Hey guys. I bought a project firepower that has a locked up MPU. It wasn't working when I got it. I paid too much but I love this game... impulse buy. GI is only lit... no lit insert lamps, display, or active solenoids. The board was pretty chewed up by battery corrosion… Attached is a highlight of what components were replaced due to severe battery damage and where jumpers were added because of broken traces. Followed TerryB’s guide and Cleaned, neutralized, sanded down to copper (tinned traces where needed and hit with some clear coat), and repopulated the boards with new parts. New 40 pin interconnect, new SIP sockets, resistors, caps, diodes... pretty much followed Vid's Sys 6 bulletproof guide verbatim. Added MOSFETs to the lamp columns and recapped/made all mods to the power supply. Fuses all good.

All voltages on the power supply and on the MPU test fine (except at MPU TP4 which is at .07v... it should be at +5 correct?). After quite a bit of research looks like no lights/displays has to do with the blanking signal being low and cutting off anything controlled by the CPU? Game won't boot at all, diagnostic LEDs remain lit. Kinda stumped on what's causing the blanking signal to shut everything down. I've got a logic probe and DMM in hand. Any advice is appreciated for next steps. Trying to avoid shelling out any more cash for an MPU327-3 until I can conclude this sucker is toast. Thanks!

Name of game, manufacturer and year: 1980 Williams Firepower
Did it ever work in your Possession?: No
Did You Run the Diagnostics?: Yes
Where did the game come from?: “in home for the last 20 yrs.” - Unknown beforehand. Most likely routed.
Have needed MODS been done?: Yes
Are any aftermarket boards installed?: No
What was the last service you performed?: Board repair
Battery Corrosion: Yes
LED or Incandescent lighting?: LED
Blown fuses: No
Smell: No
Obvious Past Work Performed: Minor
Do you have a Volt Meter?: Yes
Can you solder?: Yes
Location: Buffalo, NY

Test Voltages

TP1 - 12.06
TP2 - 4.44
TP3 - 4.37
TP4 - .07
TP5 - 5.01
TP6 - 2.47
TP7 - 5.50
TP8 - 4.91
TP9 - 5.02

Hmmm... not sure what happened there. Maybe this will work?

Definitely interested in trying the test ROM. Any recommendations on how to get one? IC18 Pin 4 is simply reading high.

sys_6_MPU_board_repair (resized).jpg

Ah very cool! I was wondering how this works. Looks like the next step is to find a burner. I'd hate to scrap this since I have a lot of hours into it already. Thanks for the help on this. I'll keep this thread updated.

Thanks for the resources... these always come in handy.

Hi! I should have posted this sooner as I was just there this past weekend (made a visit to the Unter Biergarten... that place is my beer heaven!). I'm not in any of the leagues mainly due to my work schedule and also because I suck. But that might change at some point in the future. League nights at Pocketeer are very tempting.

Any chance you would be able to ship? I can cover all chip/burning/shipping costs. I've already blown out my budget on the game so far and I haven't even played it yet... might as well keep the wallet out.

Quick update on this... Replacing IC18 got me a few inconsistent flashes on the LEDs for a bit but then eventually started locking up again. Using a logic probe I'm pretty sure the program was running (all pins on the CPU showed activity) but the blanking signal remained on. The original ROMs were shot too... very blackened and the a lot of the legs were starting to literally fall off. Adding new components to the damaged board was like trying to weld new sheetmetal onto rust even after all the prep/sanding/tinning and it slowly evolved into a full blown hack job. After about a week of late nights and obsessing I threw in the towel and am getting a new board. I learned a ton along the way though so thanks for all the help... and that's one to grow on.

Here's some damage porn to give an idea of what I had to start off with... yuk

IMG_20180416_175532 (1) (resized).jpg