I'm guessing you probably blew the transistor for the coils. The board you are wanting to check is the driver board . It's the big bottom board that most of your plugs go into . This board controls your coils , switches and lights .

So to start, putting those chips in upside down likely ruined them both. Have you put the originals back in? What's the condition in that case?

The whitestar chipset runs on two boards. The CPU board where the chips were and the power board - the one with all the fuses. At this point with just this data it's impossible to say what is messed up. You need to give more data such as what I asked above.

The fuses blew because the circuits were grounded and massive power shot through them. Every coil runs on its own board transistor. So for both flippers to be stuck up, both circuits are shorted. But it could be that the CPU is telling both circuits to activate. As I said, can't give you a set answer. Tests need to be run.

You have a dmm and know how to use it? Have access to other whitestar boards to swap? If the answer to all this is "no" I suggest you call a repairman.

It sounds like both flipper transistors are shorted and need to be replaced but it is impossible to 100% diagnose without a meter and more trial and error testing after the flipper transistors/fuses are replaced.

You do not need to test for voltage. You need to test for resistance (ohms).

To test the flipper transistors, set your meter to ohms. As a meter test to make sure you have the meter set up and properly working, touch the two probes of the meter together and it should read at zero, and when the probes are not touching anything the meter should give you no reading (in other words infinite resistance).

Then put one probe of the meter on the metal tab of the transistor and the other probe on the ground braid or another grounded part such as the metal mounting area of the circuit board. If you get a reading of zero or close to zero then the transistor is shorted and needs to be replaced. If the reading is not registering or flashes a reading for only a fraction of a second and then goes to no reading then that transistor is probably ok.

Turn the pinball machine power off when you are testing for resistance.

Yes.

Do the coils enetergize the second the game is turned on? Or does it require the game to boot first? This is important to determine if the CPU may be causing it rather than shorted transistors
I would check impedance across the flipper coils as well at this point. Good chance other transistors and coils are fried.

That means that the flipper transistors are likely shorted and need replacing. Hopefully that is the only thing wrong.

Keep in mind that the coils may also be shorted now. If so, replacing the transistors may blow them again. Check the coils and transistors and replace them together if need be.

You may not need new coils. You should test the impedance across the lugs with a DMM on ohm setting. If each is ~ 4 ohms, you're ok. If they're 0 ohms (direct short) they're dead.

Like Markmon said, test the resistance of the coils as well. If they test ok I recommend fixing the problems that are known before replacing something that tests as good. Replacing multiple good parts at the same time can open you up for compounded problems.

For reference Pinballlife sells the upgraded coils. I put one on for my left LOTR flipper but have not needed it for the right flipper.

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1112

Hey now, I have the PAL and ver 10.02 chips along with a new shaker sitting in a box right now all set to be installed in non LE LOTR. This thread has made me nervous. I have blown out a transistor in the past and it caused my shooter lane VUK to lock up and burn. It was not pleasant to fix this, then yank out the board and replace the transistor etc. Cannot imagine the pain in the butt of multiples getting blown. How safe is this mod boys? Any success stories out there that want to share?

I've had mine in for about 2 years with no issues.

The mod was not the problem. It was that the chip was installed improperly leading to circuitry failure. Just be careful to install the chips with the pins in the correct positions.

Like DCFAN said. The mod is safe and easy - Pinbits makes a point on how the chip goes. This was just one of those wow mistakes. We have all had them, I have made my share.

Cool, thanks for sharing. Does the shaker add allot to gameplay?

It's pretty good integration. It doesn't change the game play much but it does enhance the experience.

Good to see another Aussie on here burtcam. Its a good mob here.

I think there are just not as many people on Aussie arcade. You will find they are very helpful but there just isn't the volume that you have on pinside. In fact I have found quite the opposite on tech, pinside has more off topic than Aussie pinball arcade. I like all the off topic stuff on pinside but thats just me.

Hey now, upgraded the 10.02 game rom, 10 display rom and PAL chip with no issues this afternoon. Shaker is hooked up and installed as per the instructions on this forum. Its a blast having it in the game. Shakes everytime you pick up a member of the fellowship, hit a jackpot and when the Balrog swings into action. The shaker absolutely goes ape shit when you DTR as a buddy of mine did it tonight. All in all well worth the addition to your LOTR if you don't mind the constant rumbling