My Genie started having display issues as they all of a sudden went Bat S$%T then out like a light. I sent the CPU back to Ni-Wumpf who informed me that:

The chip at location Z6 was damaged indicating that there may be a problem with one of the displays for player 3 or 4.

These are original displays and have always worked fine. I guess I could get LED's at a huge cost but am wondering if there is anything to check first. The last thing I need is to get the board back and have it happen again. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks so much! Great advice and will definitely check everything out. I have never disconnected anything with the power on. I think to be safe I will not use those displays until I can make sure all the connections are good. They look great however. Can a bad display cause the problem? The 4th one got very bright as you can see in the photo. The game looked like this until all the displays went dark. Thanks

IMG_9113 (1) (resized).JPG

Have not repinned those connectors but have others. Will do as you recommended and Ni-Wumpf too to try to isolate which display is bad then look for the reason. I think the previous owner repinned them as they look that way but not sure. I really appreciate your help and will report my findings here as soon as I know.

I am still trying to figure out what is frying the CPU but also the 1/4 SB fuse. Unfortunately I received the repaired CPU back and as recommended begin to reconnect each display one by one. Immediately all the displays looked bad after plugging it in, some very bright, others dim with segments doing crazy things, even the ball and free game display was a mess. As I disconnected one display at a time the others would change to some other crazy different looking display.

In other words something fried chip Z6 again and now started blowing the fuse. Here is a photo of the game even after the CPU was repaired and crapped out again. What are the chances the 13 year old Rottendog PS is doing it and not the displays? Thanks

IMG_9113 (1) (resized).JPG

I never would do that with the power on and have Ni-Wumpf's replacement boards. The Rottendog PS is 12 years old. The game was great then out nowhere the 4th display got real bright and the others had missing digits and flashing while it was playing. If you disconnect one or two of the displays the others change their weird displays from. For example, with all 4 plugged in you number 1 would show the total score after each ball even though it was garbled during play while the others were like I said above, bright dim flashing. You disconnect one or more and number 1 no longer is right and the ball and credit display get messed up.

To top it off the 1/4 SB started to blow as well from time to time and everything would go dark. Again, this all came out of nowhere with the game in play. Ni-Wumpf repaired the board and the game still did the same thing to the point where I could not tell if the chip fried again or if it was something else. Ni-Wumpf said it could be the PS possibly. The last thing I need is to throw darts and money at a new PS, digital displays, and continued repair of the CPU only to not fix the real issue. I know I need to spend to fix it but am hoping to have a good place to start first with some help here so I don't buy expensive things I do not need. I really appreciate the help here. Thanks

Can you point me in a direction on to what to look for to determine voltage wise whether its the PS?

Just an update on the display problem with Genie. If you look back at whats been said up to this point and the photos you will see that all of a sudden all 4 displays went haywire. Some very bright and unable to make out the digits, others missing digits and flashing etc. A total mess. Also the 1/4 SB fuse was blowing. Because of that I replaced the Rottendog 13 year old PS and had Ni-Wumpf check the CPU. When this first started it fried their Z6 chip. After buying the new PS I sent the CPU back to Ni-Wumpf to check. This time he said the CPU was fine.

Fast forward to today, I installed the new PS and CPU and now #1 and #2 are fine, #4 did not work at all, and #3 is missing a digit. 

To see if it was the #4 display that was bad or if it is a pin/power problem, I moved it to another spot and it still did not work so that display is shot. I moved #3 with a missing digit to another spot and it worked fine so the #3 spot has to have a bad pin or something. Crazy how one second all was fine then this mess. Seems like it was a bad PS that caused the initial problem. Man oh man I cannot believe the power of the new PS! Its like a new game as everything is fast ans powerful. I should have replaced that awhile ago with the other boards.

So at this point, for now, I can play the game with just player 1 & 2 as they are fine. I guess I can either replace all the displays with digital ones for a couple hundred bucks or maybe find one replacement original display if that is even available. Either way I still have to find out why the #3 display has a blank second digit. If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears. I have PinWiki and the Genie manual to help me but am hoping someone here might have dealt with this problem and can lead me quickly to a place to look. The pins look fine so will start looking upstream. Thanks to all who have helped me.

I am happy to report this issue is SOLVED! and hope this thread will help others who might experience this problem down the road. Even the fine folks at Ni-Wumpf found it to be a wee bit "Out Of The Ordinary" as they helped me through it. I cannot say enough about their help not only through this issues but others I have had.

In the end it was the 13 year old Rottendog PS that first took the Z6 chip on NI-Wumpf"s CPU and #3 & #4 displays. I purchased a new and improved (so they say PS) and WOW what a difference it has made! I understand it is still made by Rottendog though it was not designated that way by the seller but those in the know more than me said it was. Of course I replaced the 2 displays.

I cannot believe the difference in the power and speed of the Genie now. I thought after I purchased it that the performance (which was not that bad) was due to the EOS switches. I was always messing with them trying to get more power on especially the upper flippers. The game flat out pops in every way now, so much so, that I worry that it will break targets and even the glass. Its almost too powerful. Amazing difference. Thanks to all here who helped me get to the bottom of it. I truly appreciate the effort.

Thanks but talking over my head and I bet most others a bit on this one. I have a new Driver and CPU as well so is this concern there? I would think that I would have been warned by Ni-Wumpf as they helped me with this if there was a danger.

I think its a good idea to realize that as much as your trying to be helpful here that writing all this out to the average pinball owner:

I can see between the new and old board designs are the revision of a resistor in the 8.2V display offset voltage and a partial power plane at the exit of the switching power inductor (+5V).
Check diode at location D3 -- if it is still a 1N5400 series diode than you need to fix that now before serious damage occurs.
Also make sure capacitor C3 is a low ESR type capacitor. Is there a "VX(M)" or "VR(M)" on the side?

Is of no help at all but thanks just the same. I mean man, Really?? A wee bit over the top. Ya think? Care to draw me and others a map we can follow to see if its something to look into or really be worried about? The more I read it I am thinking, Its a joke right?

Upon further review I was misinformed that this is a Rottendog. It is made by Gulf Pinball. Any issues there? And thanks for your help as I know your legit and not messing with a newbie.