Hey all! I just joined the Laser War club yesterday! Picked up an as-is, untested project game and here's where I'm at:

Just did some investigating on the schematics on the Data East power supply. Just plugged it in today. I'll make this it's own thread. It seems there is an issue with the power supply circuit going to the displays.

Fuse f3 is not blown on the power supply (100v circuit for display power), nor are any other fuses in the game. I did remove fuse F3 from the game for the time being though. When I powered on the game I heard a couple pops. TR1 is gone from the power supply (the 2n5551 transistor). Well, the legs are still there, but the entire case blew right off of it. Also, C10 (or C11) I forget at the moment, popped the top and shoots out smoke a good few foot distance with the back box open. TR3 looks to be blown as well, as there is a piece missing from the front of it's case. Probably need to just rebuild the high voltage section here is my guess and do a cap kit on the power supply.

The power supply is still sending out the proper 5/12 volts and the game plays and runs like it should, other than the displays all being out, since they aren't getting any power.

These are interchangeable with Williams displays as far as I know, so I can test the displays individually in a few of my other games to verify they are good. If the displays test good, and fuse F3 is the proper size and not blown, I would think the rebuild of the HV section on the PS would bring this thing back up to par. Are there any known issues with the display board or the glass displays causing an issue of parts popping and smoking on the PS?

Just a good mention as well, I've removed all the boards in the back box, one at a time, to clean all the connector pins, re flow all the connector pins, and pull all chips in sockets to clean their legs and reinstall them. I did find there were a hand full of cold solder joints, so best to just re flow all of them.

All of the switches and coils are working, and I have yet to go through and change the lights out to new bulbs/leds, so there may be some light issues I discover along the way as well, but the game is up and playing with voice and sound. The light show looks pretty good on this thing, probably even better after I go through the lights!

Def. time for a rebuild on that PS.

Anyone have a rebuild kit available that I can pay with a credit card that is NOT filtered through PayPal? Ugh.... it's getting SO hard to avoid them anymore.

It is a 520-5000-00 PS. I see Action Pinball has them, but again, your card is going through PayPal, so mine will get declined since I had an issue with them about 10 years ago. Unreal.

Oh, I also tested the player 3,4, and ball/credit displays in my Black Knight. All work great. I can't test the player 1 and 2 displays though, since they are the Data East displays with a larger size connector.

I'm still betting on them being fine though, as it's an old PS and should get a rebuild anyway.

Well here is an interesting turn of events. I had the game on and was changing out burnt out lights. It was in a game, since I have no display power at the moment to scroll through menus, so I could check the flash lamps and other lights on the play field. It was in game for maybe 20 min or so while I changed burnt out lights. The transformer in the bottom of the cabinet started sizzling and smoking. Never seen that one before! My guess is I'll need another one if it heats up again and shorts, which probably will happen here, unless there is a cause for that out of no where. It was on and being diagnosed and played for well more than 20 min yesterday with no issues. Any ideas on that one?

Seems as though there may be a bad bridge rectifier causing this issue. Looks like it's fixable by putting some new BR's in the back box and fusing them.

Can anyone confirm that this is probably the issue?

How do you test a BR?

The bridges are testing good. After that, I unplugged the connector from the transformer up to the power supply so the only thing that's on when you turn on the game is the transformer. Power goes in through the line cord through the fuse and the rf filter, through the power switch and into the transformer. It still want's to heat up right away.

I took apart the power switch and one of the rocker contacts is pretty burnt up. Probably needs a new power switch. Could there be any other possible issues? Never had a transformer want to heat up so bad you can't have it on for more than a couple seconds.

I started another thread over in the early solid state section with some further info and replies, but thought I would wrap this up here too.

I have 2 other Data East games, Monday Night Football and Playboy 35th. By suggestion, in looking at the power diagram in the manuals for both, they have the same wire colors, same pinouts, and same voltages as the Laser War. There is one difference in that 2 of the 4 wires for the GI lighting are taken from the front of the transformer and 2 from the back in PB and MNF, and all 4 are taken from the back side of the Laser War transformer. Of course all games happen to have the exact same power supply in them though (520-5000-00) so I went ahead and assumed that all amperage would be the same as well. I also had a conversation with K's arcade who suggested that a transformer from a Williams system 11 game would be suitable as well since the displays and many other components are interchangeable between those early Data East games and that period of Williams games. I did pull 3 of the 5 displays from the Laser War and test them in my Black Knight since it had the same displays as well. All 3 turned out to be good. 2 of the displays have wider connectors and ribbon cables on them and I don't have any other games to test them in before I fix the HV section on the power supply currently in the Laser War.

I just swapped in the 10-5002-00 Data East transformer from a Playboy 35th in place of the bad 10-5000-00 in the Laser War. We are up and working great. It's been on for over an hour with no issues. No noise, no melting, putting out proper voltage, and stays just barely warm to the touch. The new translite and rubber kit arrived from Marco today so while it was on I installed both of those and got the last few burnt out bulbs replaced, and got some good playtime in. Both the Laser War and Playboy 35th are plasma displays so I don't assume there will be any issues once the HV rebuild kit arrives to rebuild the HV secton on the power supply and get the displays up and going. I'll confirm if this is a 100% good working swap in a few days once that's all completed. On to ordering a new transformer.

Got the power supply hv rebuilt and now have good voltage on the display driver board for all displays but nothing is showing on the displays. Displays test good in my black knight so i know they arent burnt out. Any suggestions? Ive checked voltage at the connector for each display (pin 2 and 12) and all are getting power. Mpu not putting out signals then for displays?

After some research, I realized I have a version 3 board installed in the Laser War. Looking at the jumpers, they are not correct. Someone jumpered J7 b's left solder hole with J7a's right solder hole at an angle, and did the same thing with jumper 4's lower solder hole and jumper 5's upper solder hole at an angle. For Laser war to work right on a version 3 board (the extra pins at cn3 are installed) j5a and j6a should be installed and j5b and j6b should be removed. The 2 are removed but only j6a was installed and not j5a. Looks like there is some jumper correction to be done here. Reporting back in a bit after these are corrected Hopefully having jumpers 4/5 tied together and jumpers 7a/b tied together doesn't ruin anything and the displays pop on after correction. Obviously not a typical problem here!

A more detailed post of where things are at now:

I have a Laser War with a version 3 mpu in it. The game is fully playable. All sounds, lights, and solenoids are working properly and playing it is a blast.

There is nothing displayed on any of the displays though.

I just rebuilt the HV section on the power supply and have proper voltage on the power supply at connector cn5 for the displays, and on all 5 of the connector pins (pin 2 and 12) for each of the displays attach to it. 3 of the displays (player 3,4, and the ball/credit display) were tested in my Black Knight and all work great. I cannot test the 2 DE displays for player 1 and 2, but have tried with them plugged in and unplugged with no difference. I have the extra pins added at cn3 on the mpu for the ball/credit display as well.

There is no chip at B5.
What looks to be the original Laser War game rom chip with original factory lable is installed at C5.
There is a 6264 installed at D5.

Do I need to burn a different game rom chip to work with the 6264, or can I just swap it out for a 6116 as per the original version 1 mpu (I think that's correct)?

Someone was messing around with the jumpers on this board for some reason and had a couple of them crossed j4/5 each had one end of a jumper attached on each one, as did j7a/b. J6b was installed but not j5b.

I don't know if that would damage anything or just send game information or partial information to the correct/wrong place.

Currently I have the jumpers installed as follows:
J1B, J3, J5, J5A, J6A, J7A, J8.

The following are NOT installed:
J1A, J2, J4, J5B, J6B, J7B

With the original game rom at C5, is having J5 and J7A installed correct?

Will that original game rom work correctly with the 6264 installed at D5 or do I need to install a 6116?

I don't know what the original game rom is as far as what type of chip. Do I need to burn a new game rom on a different chip to have it work with the 6264 currently installed?

Just trying to clear up some confusion on this board and hopefully that will get the displays to display information!
If not, then I suppose I need to look into something else on the mpu maybe not putting out signals to the displays? I would think everything should be good through the PIA though since the power up lights are correct every time.....

Thanks in advance!

**UPDATE**

I have a 27256 at 5C, the original Laser War game rom. Changed jumper j5 to j4 to be correct with this rom.
Still no displays.

I have a probe and was going to connect it to the ground/+5 test points on the mpu and check for signals coming out of the PIA. Are there certain pins I need to check or all of them? I think they should all be "low" and none of them "high" correct?

Hey Supermoot. I'll have to get a data east test chip then. I've got one for my Williams boards. Will that tell me that my boards are putting out all of the signals for the displays properly and then narrow it down to the display driver board?

I've gone over the service bulletin as well and have set those jumpers mentioned in the bulletin properly. However, someone had been messing around with the jumpers on this board prior to my purchase of the game, probably in hopes of getting the displays to work as well, and as far as I've seen, I cannot find anyone who has posted their complete jumper configuration for a version 3 board in a Laser War that is fully working. If someone could note that all down that would be perfect. Then I can match where the jumpers are supposed to be and rule that out 100% as a possible issue. The only jumper that might not need to be the same as mine would be if they had a different game rom chip type in socket C5 than I did, as there are 2 types used and one requires jumper j4 to be in and one requires jumper j5 to be in.

I've also resurected that old "laser war not fully booting" thread and gone through that as well, which leads me back to "where are all of the jumpers supposed to be in the first place that someone else felt the need to move them around and cross them". UGH! Why would you put a jumper on a diagonal between 2 different jumpers? I don't get it.

I also have all of the pinrepair guides on my computer here and have read through all of the display information there. Nothing refers to having all of the displays out, other than if the HV section on the power supply is bad. I've rebuilt the HV section on this games power supply, and it's working properly (purchased full rebuild kit from actionpinball.com).

If the test chip can verify that the MPU is outputting everything it should to the display driver, then that narrows it down to the display driver not working correctly, which then would lead me to think that all 4 of the udn6118 chips are bad and not putting out any strobe pulses.

Guessing the test chip doesn't tell you anything about the display driver board not working correctly.....

OK. I did a search for Laser War game rom. The original Laser War board had 2 chips one at B5 and one at C5. B5 was a 27512 or 27256 and C5 was a 27256. Since there is only one chip on this board, the 27256, I'm assuming that the other chip is missing. I see K's Arcade has a new 27512 that would replace the pair of chips. I'm thinking there is information missing from the missing chip and it must have to do with the displays.

I'm going to order the new single rom game chip, remove jumper J4 and install jumper J5 and see if this resolves the issue of all the displays not displaying any information. Obviously, when someone put this version 3 board in here, they didn't know what they were doing anyway since all of the jumpers had been messed with and several were crossed between 2 jumpers. Maybe they got rid of a chip that needs to be there too, since there should be 2 chips if your using a 27256 at C5 instead of a 27512 with all of the game info on it. Ugh.........

I will update in a few days when the new chip arrives.......

Installed the new 27512, game plays, but there is STILL nothing on the displays.

After poking around with a probe, testing voltages at all the chips on the display driver board, and trying to think some more, I compared RA1 ,RA2, and RA3. RA2 and RA3 control digit strobes, according to the schematic, and RA1 controls numerical segment drives. RA2 and RA3 gave the same readings for each and RA1 gave no readings at all. So, how can anything be shown on the displays if the segments aren't being driven? Probably can't..... right?

The schematic says RA1 is a 18Kx9 resistor array. Is there any other information or specs I need to know to get the proper one to replace this with? Mouser sure comes up with a lot of results and options.......

Any +/- on if this could possibly be the issue?

UGH!

I just put the MPU from Laser War in my Monday Night Football. The MPU is putting out the display signals just fine because it came right up on the display with data east presents laser war........ MPU VERIFIED GOOD. DONE.

It's got to be somewhere on the display driver board.

There is activity on all 3 of the display connectors on the mpu at cn1 cn2 and cn3, and the ribbon cable on cn22.

There is even activity on all of the player display connections on the display driver board AND voltage at the same connectors for each display.

Something is keeping them all from actually lighting up and displaying the information.

I don't think it is the RA that I mentioned above anymore. I noticed that the other 2 RAs have +5 to pin1 and this one has ground to pin1, so they should be measured in reverse (switch black and red leads from meter) and they read the same reading as the other to RAs. correct?

I've even removed the ribbon cables with the displays and tested player 3, 4, and the ball credit in my black knight, all of them work just fine. Ive swapped the main ribbon cable from cn22 on the mpu to the driver board with the one from monday night football, and no change. the ribbon cable works just fine in the monday night football too. no cable problems, no voltage problems, and the displays work in other games.

MPU verified good output for displays in MNF.
Ribbon cables all verified good in black knight.
player 3, 4, ball/credit displays all verified good in black knight.
all 3 voltages present on display driver board.
all ics have proper voltage at voltage pin for each chip
all voltages present at all display connectors (1,2,3,4, and ball/credit)
activity at all display connectors with logic probe

why won't they just light up?!!?

There are 7180's, 6118's, 4050's and 4001's on the display driver board. I have a probe but I really have no idea what signal I should be getting from any of the pins. I found the data sheets for each so I was able to check that each chip was getting the proper voltage, which it is. I measured this by putting the black lead from the meter on the ground pin coming in from the power supply and the red lead on the chip pin that receives the voltage.

I just got the logic probe and have no idea if I need to be on ttl/cmos, pulse/memory, or if, where, and when, I should be seeing hi/low signals. It does have an audio beep sound as well.

I would think you'd need to be in display test mode, which I *think* I am, since I hit the same test button sequence to get there on Laser War as I did on the Monday Night Football, but I really don't know 100%, since nothing ever shows on the displays.

In Monday Night Football the auto display test is right after the sound test, so I hear the sound test and step one more button press through the test menu and assume I'm in the display test in the Laser War.

Even so, in attract mode, I should still see activity at most, if not all, of the pins, I just might have to hold it there for a bit until the information in attract mode is using that segment. At least, I would think.....

I REALLY do not want to get a pin score display set. I feel this board should be easily repairable if I knew the signals I should be getting from each chip pin. It doesn't look to ever have been repaired before and looks all original. No hacks or re-soldered anything on here. Nice and clean. I can do great solder work all the time, but I don't always know how to find the problem. I have about 25 pins set up to play right now and I'm proud to say that not a single one of them has led retrofit displays. All of my pins have great original glass displays installed and I'd like to keep it that way. I even take the time to rebuild the HV sections and adjust the voltage down properly on the early Bally/Stern displays so that they last longer in their original form.

Actually, the Game Plan Sharp Shooter II and Old Coney Island have LED displays..... but those are original to those games, and they are not set up at the moment. So they don't count.

Perfect. I removed the board and tested the UDN7180/6116 on the display driver board. The 3 7180's tested good. All 4 of the 6118's tested bad. Looks like I've got some sockets to install on this board

How can I test the 4050BE and 4001BE? There are 4 of each on this particular board.

OK, so I just tested the 4050's with the board removed from the game. Had one lead on ground and other lead probing each leg of each chip. All 4 of the chips gave the same readings on each leg, meaning pin 1 of all gave the same, pin 2 of all gave the same, ect. when each of the same pin was compared to the reading of the same pin on the other chips. Is this the correct way to test those? I have a digital meter so I can't see any "bounce" as mentioned in the old pin repair guides.

Getting some where.....

Some progress today! UDN6118s arrived in the mail and were installed with new sockets on the display driver board. We now have some digits that light up, but most are still out.

Player 2 and 4 have both the ten thousand and hundred thousand digits light up. The 1st of the 2 digits in the balls display and the first of the 2 digits in the credits display light up. I can now see when I'm in the display test and the digits that light up work for all numbers.

Now, what's next to figure out what's not lighting up the other digits?

How can I test the 4050be and 4001be?

Few more notes:

Looks like the 4001's control the digits, and the 7180's and 4050's control the segments. I ordered some of each, but I'll be replacing all 4 of the 4001's next and putting them in sockets as well.

Something did a doozy on this display board.

Also was able to finally verify that player 1 and 2 glass displays are good.

Update again in a few days.

IMG_0554 (resized).JPG

FINALLY, we have full operation of all displays! I replaced all 4 of the 4001's on the display driver board and everything is now up and running 100%. Wow. New transformer, rebuilt HV on power supply, proper jumpers, new C5 rom, replace and socket all 4 UDN6118's on display driver board, replace and socket all 4 4001's on display driver board, and we finally have full display operation.

That's got to be the most extensive display operation project ever.

Thanks for everyone's patience, help, and suggestions along the way. It is much appreciated!

Now, it's game time.

I was going to say order a new translite from Marco Spec.... but I just checked and the site says they are sold out now. I got one just in time then!

I do have the old one from my game that is somewhat faded and has some tape around where the score displays go. If yours is in real bad shape with missing pieces and cracks everywhere, it might be better than that one and worth trying to remove the tape around the display windows.......

Can you make the pop bumper cap decals too?

I'd start by pulling all the boards and making sure there are no cold solder joints on the connectors. You can clean those pins up while they are out as well. Also, if there are any chips on the boards that are in sockets, pull them, clean the legs, and put them back in. Every new game I get, I go through all the boards and re-flow all connectors, clean the connectors, and socketed chips. It fixes untold numbers of issues.

I have a spare..... but you would have to rebuild it somehow. When it's powered on some of the wires get really hot and the plastic coating starts melting. Probably a short inside somewhere. Not sure how to fix that myself.

There is also another equivalent transformer number you can look for. I will get the number for you so you can expand your search. I ended up purchasing the other one since I couldn't find that specific part number one that is in the game. It is plug and play.

010-5002-00 is a plug and play substitute. I had one in my Data East Playboy 35th Anniversary, swapped it over for a try after checking the pinouts and it works perfect. Found one of those for my Laser War before I found the original 5000.