Hey everyone. Joined up so that I can see if I can get some help with a machine.

My husband and I just scored a Gottlieb Solar Ride for free, and finally got the space to move it into. (OK, we just moved into a house.) The only caveat is that the machine doesn't play. Report from the previous owner and his son is it just went into Tilt one day while playing, and stayed there. The Q and Tilt relays will sometimes "lock on" when the machine is turned on, sometimes they won't click at all. The coin door switches are unresponsive, so I can't even get into test mode. Otherwise, it appears normal, the machine boots up, complete with 5 second delay, and the playfield switches cause the displays to "flick" when pressed.

I've already performed the initial grounding mod (tying ground of the MCU and Driver boards to the backbox), checked the coin door harness for shorts and continuity, and swapped out a busted diode. No change in machine behavior with any of those. I've also tried unplugging the driver board, and the playfield switches, and again no change in behavior. I also double checked that no switches were stuck on. The pop bumpers do fire if I hold the Q relay closed, and the kickouts function normally. I do plan on changing the power supply capacitors, since those appear to be original. Display three is back to full brightness, but the Match display has gone a little strange, dim in horizontal bits.

And recommendations for where I can look to fix the problems with this machine? I know, it's a Gottlieb System 1, the architecture has some serious flaws in it, but it seems like it should be a pretty nice machine once we get the big problems out of the way.

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Battery was already removed before we received it, and no replacement is currently fitted. Some traces show corrosion, but my multimeter shows they're still passing current.

Slam switches appear to be set the way they need to be. Coin door slam switch reads as closed when I check it with the multimeter.

I've been poring over those two webpages... neither one seems to mention the particular set of problems we're having.

The playfield, from what I've read and seen online, doesn't really have an "attract" mode on the playfield. Some of the headbox lighting does blink.

When the relays lock on startup, some of the playfield lights come on, particularly when I reach in and pull the Tilt relay back from being engage. I've seen a couple of the reward track, always two side by side, but never the same ones twice, and the replay light will be on even when I'm not holding that relay.

We're not above replacing boards, but we do have an overall budget limit of $400-500 before it's not worth it to do more than sell it off and use that as seed money to buy something that works. I realize that would let us replace all the headbox boards (so far, everything is still original hardware), and I'm not above doing that, but replacing everything gets us up into potential not worth it territory, and I recognize such replacement likely won't solve the problem. :/

The displays aren't doing the pulsing/flickering, so I don't think we're looking at a slam tilt. Good to know a locked up board may still allow coils to fire when tripped, like pop bumpers.

The high score lamp isn't turning on, I can check it tonight after work to see if it's still good. I did see in one of my tests a few nights ago the displays go between "000000" and something like "000003".

I understand a System 1 doesn't actually load the ROM until you start a game. Also, I can probably check see if a local outfit (Game Exchange of Colorado) has a testing rig for System 1 boards, and how much they'd want to throw my boards in it and see what happens.

So, I called Game Exchange... they do have a diagnostic rig for the System 1 hardware. Probably be around $45 for them to plug the MCU in and test it. I'll have to take it in Monday during a lunch break. That will at least eliminate, or implicate, the MCU as the problem child. I just don't have the skillset yet for my existing diagnostic equipment (multimeter and oscilloscope, just got the latter this last year) to suss out if it's the MCU or something within the body of the machine.

That the coils will fire implies to me that the driver board may actually be good.

If the MCU has problems, while we can't do it right away (setting up in the new house is eating money, plus who knows how our re-let will work out on the apartment), I have my eye on the Ni Wumpf replacement MCU for it. This pretty much goes triple or more if it turns out one of the spider chips is dead on it, if only because I don't want to try to scavenge one from a dead machine.

Pulled the boards and stuck them in an antistatic bag for transport. The lower edge connectors on the MCU look awful. I'm also pretty much guaranteed of having to "repin" the harness connectors. Particularly the one going from the power supply to the MCU, that one's looking particularly dodgy in terms of maintaining a connection.

AND WE HAVE A WORKING MACHINE!

I bent the pins back in the connector for the MCU power, and sanded the black fingers of the edge connector, and I can get it to coin up and play. The test switch still doesn't work, but I think I can attribute that to a bad pin in the connector. The displays are also showing some bright in the "off" segments. But my husband and I played a few games to make sure it works.

Yeah, I know better than to mess with the display connectors with the power applied.

It's not anything stuck on, it's almost like an overvoltage. We can read the displays, just that the "off" segments are also glowing, albeit not as brightly as the ones that are on. And it slowly comes into it, starting up at first the displays are normal.

Sometime this week I'm going to order the pins for the connectors, and a trio of capacitors to redo the power supply.

Update: Test switch is now working - I screwed up replacing the broken diode, got it in backwards, swapped it around so now I can get into the diagnostics. We also tested all the playfield lights (good), and switches (also good), using the tried and trusted method of running the game with the glass off, and effectively cheating.

The "1 and 3 displays" and "2 and 4 displays" both light up all four displays with the rotating digits, so I'm feeling like there's some sort of cross-talk going on somewhere. Should I just get the repinning done before I go trying to figure out where that's coming from with the idea that it might be one or more bad connectors?

Went ahead and changed out all four resistors on the display boards. No change. I also fiddled with the 60V pot, and could get some change, but it doesn't go completely away. So... rebuild the existing power supply, or order a brand new Rottendog supply and be done with it? Decisions, decisions...

It's actually a bit odd. It's not wrong numbers, it's all displays having a faint mirror of what's on the other displays as well as what they should be displaying. So running the test of displays 1 & 3 also shows up at about 40 percent brightness on displays 2 & 4. And vice versa. So I get an accurate, readable score in a one player game, but the end of game score display is almost unreadable from the echo from the other three displays.

Not that it might not be the ICs on the MPU. As for the connectors, we have a batch of pins sufficient to repin everything scheduled to arrive this Friday, at which point the main power and display harnesses are the first priority. I'm hoping that's the fix. Not that we won't probably replace the power board, all the caps are still original on it, and there's an odd break in a diode line that concerned about long term reliability.

I can try that again tonight, each individual display alone, see if they all do it. I did replace all for resistors already thinking it might have been one of them. The only display without one is the credit display.

No dice. Every display, connected singly, even without the credit display, manifests the ghosting effect. I took a video showing what it looks like with all the displays in place, but it's identical with only a single display connected. And the issues are basically with the quad "in place". It's just most obvious in the "digit roll" tests at 11 and 12.

Displays are still bright enough for our purposes, so haven't recharged them yet. Odds are pretty good we'll order replacement LED displays from Boston Pinball if the displays start dimming out or get funky.

Repinning the connectors is on the agenda. When we got the machine, it wouldn't coin up or do anything, and it turns out it's because of those connectors, specifically one of the 5V ones in the power to MCU area. I should have those parts in Friday. I'll be starting with the power, then going to the display connectors.

The irony is that definitely isn't the worst offender with ours - it'll probably be done towards the end, since it's one of the few I'll be able to lay out on a table and sit down to repin, rather than repinning at the machine backbox.

Checked it at the supply. 4V only reads 1V. 8V reads... -.07V. That can't be correct.

Also, we have a bag full of 300 molex pins now. A little overpackaged, they came in one of the silver static protection bags.

Went ahead and assembled a cart on Digikey - looks like, with those and capacitors (if I'm removing the board, I'm doing all the capacitors damnit), given that I already have the resistors on hand, under $20 in parts.

I'll probably stick with Digikey for this one. I've already got an account with them, and my one problem (some parts didn't get shipped) was solved pretty quickly with no fuss.

I'm adding a few heat sinks to the mix - I'm going to try to get around the "have to resolder Q1 back in to reassemble" issue by moving it or the other transistors off onto their own heat sinks.

I remeasured using the ground on the connector to the MCU, same result (8V read -.03V, which was "better" than -.07V). Haven't checked the transformer. All other voltages from the power supply look stable and are at the correct level.

Under $20 means I'm ordering the parts, plus additional spares of those same parts (2x capacitors, 10x diodes), and some heat sinks (Q1, and the two TIP packages). I could probably get the whole order under $10 by ordering the bare minimum, but I believe a little bit in "overdoing", since I can just stock the extra parts for other things if I don't need them.

Been tweaking the order a bit. Added a heat sink and adhesive pad to use on the PROM chip, for reliability sake, as well as the trimmer pots for the power supply. When I have that off, I'll probably go ahead and replace various resistors using my existing stock.

The adhesive pad (thermal transfer pad actually) is to stick the heat sink to the chip, not to secure the chip into the socket.

And the parts order is placed. I discovered there's some odd bookkeeping issues that might be traced back to the power supply capacitors - will only allow 1 credit to be added, will do things like suddenly toggling up to 74 credits, etcetera. I went ahead and added the capacitor at C24 to the order, just in case, as well as a 1N4001 diode so I can build the external AA battery pack (I already have a battery holder) to support high score and extra ball tier saving.

I read up a little bit on it when I realized it was happening - one of the power supply capacitors failing can actually affect the bookkeeping circuit on a System 1 MCU, causing strangeness like not allowing more than 1 credit.

As an aside, I talked to the son of the former owner (we actually see each other pretty often), and he commented on not really recalling some of these problems before the "big failure"... and that the big failure was over a decade ago, so the machine's basically been sitting unused that entire time, albeit not stored in a garage or barn. So definitely it's high time to get the power supply rebuilt, and the connectors repinned.

And I now have a box of parts for the power supply and some minor other things on the pinball.

I also haven't had much chance to start repinning the connectors - we're still doing some unpacking stuff around the house.

Repinned the harness from power supply to MPU. I definitely need a better crimper, I think I destroyed about 20 connectors redoing those 10.

Yes, I have a crimper, but it requires some... finesse.

I'm scheduling to try to rebuild the power supply (caps and diodes and a couple of resistors) this Sunday.

I used one of these: http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE-1127140dt.jpg

My husband is putting the tools onto our next Amazon order, so I should have better ones here sometime next week.

Well, it lists itself as a crimper... but definitely NOT for the connectors I need to crimp.

Amazon order has been placed for some proper tools. It took me 80 minutes to do the power harness, and I had a 2 ratio of ruined connectors to what I got installed, so definitely I don't have the right tools. Although at least I got the repair itself done right. Also glad we just went for the 300 pins, since it ensures we still have spares.

Whelp, replaced the caps on the power board, and the resistors and diodes for the 4V and 8V lines... and now the power board doesn't give anything at all. Double checked my work against the schematics, doesn't look like I miswired anything. Also checked to make sure I didn't pop any fuses on the bottom block.

I'm off to bed to sleep on it, probably come back at it on Sunday.

I'll post a couple of photos once I've had a chance to triple check my work here.

When I was doing the swaps last night, I did note that this power supply has been repaired before, with some lifted traces at the time - there's some bodges around the MOSFETS on both ends, complete with electrical tape to keep them from shorting out.

I'll be checking this morning to make sure the circuits are complete. Some of the caps I installed there was barely enough lead, and I wonder if they actually didn't get into the circuit as a result.

Continuity registers across all lines, so I didn't manage to disconnect something. All capacitors match, except for C1 which I used the recommended "6800 mfd 16V" replacement for that.

Please ignore the obvious "I don't want to keep desoldering and resoldering Q1" bodge, I just installed it for the sake of trying to get it back to life without having to keep fiddling with that on each failure.

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I can go ahead and check the continuity - or needed lack there of - between those tabs and the heat sink. I'll probably go ahead and use some of the thermal pads I bought on those. All the pics I see do have their tabs bolted to the heat sink, though, although I'm sure removing them from it may have disrupted what little thermal compound there was.

I do plan on changing out C1 for something else. I don't have a large enough capacitor in the required voltage rating, so I'm going to see if I have what I need to do a "parallel" rig of two caps to get the needed capacity at the voltage required. I think I might have a pair or even three of 2200uF caps in a 20V+ rating. It's not ideal, but it is doable. I think I also may have used the incorrect resistor on the 4V line, although I was following the schematic, not what was actually on the board, but that shouldn't be causing it to have no voltages anywhere on the board.

I'm also going to probe the AC connector to the power supply, see if it's providing the required voltages, if only because that should be a diagnostic step here to make sure I've covered everything.

Did some more checking. As a question, I should be seeing some voltage on AC if I clip one of my multimeter leads to the left green, then touch the other points on that side with the free lead? I've done everything else and seem no changes, and I don't seem to see any voltage on the connector to the power supply.

This doesn't mean I don't have a bad multimeter, though.

We got the crimper tool in now.

I called Game Exchange here, they don't have that transformer. I sent an email to pbresource on their recommendation.

I'll double check the fusing tonight. Gleefully I won't get shocked pulling the fuse, it's been unplugged over the weekend.

If it is bad (we've been getting light "flicks", which means our power isn't the cleanest), does anyone have a recommendation for how to replace that transformer with modern components?

Fuse was bad. Acquired a "time delay" type, hoping it would work. It blew too.

Found a source for a power supply board last night, TNT has one on their eBay storefront. Looks completely original and untouched. My husband should be ordering it tonight, once he gets his login reset. I'll also order a five pack of the correct fuses.

Basically, since it was working prior to my attempt to work on it, I'm assuming getting a working board to replace is a good troubleshooting step to take.

TNT had it for $38,which is why we're going original for now. If it works, I'll order a fresh big cap for C1 and call that good.

We'll likely replace it eventually with something new, just not right now given the way buying a house has crunched our holiday budget. If it gets us six months or more of solid play, it'll be worth it. I have other projects I need to start getting to.

It was more "tested" and "known quantity" (TNT Amusements). My husband ordered the board today, and made payment by phone (apparently Todd Tuckey is super friendly on the phone). Why yes, we watch his web channel, why do you ask?

I'll just replace the primary capacitor on it for now - for the foreseeable future, I'm done with electronics repairs outside of repinning the connectors, this is the second item that "should have been easy parts swapping" that has resulted in "non-functional" that I've attempted to repair (the first was a TurboDuo console - ouch *cries*). Part of that may have been the condition of the existing power supply, with iffy repairs that I would have expected to see on a routed machine, not one in the home, but I clearly need a lot more practice with the soldering iron before I put another potentially expensive piece through surgery.

It, unfortunately, wasn't quite working right when I started, anyway. It wouldn't read game discs very reliably. At some point I need to crack it back open and see if I can find where I went wrong.

Update on Solar Ride: fuses and replacement for the next C1 has been ordered. The plan of attack will be to fit the fuse, check to see if I'm getting AC voltage to the power supply, then hook the power supply up, test it, connect the MCU and displays, test, and finish off by plugging in the driver board and going for broke. C1 will get replaced once we're past the housewarming, assuming the machine lives again. Same with the motherboard battery - I'll probably power the machine up that day for the party and set up the bookkeeping for the extra ball tiers and a (reasonable) starting high score.

Sometime next year, regardless of status, we'll discuss whether it's a good idea to buy some sort of Ni Wumpf/Rottendog combo or just a Pascal and replace some or all the silicon in the head. Among the obvious signs of history on the game is that the driver board obviously suffered from a coil lock on, with two transistors on the far right replaced and obvious scorching of the PCB.

The power supply has arrived. Not a perfect specimen, but it should do the business for right now. Now just awaiting the package with the fuses and single C1 replacement (expected delivery of Monday), and a new round of testing can begin.

In examining the replacement, it's obviously also been repaired. C3 and C4 are obviously newer, the 5V pot is obviously a different type, Q1 has been desoldered and resoldered at least once, and I can see a "bodge" wire running from one of the legs of LIC1... ironically, I feel better about seeing that done on a potentially replaced MOSFET than on seeing the electrical tape under the legs of one with obviously lifted traces trying to make things work. Q1 seems to even have the original mylar insulator on it.

And she lives again. The fuses came in today, and I fitted one in once we got home from the Rock Band 4 gathering. Tested to make sure I hadn't blown up the transformer, plugged in the power supply and checked voltages, got the MPU and displays on and checked, then finished up with the driver board. And definitely proof that it was the 4V/8V lines for the display problems - the ghosting is completely gone now. And it definitely pays attention to the "credit ceiling" now, tops out at 15, the previous supply we could get upwards of 92.

I've buttoned it up, and my husband is to not allow me to do anything else major with it until well after the housewarming... and quite possibly only when we have a complete set of modern silicon to replace the aging innards with.

Oh, and big thanks to TNT Amusements and Todd Tuckey for getting the power supply out to us.

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Here you go, complete with some added pictures inside the backbox.

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As near as I can tell, the backglass has never been touched up. Obviously, there's been some flaking, the worst is along the left of the game logo, specifically along the mirrored portion.

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Also, only one of the displays may be original, as the rest of the serial numbers don't match the serial number on the top of the playfield. Note that I need to fit a new light block cylinder around the Number to Match light.

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OK, something I added just before I blew up the original power supply... an IKEA RGB light strip to the bottom of the cabinet. Given that we can get the room pretty much pitch black, it adds something to the game when played in the dark. I set it to the subtle color cycle.

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OK, I actually have a cabinet question now, since it seems like Gottlieb's current owner's copyright policies make finding any information exceptionally difficult... what size bolts are used to secure the backbox to the pedestal on the inside? Those happen to be missing, presumably somewhere in the prior owner's possession, and it would be nice to source some replacements for them.

New bolts acquired, and fitted. Went with 4" ones, since I wanted to make sure I wasn't short. Size is 3/8-16, like the leg bolts. One of the nuts inside is missing, the bolt just dropped all the way down, but the other three are secured. So now we don't have to worry about anyone getting too rambunctious with it and knocking the backbox clean off.

Oh, and I downloaded the card file from Inkochnito's site, and printed the cards relevant to the way we configured the game, plus the circumstances of being able to add credits via a button.

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So a quick update on the machine. We had our housewarming today, got about 35 games on the machine after I got the housekeeping reset this morning. It survived with flying colors.

Got an order in of LEDs from Comet, and a mixed order of LEDs and clear silicon rubber rings from Titan Pinball. All have now been fitted to the machine, once the last guests left. OMG was some of the rubber old on the machine - possibly 35 years old. Picture is of the two oldest looking - discolored, cracked, obviously stiff in a few spots. The machine now plays "faster" with the fresh rings on it. We even replaced the flipper rubber (red) and shooter tip (white). Except the yellow inserts (yellow LEDs are way too dim), any colored inserts are backed with the appropriate color LED. The back box uses a couple of green LEDs and mostly red behind the character art and the status indicators, with the rest filled with white (outside the existing three flashers). The white will eventually be replaced with flashers.

There is a single bad socket under the left red lane guide. I'm not sure if it's a bad solder joint or a bad socket. I'll probably order some sockets for later.

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Not yet. I still have a couple of things to do with it before I get to doing that. We'll definitely be picking up some naptha and carnuba for it. Especially since, with the silicon, we don't have to worry about it getting rubber dust as part of the dirt.

In today's work, I fitted a CR2032 socket with diode to the MCU board, so now scores and extra ball score levels will be retained.

We already have replaced the ball. The ball wasn't all that bad that came with it, but we happened to have a trio of shiny new balls available. The old ball is now in the back tilt mechanism.

I'd thought about that, but I wanted something that would be less obviously "not stock choice" from a distance, and would cast less shadows from the playfield GI.

OK, so an update on the status of the machine:

I'd noticed that the upper left pop wouldn't quite "reset" after popping the ball. Well, tonight, the coil finally decided it had had enough of post-retirement work, and seized, then began to overheat. ("...what an incredible smell you've discovered."). Nothing else seems to have been damaged by it, but it finally got me to place the Marco order for some extra bits like pop bumper caps, new red lane guides, and coin door slots.

The one check I have done was moving the pop bumper coils by hand. The one won't move at all, the other two move pretty freely. I suspect the coil sleeve wore out or acquired some debris, likely before we got it. I'll check the transistor for the coil this week to make sure it didn't burn.

It did start with the occasional not sliding back into position. Last night was the first that it couldn't even go down, so I think you're right. A replacement is on order, and we might wind up ordering replacements for the other two later as a precaution.

Given the age of things on the machine and the way it failed, I'm going to go with "internal short" that rapidly became less intermittent. Not that I won't watch for the driver board. The replacement coil should have a diode already installed on it, so basically two of the three elements will be getting replaced.

If we order replacements for the others, it will be to have as "stock on hand" for potential failures, not to throw right into the machine.

And we have success!

Got the coil in today, and swapped it in. The old coil, the nylon sleeve inside was definitely the victim of a temperature event, even before the failure, with a definite ring inside it that was bulging inward... and some heat bubbles when it finally had failed. The pop bumper now acts like the other two. BTW, I checked - since the pop bumpers are actually not computer controlled (they're EM style bumpers), there isn't a transistor to inspect.

The Marco part is nice. Diode already attached, sleeve included, and marked like the original Gottlieb part.

I also got new pop bumper caps (one had a broken tab when I was changing bulbs), new red lane guides (one of the originals had broken on one end), and new coin door plate inserts, since one was pretty chewed up. All have been put on the machine.

I used an 1N4004, but you can also use an 1N5817. It goes on the positive wire between the battery and the PCB, with the band on the PCB side.