Hello all -

I have a 2012 AC/DC BiBLE that, after a long road of other issues (caused by me - because of a miswire), I've hit a wall on. At this point, the pin will only boot maybe 65 to 70% of the time. When it boots, everything works fine. But when it doesn't boot, here are the symptoms:

1) I/O board is lit up - no issues with burnt-out fuses on the board (or anywhere else), and voltage tests fine (Chris Hibbler checked the board out and replaced the watchdog so I trust it is in good working order).

2) CPU board is up, but LED3 shows steady and does not pulse (it pulses when it is working normally). I was told by a technician that he felt this was the CPU not getting clock. I sent the board to Stern who bench tested it and said there were no issues.

3) A few of the lights on the playfield do come on, including the GIs for the coin slots, a GI lighting up the trough-up kicker, one playfield spotlight, and the led panel for the flames. The backlight fluorescent bulb also powers up.

4) ColorDMD doesn't do anything - i.e., no animation (but it is getting power and you can open up the menu via the back buttons)

5) If I try to update firmware after it does power on OK, it doesn't do anything. I was able to drop a backup copy so there I don't suspect a problem with the USB, but it won't update.

Boards I know are good: I/O board (thanks to Chris and I have tested it with another known good), CPU/Sound (per Stern), 8-Transistor Driver board, RGB Driver board, all (5) LED lamp boards.

And the ones that I haven't tested include the Opto Transmitter/Receiver Amplifier and the opto boards on the drop targets.

Anyone have a clue? I have to think this is a short somewhere, but ?

At this point, I'm entertaining any suggestions!

Thank you - this is an excellent starting point.

So testing has created a mixed bag of results, and not exactly what I had hoped for. It seemed like I was going in the right direction until I plugged in the second set of low-current coils / solenoids, and then it completely stopped booting (at least for awhile), even after backing all the connections out.

Here's what I did:

1) Stripped down to the initial configuration and the system booted successfull x6 times. During the initial boot, on the CPU board, LED "K" (below U49 and next to R27), flashes slow green (x3, pause, x3) and then turns off. LED3 is fast-pulsing green, and LED1 is steady green.

On the I/O board, fuses F9-13 are on, the LED voltage indicators for +5, 12, and 20 are lit green, and LED L18 is yellow.

2) On the I/O board, I started by plugging in J10 (voltage outputs) --> J11 (ac voltages) --> J14 (5.7VAC GIs) --> J5 (LED data) --> J6 (lower power group #1)

All the fuses came on, 50v LED lit up, playfield LEDs turned on as did the two GI lights for the coin slots

3) Plugged in J7. Boots fine and the cannon moves back and forth (did not stop). Fails on the 2nd and 3rd boot.

4) Unplug J7. No boot. Back out to the starting configuration and it would not boot.

Went to bed frustrated. It didn't boot a few times this morning, in the initial configuration, then magically started again.

When it wasn't booting this morning, I did check the voltage across J17, J16, and J11. All three checked out according to the specs in the yellow pages.

Everything seems like it's one step forward, and a dozen steps back.