A basic solder station will do the trick.

I would probably try, if I knew where to find that tiny component. But, if that item cooked because of another problem, maybe Stern can find it. But it does look isolated to that surface mounted chip. I bet it gets fixed.

Yes, I’ll share whatever the repair/replacement cost is.

Was this on a Premium? Did one of the magna sling magnets lock on?

It’s a premium, but it didn’t happen during gameplay. My son played one game, then the game was just sitting in attract mode chilling. When I came back an hour or two later, the game was mostly dark, except the DMD had some trivia about the movie frozen on the screen. I powered off and left it for the night. The next day, I powered on, and it appeared to begin to boot up, but didn’t boot. After 20-30 seconds I smelled burning/melting plastic. I powered off. I googled the problem, and found an image of another Spike 1 CPU with a melted chip at U30. So I checked mine (it’s very tiny and easy to miss) and mine was the same, cooked. So, I’m sending to Stern to hopefully fix this. I truly hope someone produces more of these Spike 1 CPU boards. As Clive at Coin Op Cauldron put it, “Stern deemed these boards as
disposable…”. Well, if that’s the case, and they weren’t built to last 30-40 years like WPC boards, then Stern should probably make sure they are easily replaceable, not merely disposable. Spike 1 may have had a short run, but a half dozen or so titles are built with this system. That’s thousands of pins that will need support.

Hopefully some 3rd party will eventually make a replacement board set. Maybe FAST or someone similar. Open source it and the community will get behind it and recode so not even Stern's code will be used.

This is promising for older pins; https://fastpinball.com/retro/

Sorry to read this, must be extremely frustrating. Out of curiosity was your machine plugged into a surge protector? Were other machines on at the time, which I assume were ok? I am just wondering how this happens spontaneously. What if anything can be done to prevent.

It’s a bummer mostly because the CPU isn’t easy to find. I accept that this hobby is expensive, and pins require upkeep, so I don’t get too upset when things happen. I’ve been lucky, my collection usually has few issues. I clear most credit dots right away. GB was plugged into a power strip, but not a quality surge protector. No other pins, to my knowledge were on. But GZ, LOTR, and BSD share that strip, and they are all fine. They are concerned about their fallen comrade, especially GZ, but I just powder coated GZ and installed a speaker light kit, so that’s helping morale.

If anyone is looking for a Premium/LE, I have one for sale here, for a really good cause too!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-ghostbusters-premium-24#post-7474958

So should I get the color DMD first or get my pin stadium lights? This is the serious questions we must ask ourselves from time to time. Talk to me my people I need your input. Lol

ColorDMD, definitely.

ColorDMD, agreed.

Both are great mods but Color DMD without question. Best mod you can get for any game IMO

I like my self-made Stadium Lights. I don't look at the DMD while I am playing. If you do not have the greatest house lighting, the play field is fairly dark.

Another vote for color DMD. It’s really well done on Ghostbusters

ECHO 1 MOD BACK INSTOCK
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1414-flipper-king-mods/07926-ghostbusters-echo-1-mod

Pinside_forum_7431308_0 (resized).jpg

Need a little help on the Mezel walking stay puff if someone has put the new version on.
Your supposed to put the light sensor in the insert underneath board 9 but it want fit I’ve put alot of mods on but this one has been aggravating. Thanks

Should have bought this one!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/walking-mr-stay-puft/page/5#post-7466635

I had to shave the corners of the triangle insert a bit using X-acto knife, also loosened the node board there overlying insert site to allow more room, then squeezed in the black insert fairly snug, just until the light sensor sliding plastic things would go on and then tightened node board back.

There was a lot to be desired with this mod (see my previous post) about trying to figure out the support plastic things for the hinge and servo. No pictures in the manual and manual was a Pro Model, which made it difficult on where to put the Red Box control thing.

Overall I love my walking Stay Puft mod, but could be improved from the light sensor fitting situation that you describe and manual instructions.

hit up mezel mods, as they said they didn't want the dutch guy using their manual but sounds like they need to improve theirs

Hey thanks. I did have to shave it some to get it to fit. Now I still can’t get it to work. When the game comes on it moves stay puff to set it but nothing after that. I’ve fooled with light sensor adjustment but nothing no matter if it’s set on game or timer. I’m going to contact Mezel mods tomorrow this was one of the most aggravating mods to do

U might be right

I'm not sure how to fix that issue, best to call Mezel mods as you mentioned. Hope you get it to work.

I agree about the aggravation of installing this one, I feel your pain, I almost said the hell with it and not installing it, but it ultimately worked.

So I'm trying to install a topper from DK Pinball. The power adapter says to install on J16 of the power board. I can't find a J16 on our power boards.

Any suggestions?

Use a sharpie?

You need to contact your supplier. None of the power boards have a J16. Do they mean CN6 (which is commonly used on spike 2 games)? If so, still bad news as Ghostbusters Spike 1 power board doesn’t have CN6. The only 12v supply available is at CN11 on the cabinet node board.

Thank you, it was driving me nuts going thru everything. Might just get a 12v power brick for it.

Been a long time, but just getting back into playing and finally updated my code! Lol game needs some dialing in any recomendations on how to get left ramp and right orbit to register shots more consistantley? Also what airball mods do you recomend, rubber for flippers and in general any must have mods ive missed in the last 3 years.

Thanks

for the airballs off the targets either side of the left ramp you need to understand the problem.
- some people tame the airballs with the top plastic guard
- I went about changing the target mount to correct the target within the restricted area to remove a majority of the airballs
https://www.shapeways.com/product/GRBNG4DQK/stern-pinball-target-bracket-5deg2mm?optionId=63971960&li=marketplace

Just an fyi Gameroom guys has these instock at a great price. Cheapest I’ve found on these. Marco is back instock as well but at almost double the price. https://www.gameroomguys.com/Stern-Spike-1-CPU-Board

Thank you! I just ordered one as a backup. Stern sold me one also, for about the same price ($15 more actually) about 2 weeks ago. I had to go through a distro to get it. It’s on its way. I just ordered one from Gameroom Guys as insurance. We shall see if my burned chip on the CPU was an anomaly, or if something else is wrong and caused it. I’ll update soon…

Back in business, busting ghosts!

$350 or so for a new CPU from Stern. Pin fired right up. Hopefully, it runs for another 5-6 years like the first one did. I bought a backup from Game Room Guys, and I might have my original cooked board repaired. Was down 3 weeks and back in action!

A02B7268-5073-4BDF-AFD2-4756FC62E442 (resized).jpeg

Man that’s great and your pin mods look great. I’m on the list for the firehouse mod. It looks great. I see some others on there I want to.lol

And now they are listed as out of stock. That went quick. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Or, Marco has them for the low low price of $599. Supply and demand I guess.

A88E5F70-1B77-4AB9-93EE-FF8D67698375 (resized).jpeg

Have to reach out to DumbAss and see if he can start producing this board.

What's the easiest and least destructive way to feed a 12v connector from the head so I can attach it to an alternative topper?

Question, I have the 3d printed buildings. Wanting to add walking stay puff and my firehouse mod from Whitewolf finally came in. Any fitment issues or can all 3 work together?

I just answered this for you.

So you really paid 35 dollars for a bracket!

Did you see there price now! Went up just a bit to $669!

Holy shit that’s ridiculous

Pretty pleased I grabbed one for $329. Hopefully I’ll never need it. GB isn’t going anywhere so nice to have the piece of mind I guess. Marco sold out now even at $599.

Well creating paranoia will do that to a market. Everyone starts buying stuff in fear, raises the demand as well as the prices.

Hello fellow GB owners, my GB Premium has experienced what appears to a serious node / cpu failure. See pic of display for error details.

A local pinball tech attempted to diagnose the issue, but unfortunately he did not have a spare spike 1 cpu or nodes on hand to help identify the issue. He did note that 48V power still appeared to be going to all the Nodes, but there was no other signs of activity on them. Only the display presently lights up with this message. The playfield and rest of the game is dark.

Just wondering if anybody has experienced anything like this where all the nodes appear to fail at once and has any help or advice on bringing this game back to life?

IMG_7018 (resized).jpg

wondering if it is the CPU that can't find all those boards.

check if AMD have a CPU board or if they know the issue.

Just follow the Spike Service Manual for trouble shooting. What are the LED's showing for voltage?

Here is the link to that service manual. This, and the manual for each pin, is all the Stern Support people have to figure out what is not right with your pin.

https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SPIKE-System-Manual.pdf

Thanks for jumping in with the links @cottonm4, the spike service manual does a nice job of assisting with troubleshooting.

Well, no one has answered you yet so I will give you my way.

Get this 12v LED strip light kit from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZKF2ZO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o08_s00

Screen Shot 2023-04-21 at 8.37.04 AM (resized).jpg

The kit comes with a power supply that you can plug into the service port in the back box.
This is the safest way since you are not drawing any power from anywhere on the play field. You have a complete separate circuit.

That's the advantage.

The disadvantages are several:

1) This is a line-of-sight unit which means you will have to place the "receiver" somewhere that it can be accessed by the remote control. You will have to manually turn on and off your topper.

This is how I have done this for my home made Stadium Lights.

I have my line of sight bug tie wrapped to Mr. Stay Puff.

IMG_2987 (resized).jpg

You will probably have to cut and splice ina connector to match your topper connector.

If this direction interests you and you have questions, then send me a PM.