Hello Everyone,

I am a new member here and I have just taken ownership of a Gottlieb Cue Ball Wizard. I am new to pinball machines but I am a huge arcade fan and am super excited to have my own.

I’ll include some photos, and the machine appears super clean. It doesn’t boot at the moment and the previous owner (who is in the industry) has already taken the basic troubleshooting steps trying to track down a “watchdog” problem.

I can include any addition info anyone would like, but I am hoping the resources available here will help me on the journey to find this fault. I have already found a few threads that may be helpful, but currently I'm just documenting model #’s and trying to get my head wrapped around the system 3 components.

This seems to be a great community.
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Thanks for the reply. I do have computer and electronics experience. The machine has all the original documentation and schematics so I have been looking over them to learn about the system.

I have found the PinWiki page and started figuring out what boards I am dealing with. I don’t have any specific questions yet except for how do I get this thing to boot.

I’ll be looking into the preventative maintenance (ground improvements, etc) that is recommended for the system 3 boards and go from there.

I don’t think that was me, but that was the basic situation in his case. May have been the same guy.

Yeah I’m stoked to have gotten it.

I’m looking at everything slowly and learning what the components are called as I go. I have a multimeter and the schematics but I haven’t started probing for continuity or voltages yet.

It was powered on before we moved it and the Sound Board (A6) and Aux Sound Board (A20) were alternating blinking LEDs, the CPU Board (A1) was blinking quickly and the DMD controller (A8) was on steady.

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Ok I was getting some high readings on the 5v output but changing the battery in my multimeter sorted that out.

I can adjust the pot and dial in a clean 5v which is holding steady. The CPU board is blinking fast with a short pause and then fast blinking again.

The Display board is still on steady.

The fuses check out ok and power is stable across the boards. I haven’t looked into any other details other than this. I have been following the PinWiki System 3 article to learn about common faults and fixes.

It seems the DMD board is the culprit and there are old chips in the bottom of back box which the last owner left for me after trying a few changes. So I’m not 100% sure what has been worked on in the past.

Thanks for that link I have saved it and will read it thoroughly. I found a similar article on pinrepair.com and will start looking at that ship as well as the resistors near it. (Edit: it was the same article I have been reading).

Any advice on what programmer to use if I need to verify chips? I don’t have much hope that the chips in the back box are functional, but I’m just giving as much info as I have.

Just an update for anyone interested. After checking the boards and looking them over I decided to bite the bullet and send the boards to Coin-op cauldron and let Clive get to work on them.

The work took some time as he was backlogged quite a bit, but it was worth every penny. After putting the newly repaired boards back in place, hunting down the balls and replacing the DMD screen (which was fully lit at all times) I now have a fully functioning Cue Ball Wizard.

What a quirky and fun game this is. My daughter loves it and I’m amazed how much fun the younger kids are having with this machine. All hours of the day I hear “Quit talkin’ and start chalkin’.

Thanks for the advice and hopefully this won’t be my only pinball in the future because it may become a new sickness at my place.
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