Driver board will likely need some work, but I've seen and successfully repaired far worse looking than that. Will likely need new lamp resistors, a good cleaning, and at least one or two connectors for the special solenoids. I'm totally unconcerned on the driver board.

I am a bit concerned about the CPU board. Looks like somebody put a 2716 EPROM at IC26 via a method I haven't seen before, and there's some darkening around the battery holder and diagnostic button. Again, not something I've really seen before, as it doesn't appear to be corrosion but heat damage instead, and this isn't a spot that usually suffers from heat to that extent.

However, it will definitely need the power supply either repaired or replaced. I am very unhappy with the looks of the capacitor hack that was done on there. Could be an easy re-cap job, could be a bit more involved. Definitely some creative engineering there.

Still, even with all that repair work, would come out about 1/3 to 1/2 the price of going with new boards all around.

Like the other guys said, worry more about playfield, backglass and cabinet. Every board in that machine can either be repaired or replaced at reasonable cost. The cosmetics are where restoration costs start adding up fast.

Yep, I tend to think the pinballpcb (Kohout) option is the best one on the market right now.
I've also taken a liking to the Xpin power supplies, will try their displays eventually.

-Hans

Bay Area Amusements / Planetary Pinball should still have some of the adapters in stock.
But I am strongly considering another run in the near future for my own inventroy, even though I haven't quite figured out that rare comparability issue yet with early revision -6 boards

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PP&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-SYS346A-ADAPT

Also helps to reduce the temperature in the backbox, and knocks about 15w or more off the total power draw.

-Hans

Either hole will work, as they are connected together on the back side of the board.

I really need to get off my ass and make more of those adapters soon

On a firepower II, since it's system 7, just cycle the audits up until it flips from 50 back to 0, it puts the machine back into attract mode. (this doesn't work for system 6 and earlier)

For System 6 and earlier machines, just quickly flipping the power off and on fast enough will get you into attract mode without batteries.

-Hans

Ok, I think we need to take a breather for a moment,as I'm completely confused as to the actual current status of the machine.

I am assuming the power supply has been re-capped, and it's running with one of my adapters.
You've also REMOVED the battery holder, correct?

Have you installed a new battery holder of any type? If you have not, it's always going to boot into 'audit mode' every time you power it up, as there's no batteries to maintain the RAM data. It's easy to check if the 5101 is functioning. Turn the machine on, so that the 04-00 is showing. Then, very quickly turn the machine off and then back on, we're talking in about a half second to power off and on. If the 5101 chip is good, then you just need a battery holder.

Since your 5101 chip is soldered on, I do have to ask if you've got any experience with this kind of re-work. Pretty easy to wreck a board if you screw up removing chips and installing new ones.

-Hans

Does power cycling the machine get it into attract mode at all?

-Hans

If you weren't seeing power there, when the machine was turned off, then it's the battery holder.

If the sling is firing when you get into solenoid test mode, there's a couple possibilities, IC 5 likely wouldn't be it. This one is going active when the solenoid activation signal from IC5 turns on, so the PIA is pretty much working fine. This also rules out Q12, as a stuck transistor wouldn't care which mode the game was in, it would fire as soon as you powered up the machine.

#1 possibility is just a switch adjustment at the sling or something goofy in the wiring. Easy enough to check. On the left side of your driver board, pull the connector closest to the top. This will disconnect the special solenoid switches. If the pop bumper de-powers, it's wiring. If it stays active, it's driver board.

#2 is the driver board. Could be either IC7 or IC9, with an off chance of being R6 or C6 but I rarely see them fail. In audit mode, I'd check the logic states at IC7 pins 8,9,10 and IC9 pins 11,12,13

#3 I's also very unlikely, but ST6 that fires that particular special solenoid actually comes across from the CPU board PIA chip IC18 through pin26 of the interboard connector. Check the logic state at that pin too.

I have too much of a headache right now to dig up all the 74xx logic states to figure it all out, but those are your primary suspects in this situation.

-Hans