Pharaoh
Williams, 1981I have a Williams pharaoh that has had the sound go out, then come back, then go out. I thought it was tied to the pot inside the backbox. Now it seems pretty random. The sound will be there, then later it won't be there. The game plays great. When the sound is on it sounds great. When the sound is on the pots increase and decrease the volume (including the one in the cabinet). I'm not sure where to start to figure out what might be the issue.
does anyone have any suggestions?
Quoted from canoncitypb:I have a Williams pharaoh that has had the sound go out, then come back, then go out. I thought it was tied to the pot inside the backbox. Now it seems pretty random. The sound will be there, then later it won't be there. The game plays great. When the sound is on it sounds great. When the sound is on the pots increase and decrease the volume (including the one in the cabinet). I'm not sure where to start to figure out what might be the issue.
does anyone have any suggestions?
First thing I would do is attempt to learn if the problem is vibration related (loose connection). Wiggling the connectors is a good start...if you find one is sensitive to movement then it needs rebuilt. Gently pressing on the boards can reveal cracked solder connections or "chip creep" (the phenomenon where a socketed IC looses connection due to expansion and contraction over time)
This will be tougher to diagnose if the problem turns out to not be vibration related.
I tried to push on the components on the sound board. The sound came back on with the next game. I'm thinking you are right that it is a loose solder connection. That is probably why it came on and off when i fiddled with the pot on the board. I probably moved the board enough to reconnect the loose connection. If it goes off again, i'll pull the board and reheat the connections.
thanks for the tip!
I too am having issues with my Pharaoh sound and speech.
Speech works fine if I press the test button.
Clue: Before it totally failed while the game was on but I wasn't playing it I'd hear 3 long beeps, each beep lasting about a second.
Then some random speech would play...then stop...then repeat maybe 3-5 minutes later.
Is this a indication of anything? I already replaced the 5 main caps on the left side of the board. No difference.
Also reflowed all the header pins. Can't get any sound at all now.
I wish I could help with this one. My sound never went back off and I sold my machine before I ever got a chance to look into it again.
I spent 75 on a new plug and play sound board and it fixed all my Pharaoh sound issues, all of which have been described in this post.
I fixed Cujo's sound and speech board. It had a bad AMI brand PIA. Go figure right.
I charge $50 flat shipped back to fix and rebuild a WMS 6-7 speech and sound board combo. Tough to compete with new board being only $75, but some people like original stuff.
Looking forward to making Pharaoh fully operational again.
The Speech and Sound combo aftermarket is $137 plus shipping for a Pharaoh.
The Sound Board by itself with shipping would have cost me $105.50 so I consider this a WIN-WIN!
Thanks BARAKANDL!
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pharaoh-sound-problems and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Cañon City, CO