Hello All - starting in on a new project, a Phoenix (Williams, 1978, System 4). Going to be some work, but I think I can get it back to life, as it's already closer than my last project was at the beginning. Here's where I am so far!
- Game boots to audit, but the quick on/off switch trick gets it into Game Over/Attract mode. Early win there. Batteries were ancient and leak-threatening, so they're pull and the reason for the audit thing. NVRAM or remote battery installation will fix that.
- All displays look great, which is a good start.
- Can credit up and start a game, but ball doesn't kick out. Side drop targets don't reset (I know the center ones don't at the start of a game). All Driver-board solenoids are dead (no pops, no slings, no target resets, no outhole kicker, etc.) Flippers work though, but I know those are independent of the driver board.
- Scoring seems to work, testing various rollovers and such score points as they should.
Boards are mostly clean. Some corrosion, but only right below the battery in the one empty socket that's there. Everything below that looks good so far. There has definitely been board work on both the MPU and Driver, since I see multiple socketed chips that were not sockets when the board was produced. Some are newer-style sockets too, so I'm guessing relatively recent. Some new transistors and such too.
I found (2) ICs on the Driver Board that were socketed since production, but neither chip was fully inserted (one entire side of legs was out, which was odd). Properly socketing didn't change anything. Fuse didn't appear blown, but I will check it more thoroughly and pull all of them soon. 40-pin interconnect is original, so that's getting done ASAP. Suggestions welcome on what to check if I find fuses and all that good, but still have nothing coming out of the driver solenoid-wise. I'll try the solenoid test in the menu as well and report back.
Not sure what's up with the sound. Speaker crackles and such when I mess with the volume, so I think that part is fine. Going to have to look closer at everything sound-related. I don't know much about System 4 sound aside from they often need cap kits... but usually when I've done that in the past it's been to kill a loud buzz/hum. Would a cap kit also help with zero sound output I assume?