A few years ago, I got around to trying to get my Fire! (11A) working, and with the MPU & display board looking a bit corroded, I decided to get new manufactured boards - even with those, I couldn't get it working. Perhaps once I got a game to start but there was no sound, and then was a loud white noise, and then I starting getting strange switch test readings, and then trying to use the self-test button to do stuff, nothing would happen. The situation seemed hopeless. With about a full-time week invested in that and other things on that, I decided to give up on that and work on other stuff that would give me a better return on invested time. When most of my other stuff done, the next time I have the free time, I will work again on Fire! The MPU board is Rottendog, I believe the MPU9211 (EDIT, maybe it's the MPU011A), along with the special add-on board for Fire!

So doing research on what I should do (right now, it looks like I will get the Siegecraft switch tester & Diagnostic Switch input, which AIUI will allow me to bypass the test switches (i.e., on the door). I am also considering getting a new test switch assembly just to remove that as an unknown (anywhere to get that?). I guess I will do a check of the voltages coming off the power board as well. I had also read to check on the grounding too.

But doing research here, I am wondering if the <whatever one I have> replacement board from Rottendog is just a dog, and I should consider it spilled milk and move on to another board. I have had another bad experience with Rottendog, that being a Bally power board that blew out when I first hooked it up, making me wonder if I had done something wrong (I did a complete rewiring of the wires going to that, so it was a concern), and didn't want to try any of my other Bally pins (I have 3, all of the earliest system) until I had gotten the first one fixed. Fortunately, after replacing the 3 circuit elements for the particular circuit that blew on that, it worked, and in due time I got all 3 Ballys up & running - but I had read that Rottendog had put in inferior components on some of those boards.

I understand that there is a new Rottendog board, and I wondering if I should give up on the old one and work with that board. Of course, I could still do the checks on the power board, and see if that Siegecraft stuff shows me that my Rottendog MPU board is OK, but I wonder if I should put in the time on this dog? And will this new board not be a dog? I don't like throwing money down a rabbit hole! And sometimes I don't have the time to diligently check out a board quickly when there is so much going haywire, thereby losing whatever warranty benefit I might have.

Is there a used market for these Rottendog MPUs? Perhaps someone one who knows how to fix them may want to this MPU board at a "scratch & dent" price. As for myself, I am a "plug & play" buy, especially on something I can't isolate (I can fix a transistor on a lamp driver board, or like I had done on that Rottendog Bally power supply, but I don't want to get into messing with replacing ICs).