So I picked up a working #HollywoodHeat last week, albeit it needs some love.

Saw it working before I took it home. Got it set up in the house. Everything worked aside from a blown fuse for the drop targets. And I did notice a flicker on the displays (the unused segments looked like they were dimly lit)

The next day I turn it on, walk away to do something at the computer for 5mins and notice some inserts are locked on. I shut it off. Turn it back on and nothing.

Now I get garbage on the display. A few feature lamps on the playfield doing an attract show but can’t coin up or start a game.
Typically when I first turn it on I get a couple of insert lights circling the playfield, back ic and gi comes on. The soundboard led somethings flashes other times not. If I turn it off and then back on I get the same but with a beep from the speakers.

Ground mods were done at the transformer. The mpu has the added wires on the interconnect and has a Piggy Deux board with the harness to the reset board.

The resetboard is flakey, when touched, it started a reset loop so it is now unplugged.

Reflowed the male pins on the psu and cleaned the pot. Made sure it was pushing 5v to the mpu which it is as measured at the connector as well as the 100uf 10v cap.
Also cleaned up the edge connectors on the mpu with a pink eraser.

The mpu still has the battery attached which I was going to replace with a coin cell or nvram when I make a parts order.

Tried the usually reseat the connectors, remove fluorescent tube starter tested for continuity for the grounds between boards and transformer but I get no change.

I picked up some terminal connectors and wire this morning to do the ground mods to the boards but I have a feeling I won’t see much change.

Sorry about the wall of text but this is my first Sys80b and I’m at a loss of what to try next. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Haha man, I'm trying!

The voltage at the cap is 5.02 DC.
No change when sound card and driver board are unplugged.

I can't really tell what it's doing. But I would say no, it's not booting.

Without the Pinitech Piggy Deux board/prom, all the controlled lamps and flashers lock on.

Also, it wasn't the piggy that caused the resets the night before, it was touching the Reset card. I have reflowed the male headers on it because they were rocking, but with it plugged into the Piggy board it resets constantly, and I do get the "broken glass" sound on repeat.

I am also leaning toward a rom issue at this point.

Also, I checked continuity on each board to the ground strap in the backbox, and it all checks out. I've heard mixed reviews on the board ground mods on if they were necessary or not so I am on the fence.

One thing I did notice while checking voltages is that the 5vdc reading starts dropping on some of the ICs on th top half of the board ~3.50-4.57 vdc at the last pin.

I might try to get some new roms burned, but it would probably be quicker for me to get a rom burner from amazon

I thought about it, but I didn’t want to go crazy with it and do any more damage.

Yes that’s the one. I emailed them for some documentation because I had never seen one until I picked up the game.

Not sure what else to look for. I mean it would be nice if it were just a set of roms that it needed but I feel like it’s more than that.

Like I mentioned in my original post, the displays were “flickering” or half lit when the segments weren’t being used. I assume there was an underlying issue I would have to figure out sooner or later, maybe a bad ground or a voltage was off. It sure if that’s connected or even a failing rom would cause that. Like I said this is my first Gottlieb so I don’t know all the quirks yet.

Yeah every thread I’ve read seems to just end with no resolution. Everyone must get fed up and just send their boards to Chris haha

What about the battery? Looks like I have an original battery pack on there. I had planned on addressing that when I made a parts order.

Would a dead or bad battery effect it booting/functioning? Would it boot without a battery? I know other systems will work without, just wondering if this is a Gottlieb quirk....but at this point in my adventure I wouldn't be surprised by anything

Edit: battery removed. no change

Oh no - I didn't suspect the rom going bad from the drive. I did manage to have it set up and had been playing for a day or so. Not really suspecting the issues being from travel.

I assumed. Just trying anything to see what results I'd get, as there is nothing really telling me what the issue is.

I actually do have a probe, although I'm not overly confident in using.

Board is pretty clean, no battery damage. I actually removed the battery pack altogether today to see if I'd get anything different. Same symptoms.

Like I said, it fired up fine after the ride. Noticed the drop targets weren't working when I went to check it out. I replaced the playfield fuse and got them going again. That being said, one of the "sync" solenoids was burnt up which I assume was the cause.

Connectors were all reseated when it arrived and was working. My buddy and I played for an hour or two after checking everything out. The next day I came home from work, turned it on and sat down at the computer to start a parts list. 5-10mins later I went over to the game and noticed some inserts were locked on.

Here’s a little update for some closure.

I sent the board out to Brent at ToMMy Pinball here in Canada and he got it going. Here’s what was done:

Replaced Prom2 socket
Replaced U4 riot
Replaced prom1 daughter board (guess he needed the socket where the piggy Deux was for diagnostics.

Should be here Monday/Tuesday and I’ll pop it back in the game and see what happens.

Arrived today. Popped it in and fired right up!