(Topic ID: 105772)

Gottlieb Hollywood Heat - Display Showed Garbage, Now Out

By Gemini

9 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 6 posts
  • 4 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by 20eyes
  • No one calls this topic a favorite

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#1 9 years ago

(EDIT: Just did some quick reading and found that it could simply be the connectors are wearing out. One thing I did notice when I bought this thing is that while the boards look pristine, the connectors look mostly original. I'm gonna try reseating some connectors in a bit and see where that gets me, but I'd appreciate any other advice anyone might have.)

OK, this is annoying. I just picked up a Hollywood Heat a week ago as my very first pin, and one of the things I made note of while looking at the inside of it when I went to buy it is that the boards and everything are in really good shape. Some of them even look like they've been replaced at some point. The battery pack was also replaced with an off-board rechargeable phone battery of some sort back in 2011. (This may be an important point of note, but I'm not sure.)

I've also barely put any play time on the thing. Maybe a little over an hour as I only finally got it up and running back on Wednesday after repairing the AC plug, removing a shattered bulb, and doing checks under the playfield and such to confirm everything was OK. Last time I played it was working perfectly fine.

As another point of note, the very first time I tried turning the machine on after getting it, the display didn't come on, yet after turning it off and on again, it came on fine and came on fine since... up until today.

Today, I turn the power on and the display comes up with constantly changing random garbage characters, yet everything else seems to be working as it goes into attract mode perfectly fine. I try turning the game off, wait a moment, and turn it back on, and now the display isn't coming on at all, yet everything else seems to be working. Attract mode is going, credits can be registered, slam tilt is working... I haven't tried starting a game yet, admittedly I should've but I really need to get back to work on other things.

So... what should I check first, what should I check second, what should I check third... basically, if the display showed random garbage at one point and now is not working, but everything else is working fine, what are the possibilities?

Post edited by Gemini: Added a note on the first thing I'm going to try when I get a chance.

#2 9 years ago

Solved the issue on my own. Yeah, it was the connector going to the display. Oddly enough, while the connector LOOKS original from the outside, when I removed it, both ends from the inside where the pins are looked extra-clean... which makes me wonder why it was having connection issues to begin with?

In any case, just a little ago I powered the game up and saw nothing, so I powered it off, tried shifting the display connector around on both ends without actually pulling it off, turned the game on, and the display came on BRIEFLY, then went out again. So I turned the game off, pulled the connector off completely on both ends, reattached it, powered on, and now it's working perfectly. Power cycled the game a few more times between then and now and it's still working.

But I'm still perplexed by this evening happening as the connector fits on VERY tightly and the pins look really clean. Is it possible for clean connectors to suffer issues like this? If I get more display problems in the near future that can be solved simply by reseating I'm going to assume the connector should probably be replaced as the boards look pristine, including the contacts for the connectors. : P

#3 9 years ago

Hollywood heat was my first pin, and it's amazing! Google around to see if the ground mods are done, also you may want to consider replacing connectors.

#4 9 years ago

Ground mods are not done yet, but the original grounds are clearly still working as I'm not experiencing any phantom issues caused by bad grounds, so I'm going to worry about those later. Haven't had any more display issues since reseating the connector but if I start getting display issues again I'll certainly consider replacing or repinning the thing. ; )

3 years later
#5 5 years ago

Also have garbage on my Stargate Gottlieb System 3. After change all components and chips on DMD card, sellers tells me to clean ribbon cable. I already did it quickly with contact spray. So I did it again by scratching any ribbon cable and now it works a little bit better so I will change any ribbon cables...
(Same garbage on old Gameboy games who don't works for years...put contact spray but nothing better..scratch contact and all works perfect now

#6 5 years ago

I had the screeching garbage problem on my stargate. The fix for me was a rom upgrade to the Version 5 roms. After the rom upgrade no more garbage on the displays.

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