I bought an Old Chicago about 4 Months ago, and it has been working pretty good since I got it. There were a couple of sticky score reels, and I think one of the stepper counters for bonus, or something I had to clean up, but since then It's been great!

Recently however, when you play a multi-player game, when it gets to the end of the ball, for the last person up, the game doesn't reset the player back to player one. All the scores get added to the last player. In addition to that, any subsequent games played, even though it will say only player 1 is playing, all the scores will be added to whatever the highest player of that last multi-player game was.

You know how when you are in tune with your EM game you can hear the rhythms of the relays clicking as it resets various things, like the certain number of clicks you'll hear as it resets the score reels? Well I definitely am missing that sound that it normally makes at the end of the last player where it resets - that last click is conspicuously missing.

I'm wondering if somehow it could be the player count unit is gummed up, because on some cold mornings, when you hit the button, you can see that wiper blade as it slowly counts down the players, it clicks to reset players to 1, but it doesn't just jump to 1, it's sluggish, and finally slides down to 1.

Thanks in advance!

Oh- I know my way around a soldering Iron, I have a multi-Meter.. The game looks pretty fresh, that is not a lot of hacking.. The company that has their name plastered all over it, they're pretty reputable in the area. So, that's where it stands!

-Brian Prenovost

Well, I had been procrastinating taking apart that player stepper unit, mostly because I'm lazy, the thing is against the wall, and I'd have to pull it, out and blah blah blah.. Anyway, so I was playing another game, and during the game, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the lights on the OC go out, and come back on, and then do it again! Strange, since they were back on now, and, was I seeing things? So I didn't think anything of it. Next day, lights on, and I was really starting to think I dreamt the whole thing! But, it finally failed for good. Great. Now TWO problems!

I opened the cabinet, and looked at the fuses, they all tested fine with the DMM. Next, I started just looking around, you know, like for broken wires, and just stuff out of place. Strange, because the rest of the machine worked perfectly, it's just that NO lights. On the playfield, in the backbox, nothing! I suppose the Timer flasher would have illuminated, but I don't think that counts in this case. The machine was dark! So, I figured it must be something pretty simple, I mean, whatever it is, must be pretty close to the "root."

So I was looking at the jones connectors up front, and I found one that had burnt previously, and had been "fixed" with some electrical tape, and what was left of the pin from before. I jiggled the repair and the lights flickered. Maybe I can do this! I cut their repair out, completely extracting the burnt pin, and all charring on the insulation back to good wire. Next, I took one of the scoring pins from a donor Amigo, where I extracted the pin, and capped the end wire off with a wire terminator cap. I took the donor pin, and grafted it onto the OC, using solder and shrink wrap for good measure. The shrink wrap I used at first was too big to go over the fix-joint, so I took a larger piece, cut it in a spiral pattern, wrapped, and melted into place. It's not perfect, but I think it's much better than the electrical tape fix they had in there before. The integrity of the insulation is satisfactory. I had to snip a little bit of the burned Jones plug connection to make way where the round score pin will fit instead, allowing the rest of the Jones plug to mount flush. Unfortunately, it looks like the diameter of the pins they used on Jones plugs is slightly larger than the size of the pins they used on the scoring pins. I pushed the spring connector on the female end a little bit more closed, and now the pin makes contact, no burned insulation, it all looks great. Maybe I'll stick a note to the cabinet right there in big orange letters or something. I hate it when I come to a place where someone has deviated from the way things are supposed to be - many times for a good reason - but NOBODY ever seems to document these changes! The next guy is supposed to figure it out! Not so bad on this I suppose, it's pretty obvious, but I had a board from a stargate last night, where someone had fixed traces on this board, and there were wires going everywhere!

After fixing this problem I was pumped and decided to tackle the player issue. After examining the player unit again, I determined it does not need to be cleaned. It moved acceptably - up and reset. So, I looked at the reset solenoid, which is the one that is not firing, and had a look at the diagram. The grey wire, travels down the backbox, through the jones plug, down, through another jones plug, and finally to either the reset relay, or the player reset relay. Neither of these relays were kicking the solenoid off. I tried both through starting a new game, or actuating the reset relay, but it doesn't reset the player, nor did the end of ball player reset relay. So, I traced the grey wire back up, and, having such fun with the Jones plugs before, thought maybe it might be another Jones plug at fault. I took the jones plug out, and I think maybe I touched the spring for the grey connection, I'm not sure, it was late, and I know I touched the one on the lights, but I don't know if I actually bent that one too, or just re-plugged it in and tried it. But, now the player resets consistently. I'll keep an eye on these things and see if they come back, but I think maybe I'm starting to get it - it's connections, connections, connections! That is particularly what I find in those Williams Systems 3-7 games, VERY particular about their connections! And those Molex connectors are worse than the Jones!

The pics are on my phone, but I didn't want to type all of this and have you guys accuse me of being drunk again! When I get back to my phone, I'll post the pics. Thanks guys!

-bdPinball

Nuts. It's back.