boards. Once I've swapped the good board into the Getaway (-1), I'm very nervous if I should plug the suspect wire into J106 where the manual states it belongs, or back into J124 where it was connected on the -3 board (remember when I "corrected" this something got fried). Assuming the -1 & -3 boards have different voltages at these points or something & I don't want to fry another board. Hope that makes sense, thanks.
Edit-now that the -3 board is out, I can see that the J121 GI connection is fried in two spots, maybe that is what's wrong with the always on flashers - waiting to hook up the -1 board until I'm confident where the suspect wire should go.
Can someone with a getaway take a look at your driver board & let me know if the red wire from triac is plugging into J106 or J124? It has been suggested that perhaps the documentation could be incorrect. Thanks
Awesome, thanks for checking/pics. I don't know what this means for me...why it was connected & working to J124-does this suggest some wire hack? At least I know I'm not a complete moron as far as reading a manual goes. Any idea if these two places have the same outputs? I haven't been able to tell from any of my online reading (manual on order).
No problem. Glad to help ya. Maybe, or maybe someone connected to the wrong one.
Can't help you if the outputs are the same. Did you swap them for chits and giggles? Assuming since that the triac is fused you could try.
Okay, posting for posterity-most is fixed...all seemed to be driver board related. I thought about it & against my better judgement swapped my BOP board over into Getaway. I hooked the red beacon back to J124. Everything seemed to work, except the beacon was still not on in gameplay, and the right sling flasher was always on (dim & flashed when it was supposed to, but always on). The supercharger lamps were back to normal. And then, yes, I REALLY went against my better judgement and swapped that wire to J106 after getting dmacy's confirmation. Well holy crap, the right sling flasher is NOT always on now, and even better, the beacon works in gameplay now! I'm thinking I'll order a Rottendog board for this, and then when I have the time to troubleshoot the current board, I'll keep as a spare.
Still 2 lights out, drive again & 5 mil - but I saw at least one of those had a diode on it, so I will get to testing those 2 lights out later, but for now we're good! Thanks everybody.
Congrats man! I know my beacon kept blowing fuses when I got it and really took away from game play (Found later a hairpin clip was in a light socket and the cause of the issue). Nothing like playing the game the way it was meant to.
Quoted from BR80:The siren should be going off in multiball, special, etc....
Mine sticks and needs a bang on top to get it moving.
Sorry can't help trouble shoot beyond that.
Ok, so this thread is 7 years old, but this comment here is exactly what I'm curious about:
"Mine sticks and needs a bang on top to get it moving"
Any idea what is causing this or what can be done to sort it out once and for all? Mine sticks too. Not always, but maybe every third game. No rhyme or reason that I've found so far. It all looks fine when I took it out. All screws are in place on both the plate to wood and motor to plate. Wiring connector is fine and bulb comes on reliably every single time. The little disc just doesn't always get rotating when turned on. A light tap on the left side gets it going though, every single time without fail.
Weak motor? Replace it and done like dinner?
Quoted from AlexRogan84:Ok, so this thread is 7 years old, but this comment here is exactly what I'm curious about:
"Mine sticks and needs a bang on top to get it moving"
Any idea what is causing this or what can be done to sort it out once and for all? Mine sticks too. Not always, but maybe every third game. No rhyme or reason that I've found so far. It all looks fine when I took it out. All screws are in place on both the plate to wood and motor to plate. Wiring connector is fine and bulb comes on reliably every single time. The little disc just doesn't always get rotating when turned on. A light tap on the left side gets it going though, every single time without fail.
Weak motor? Replace it and done like dinner?
Had the same problem with mine when I first got my Getaway. The beacon bulb and rotating reflector motor are on the same circuit. The bulb looked like it was the original, so I changed it out with an LED bulb, which requires much lower amperage. This provided more amperage potential for the reflector motor, and the motor then always quietly starts up and rotates like it's supposed to - problem solved!
Quoted from golfergordy:Had the same problem with mine when I first got my Getaway. The beacon bulb and rotating reflector motor are on the same circuit. The bulb looked like it was the original, so I changed it out with an LED bulb, which requires much lower amperage. This provided more amperage potential for the reflector motor, and the motor then always quietly starts up and rotates like it's supposed to - problem solved!
Didn’t see the reply here until now. Good call on the LED bulb. I found the same solution to my sticking rotating light. I took it one step further and installed the “mini” version of the 1156 base bulb and it works perfectly now. I used to need to tap on the backbox at least every other game and I haven’t needed to do that a single time since putting the correct bulb in. Probably 1,000 games in that time. Easy fix… just had to read the manual closely!! D’oh!!
Thinking of switching out my incandescent 1156, as my rotating beacon sticks every once in awhile too. What particular vendor and 1156 LED bulb did you guys go with?
Be great if the LED bulb is available on Amazon to avoid shipping charges.
Thanks in advance!
I kept that bulb incandescent on my game, however, I think the 1156 bulbs I already had were from/for my car. You can buy those kinds of bulbs at your local automotive parts place as they are used in taillights and other places on vehicles.
There are a few different parts that work in both cars and pinball machines. And not that I don't want to support the dedicated vendors, but the prices can be pretty crazy if you buy the same item from one hobby versus another.
These look familiar?
https://store.delorean.com/105859-lamp-socket-assy-black.html
How about these?
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/24-8767
$1 versus $10? No thanks, lol.
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