Hey everyone. I was just playing my Pirates of the Caribbean when mid-ball, the flippers and coils just went dead. No play out of the ordinary - just having a normal game. Then, almost like a tilt, but not a tilt, the flippers just stopped working. Then when the ball drained, the coil to put the ball into the shooter lane did nothing. I turned it off, and turned it back on, started a game, nothing - no flippers, no shooter lane upkicker, nothing. I pulled, tested, and replaced the fuse at F5. The original wasn't blown, and the new one is good to go. Still nothing.

I noticed on the board that the light for +18V L8 was lit (pic below), not sure if this is normal, or maybe a notification. The alligator clips are for my led backlight, so nothing out of the ordinary there.

The manual can be found here if it helps:
http://www.sternpinball.com/upload/games/225/d/443/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_Manual.pdf

Any thoughts?

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Not sure what this means? Everything on the game appears fine, just no power to the flippers or other coils.

I just ran a coil cycle test, and none of the coils activated. However, I noticed a slight burn smell. I immediately shut the game off, and it turned out to be the ship sail coil (the larger of the two, not the smaller one that releases the sales, but the one that pulls them back up). Otherwise, no coils were activating, and the ship sail coil was very hot.

The optos are good. You can see the red light, and as mentioned, I was playing a game. I've had zero issues with this machine until now. And this was all of the sudden. Mid-ball, mid-play... I can't think of anything out of the ordinary that could have triggered it.

Opening the door acts normal. It warns about disabling the power.

I appreciate the help guys, I wouldn't be able to do it without this forum.

I took a pic of the board so that the lights are visible, attached below. This is with the machine turned on. With the machine turned off, only the light in the original post picture is lit.

I have now noticed that as soon as I turn on the machine, the sails coil energizes and locks on. It begins getting hot very quickly. And also tested fuse F10 since the light was off, and confirmed it is blown.

I found the other image below from the manual, though I don't know exactly how to read electrical diagrams. Does this mean I should test Q28 and BRDG2? If so, how would I go about doing this? (I have a digital multi-meter, just don't know what to touch where).

Help on where to look/test?

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K, I just removed the alligator clips. For giggles, I also completely removed fuse F10, and turned the machine on. No change, the sails coil still locks on and starts burning.

Also, this is the correct sails coil that is being locked on. It's the 26-1200 sails coil, not the sails coil referenced in the diagram in the above post (29-1400).

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So replace fuse F10, disconnect the coil connector, then power on? Is this with the thought that if the fuse doesn't blow, then it's likely a short in the wire from the connector to the ship?

Wait, thinking about it... fuse F10 was out when the ship coil locked on. If I disconnect the connector, that will remove power to the ship coil, but is there something I need to test while in this condition? I'm not sure what just undoing the connector would tell me? Can you clarify?

Sorry it's taken a few days, I've been away from home. I just tried the following:

1. There is no fuse in F10 (I removed it and haven't put a new one in).
2. Unplugged the ship coil.
3. Turned the game on.
4. The wires running to the ship coil are providing a solid 161V AC (picture below).

Any thoughts on what to test next?

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I decided to go ahead and pull the board. I tested transistor Q5, and with the DMM set to continuity, I touched the two end legs at the same time. It buzzed showing continuity. No other transistor did this, so I'm assuming that means Q5 is bad, and will be ordering new transistors to replace. Q5 is a 22NE10L transistor, and from what I have read, I need to upgrade this to a IRL540N transistor. So that's what I plan on ordering. I still don't know what caused the fuse F10 to blow, but right now, I'll fix one thing at a time.

Any other thoughts, such as should I look at anything else up/down stream of Q5?

Schwaggs, I appreciate you staying with me here. Responses to your questions:

- No other coils were heating up.
- The game starts fine, just none of the solenoids/coils work. I would assume that's because there was no F10 fuse. It was stating on the screen that it was searching for pinballs (I removed them to lift the playfield). However, none of the ball search coils were firing, it was quiet, so I'm assuming the coils weren't working, again probably because of the missing fuse F10.
- I should have tried replacing the fuse just as a test, but have now pulled the board. I'll wait until I replace the transistor (ordered), and then I'll put the board back in and replace fuse F10.

Stay tuned.

Attached below are the pictures requested. I apparently need to study up a bit more on bridge rectifiers as either direction I went when placing the black lead on the negative and red lead on the on the various other 3 prongs, I got a number. I wouldn't think all rectifiers are bad, so I'll need to check if I'm doing that correctly. Please let me know if you see anything wrong with the board.

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I just replaced transistor Q5 with a IRL540N transistor, and replaced fuse F10 with a 5A slo-blo. All seems to be back to normal again.

I'm going to go ahead and replace the ship sail solenoid as well though. I noticed that when I play with the solenoid, such as pressing on it, or wiggling it, it would occasionally trigger. Wiggling the wires didn't do anything, it was only when I pressed on the physical solenoid itself (such as pressing/wiggling the wrapping paper, or pressing directly on the coil/wrapping paper).

Could transistor Q5 have blown Fuse F10? I'm not sure what blew it otherwise. All else seems fine, and going through the test menu, all coils worked as they should.

My "raise ship sail" solenoid had a wire that leads to the lug (reddish orange wire that wraps around to form the solenoid) that had come loose. It had just the tiniest nick that was touching the metal of the ship frame causing a short. I had more issues that formed later on that led me to tear the ship apart an inspect each tiny detail. It was shocking how small the issue was. I've come to realize that is pinball. It's usually something very small causing a big problem. Schwaggs was very helpful for me. See the thread I posted below, and definitely take his advice on isolating the problem to whether it is at the board or not. Also, I bought a "Lil Popper" fuse tester in 5 amp so that I wouldn't keep blowing 5 amp fuses during testing. Hope the link below helps!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/potc-raise-sails-solenoid-locked-on

Test the bulb socket out of circuit, and test the wiring that goes from the bulb socket to the board. That will tell you if the socket is causing a short or if the short is in the wiring.