Hello all! I need some insight on how to tackle sound issues on a Gottlieb System 80B (Gold Wings) I am working on getting back to working condition, with my first post here on pinside.

TL;DR - I am having erratic sound issues - about 90% of the time I get no sound effects or soundtrack, about 10% of the time I get sound effects but no soundtrack.

But for the gory details...I am about a month in to my first foray into pin repair, getting my childhood Gold Wings back to working condition, which unfortunately is a System 80B . Here is short history of what I've done so far and the current problem. When I got the pin back (had been sitting dormant for about a decade), it wasn't booting reliably and had no solenoid action, here is what I have done:
- Replaced several fuses after checking all (solenoid fuse was blown which was the first problem)
- Then it wouldn't boot reliably unless I nudged the piggy back board! - After doing this, I had a few days where I played several fully functional games (albeit with intermittent piggyback pressure)
- To really address the piggy problem, I attempted to remove the piggyback to reflow all the joints - this went totally sideways and ended up with my piggy off (yay), but about 5 lifted pads and traces (boo) - I have ordered a PiggyDeux, but in the meantime decided to make one attempt to reattach and bluewire to get around the busted traces and pads - it worked! GW is now booting more reliably than is has since I've had it in the past month
- I have also reflowed header joints on the power supply board and reset board, replaced the 10kuF cap in the base, and done the ground mod in the base (remove the connectors and attach bundles directly to base)

HOWEVER....somewhere along the lines of doing the above, my sound has gone the way of the dodo, current symptoms/observations:
- About 90% of the time I get no sound (effects nor soundtrack) and D1 just stays lit
- About 10% of the time I get sound effects but no soundtrack and D1 is either solid lit or always off
- Pressing SW2 I get one bleep or bloop each time (changes which sound it makes some times)
- Pressing SW1 doesn't seem to do anything
- I have measured the relevant voltages and I am now getting 5, 12, -12, but I swear the first time I measured it was way off (could be a red herring)
- When I ground the SX signals, sometimes I get sound effects, sometimes I do not
- Volume pot is good, even when I have neither Fx or soundtrack, volume pot all the way up does throw a good buzz

I know everything on the game works (or recently did) because at some point in the past month I have had everything working (just not all at the same time!), it is just very frustrating now because the sound issues seem non-deterministic.

So, does anyone have any debugging tips or next steps to suggest (or has seen a similar issue in the past)? I have the Clay guides and some other misc. posts, but nothing seems like the exact same symptoms, so I don't know which way to look. The next thing I Will try to do this morning is to redo the gorund mod and ensure I getting good contact from all stripped wires.

Sorry for the long writeup, but wanted to give you guys the full picture of the current state in my first post.

Any insight you can give to a repair newbie would be much appreciated!!!
Adam

5V good at CPU board cap, LED on sound board solid on, no blinky ?. I have done the cabinet base ground mod (removed the 4 connectors and put all wires directly to base via lugs) but have not done the driver board to cpu board harness mod as I don't have any parts yet to add wires to the harness.

Hi Marco - As I mentioned in my post, hitting the push buttons buttons does not change any state, usually causes a sound emission though. When I turn the game on, I either get a beep, or it just continually emits one sound effect (like constant jet thrusters in this game).

Anyone have similar experiences or any ther thoughts?

I am getting the piggy deux tomorrow, so perhaps that will help but since cpu board now seems to be working fairly well after my rework, I am not hopeful that it will fix the sound problems.

Thanks!
Adam

Hi guys - I am out of ideas and in need of some expert advice . I received my Piggy Deux today, but unfortunately (as expected), I do not see a change with my sound board. I have also since completed the ground mods, with the exception of the driver board to main board double up, still no dice.

Game is booting very reliably, and I usually get sound Fx now, but just no sound track. Diode is still solid on. 5/12/-12 still looking good, and shorting the Sx wires on the sound board connector does play random tones. All tests in test mode check out fine, all lamps/solenoids good, really just seems isolated to sound board issues.

Does anyone have any ideas or know where to look next? I am now desperate because I feel like this could be the last issue to get me over the hump .

Any help much appreciated!
Adam