FWIW, paragraphs are your friends....also brevity.

you may want to shorten it. i'd def start by removing "a little background on me".

That sounds like most of your problem right there.

If you can eliminate whatever expenses you have that require you to work that much and can whittle it down to three eight hour days a week like myself, you will have more than enough time to fart around doing whatever you like.

Little background in the hobby; know whom some of the people are just a little bit.
But in a way we all feel your pain to some extent; it can be frustrating.

Why do people get pins and have no clue on how to work on them??? And then complain about it???
My god man, call Dr Phil

You lost me at verbose......

Lots of helpful people here

Can be a frustrating process getting games up and running if you are not well versed mole hills can seem like mountains.

Give us the Cliff Notes and someone will help you.

Sell the old unreliable clunkers and put the $ towards a NIB pin with a warranty

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Nobody was born knowing how to work on a pinball machine. The OP is frustrated and wanted to vent - nothing less, nothing more.

I'm relatively new to the hobby as well, and it IS intimidating! Hell, I remember how scared I was the first time I had to figure out how to open my T2... And then was even more nervous about opening up my MET Pre because of how much I paid for it. I still haven't done anything I would consider "difficult" when it comes to fixing 'em, but I've done a little soldering now for the first time, used a multimeter for the first time, and stuff like that. I have a ton more to learn, and I'm sure I will when something else breaks, but give the guy a break - he's busy for another month or two and barely has time to play, let alone fix, but I'm sure he'll tackle the problem when his day job settles down.

Haha 1st world problems. The only pin you have that works is your IMDN premium/LE - assuming based on your list.
This too shall pass...
It can always get worse - you could have cab splitting or PF ghosting. Go flip an awesome pin and count your wins.

Cheer up! You'll get it all sorted with some rest and some time.

Take a break from it all and regroup. Get some ice cream.

What's wrong with Breakshot bub?
Couldn't be as embarrassing as 2 days worth of posts and questions only to realize ya put the goddamn roms in backwards DOH.
It'll get better bruh.

It happens bro; too much work, too much stress, frustrations seem to pile one after another, too many machines “down” at a given time.

Take a break, get through this tough stretch and once life slows down again you will be able to fix the problem and get it all figured out.

Honestly, I would just walk away for a few months. The pins will still be there. The only gaurantee in pinball is that problems will happen.

When you are ready to tackle the problems, they will be waiting for you. If you never want to tackle them, sell them or work that side hustle to pay someone to fix them for you.

Figure out what your time is worth, and utilize it.

Pins can be especially frustrating. We spend thousands on something that will break, often. I have three machines and it’s always something. Constantly a stream of money going out. and the number of hours spent fixing is truly mind boggling. But that just makes that moment that everything works and ya have a good game truly magical. I kno it’s tuff, I’ve been there. Staring at a several thousand dollar paperweight is no fun. Just remember, everything can be fixed. Ya just need patience, time, money and a friend or two.

If yer working on computers for kids, you're fightin the good fight. So crack open a cold one and crank some Triumph.

Shit, after owning around 30 EM machines I swapped two sets of Jones Plugs plugging the head onto a Fun Land, I’ve never made that mistake before. I spent hours troubleshooting it before I saw a post here about someone else doing it as well. The worst part was, someone actually colored the end of the connector and the receptacle red so you would know and I didn’t even notice.

Pinballs seem intimidating but to be honest they are very simple machines to work on. If something doesn't work, you can usually trace the issue back. Focus on one problem at a time and fix it correctly. If you don't have the manuals for all your games, purchase or download them for reference.

Odds are you aren't the first person to have the issues you are experiencing. Write a clear, concise post regarding your issue(s) and people will help. Don't fill them with all the personal drama. It's a turn off and will not result in the help you seek.

Remember in some cases you are dealing with electronics that have out lived their designed use cycle. Constant maintanece and tweaking is part of the hobby and should be expected.

Just learn how to fix your games properly, rather than getting in somebody else to fix

Hardbody is a great game to learn on, one you can diagnose and fix that, you can fix any other Bally from that era (1977-1985(?))
start with the power supply , fix and clean all the connectors, then work your way through the rest of the game
if you dont want to work on the boards, then buy replacements, clean the connectors and be happy

Honestly can’t tell if it’s more “woah is me” or “hey, look at me”.

Either way I gave up about 40 lines in which was only about 30% of the original post.

Lol.
BUT IT'S U24 I TELL YA!!!
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Man I have been there. It sucks! One thing breaks, you fix it, and another thing breaks! This just happened to me this week! I have a bunch of stuff I want to do in my Twilight zone, and the damn flipper stops working. And another game has another issue.. I had a period where no games were working for 2-3 weeks.

I’ve had weeks where I just want to sell them all.

Anyway, don’t. Just take a break for a bit. One thing at a time - I also have a full time job -and- my own business, I play in a band 9 times a month, and I have a family to take care of. One thing at s time gets you through the day. And a lot of times it’s not the thing you want to work on, but if you steal those little slivers of time and get what you CAN done, suddenly you’re at the finish line

Also.. don’t let the Pinside bastards get ya down!

You're going to replace all the boards, re-wire the machine, then install another board to emulate the ROM vs getting a single board repaired?? I'm going to be positive here and say that's a terrible idea.

You just said you have no time to work on things so why not send the board out. 11 weeks later when things with school die down the board will almost be done.

I agree with those that say take a step back. It can be a frustrating hobby. I see where you’re coming from with old vs. new. I sold my TZ and Cyclone due to fear of constant problems. I really like the new pins coming out too, from all the manufacturers. I say sell the ones that really bother you and make a savings account with the money for a NIB or HUO in a few months. Don’t let the haters here get to you...most here get it and will help if we can.

Writing with brevity takes far longer than writing at length. But in this case, it would have been nice had you taken the time.

Welcome to pinside

All this drama over a Breakshot?

I would think with your education and abilities fixing a pinball would be a cakewalk. I am a car dealer with no computer repair/electronic repair experience. My first pin was a ratted out TZ which is probably the most complex machine you will find. Google was my source when I needed to fix it. Today the wealth of repair knowledge available on the internet makes it easy to maintain a pinball machine. I have owned about 15 machines and have never paid anyone to fix them and I work about 60+ hours per week.

If you want reliability buy some of the newer machines like Stern Monopoly, TSPP, ST, etc. Many of the mid to late 90s Williams Machines are pretty reliable as well. Older ratted out routed machines from the 70s, 80s, and 90s are usually a problem.

At least it wasn't a raven or hardbodies...
Then it would be critical.

Despite not much experience, you at least work in a technology field - so in my book, you have a leg up on a lot people that buy a pin and wouldn't know what a resistor was if they were holding one. And you might enjoy beginning to understand the 'inner workings'..older pins are rather straightforward and aren't bad to work on.

I guess just hold tight until work settles down, and tackle the issues then. No need to pile more on your busy schedule. Plenty of people here willing to help when needed. Wife's go-to pin is a WildFyre and it needs a rectifier bridge or a transorb replaced...and I just don't have the time to fix right now. A few weeks ago it was crunch time at work - one week was just shy of 80 hrs., the next not far behind. Add hardscaping yard work, a leaky seal on the truck, a root canal, more travel at work...ugh. It will get fixed, along w/everything else...in time. I think my vacation this year will just be catching up on fixing WildFyre, working on a World Cup for a friend (his first pin), and continue to work on restoring a Black Hole (aka former mouse hotel). Or maybe just surfing Pinside all day

Too old to get spun up anymore.

I'm also new to pinball.And after seeing all of the computer stuff you know and understand,I'm now depressed, because I have zero knowledge about pinball repair,or computer's.

Diospinball, when I was telling my wife about the pin we got it was a good sales pitch. These machines are made for commercial use, so they are built solid. Don't worry about them breaking and the kids can play as hard as they want, no problem. Once the pin is in the house and I start to need to fix stuff I'm telling everyone to be careful. The wife says, "Isn't this made for commercial use and won't break." I feel your pain.

This is why I sold all of my 20 plus years old machines and just bought Sterns. Yeah pinball machines break but in my experience all of my Stern machines just work. Minimal maintenance required. Now a days I just play and haven’t had to worry about shit breaking.

I was honestly trying to help with the brevity comment. When I see a post like yours, I and I'm sure many others, don't feel like taking the time to read it. Carry on though, and best of luck with your games.

Not gonna say he's right, but he's kinda right.
For the non-mechanically inclined, or lazy, newer=less problems.

I am going to give you a couple nuggets of "straight-forward truth", which nowsdays causes college students to run to their safe-spots.

1. Either put blankets/towels over your games and get through this rocky time until your schedule opens up and you can address your games.

2. Find someone that can help you. Looking at the Pinside map of the Chicago area, you have 450 pinsiders around you, and that's just who is on the map.
Prolly hundred of other pinball owners. Go to a barcade, ask them who services/owns the games at those locations. Chicago has a BUNCH of them. You have a huge untapped resource there.

or........

3. Sell them and get this stress out of your life.

I remember being in your shoes. I struggled with my games for a very long time. Took some hard learning lessons, some mentors to help guide me through the basics of pinball repairs and diagnosing issues with a multimeter and a soldering iron, but as time went on my confidence grew, and now I have six games that my family loves playing. You'll get there, but you have to dig yourself out of this mood. That being said...

I am going to give you some advice that was first bestowed to me regarding your rebuttals to your critics here:

Your skin needs to thicken. You're taking things very personally, and it isn't boding well for you.

No one likes a victim, and I get that "I'm a victim" vibe here.

I get it; you're frustrated and feel defeated. I really do get it. Dig deep, tell yourself you are in control of this situation - not life, not these pinball machines, and not your schedule - YOU are in control.

One last thing: be careful with such emotion-driven responses. Bryan_Kelly is very well known for some gorgeous restorations here, and with those restorations he probably has a very strong tech background on helping with getting games back on their feet. He could be helping you....

While this is a global forum, it is a very strong and small community. It's not who you are, but who you know (unless you're the aforementioned Kelly, kruzman or @high_end_pins, amongst a small number of names - those guys are just incredibly gifted and are at the verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry far right of the Gaussian bell-curve).

Good luck with whatever choice you make. If you stick with it, one year form now, you'll look back and be proud of yourself and the knowledge you will have gained by then.

There are over 75 new threads created per day and 1500-3000 posts made per day. Most people just quickly skim through threads and don't always have the time, patience, or attention span to go through a wall of text. Keeping things brief and to the point, especially when it comes to trying to troubleshoot something, increases the chances of people reading it.

That sounds like a bad plan to me.

First, that's an expensive proposition. Second, it's complicated. Third, it will make it impossible to repair the next time something goes wrong, especially if you didn't document everything very thoroughly and basically create your own manual, schematics, and theory of operation documentation.

It's an impractical approach in more ways than one.

Who did you ask about repairing the original board? Did you try Clive and coin-op cauldron? Have you tried ksarcade.com?

Additionally, check with pinballspareparts.com.au for boards or parts.

You could always try to learn how to properly repair the original boards. I pretty much taught myself how to do board repairs, and I have no background in electronics. It just takes some time and effort.

Reinventing your own way to do something from scratch seems like a heck of a lot more work and isn't necessary. The problem just might come down to needing to replace a chip or two.

I'd have to strongly disagree with that.

What you're trying to do is take a standard sedan with a gas engine, and replace all its inner workings with a tesla motor, computer, and battery bank. Sure, maybe you could kind of sort of shoehorn it in, and it's newer technology, but it's a hack job, it doesn't really belong there, it isn't a proper repair, and nobody in the future is ever going to know how to fix a complete mess like that when something goes wrong.

Hey what happened to that brevity thing?

Well shit looks like Clark just one-upped ya on that brevity thing NPO.