If your unit is stock... it's fairly self explanatory once you see what is coming up from the main cabinet, and all pretty much just unplugs easily...

Unplug AC power (green, white, black) molex from Computer
Unplug AC power (green, white, black) molex from Monitor
Unplug speaker/power cable (3 pin and 2 pin molex connector)
Unplug 9 pin serial cable from computer (the one that goes into the cabinet)
Unplug 25 pin parallel cable from the computer
Unscrew ground strap (bottom left) and remove the connection from the inside of the cabinet
Remove mounting bolts (hex drive) and bushings that hold the box to the cabinet.

Here is the Bally/William's pinball 2000 video including set up instructions. The back box instructions are at 4:07 in the video. Just reverse the sequence to remove the back box.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rfm-hillary-come-here-you-gotta-see-this/page/40#post-4367238

Starting my restoration... I do coin doors first cause I HATE doing them !!!! I’m trying the clear coin reject and entry pieces with green LEDs... dunno.

9ECCE875-990E-483D-8DBC-9C6B3BEAEF91 (resized).jpeg4D104499-81A1-4A7C-99A5-6BAA68451583 (resized).jpeg0D15748C-04BF-4101-A08A-97E608619B5A (resized).jpeg4ED080FC-772E-46F7-8FBC-E559FDBC3C5E (resized).jpegBF30DBDD-ED6C-46B6-8A4C-862C10A6DF6A (resized).jpeg

Well shoot, fired up the arcade tonight and RFM won't boot (original hardware, except for LCD swap). Game doesn't play, no output to video at all. The CPU fan is spinning. This is the best tech page I've found; anyone know anything better?
http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pinball_2000_Repair#Motherboard_Issues

In particular I note the D50 LED on the PRISM card is solid amber. I'm not finding anything in the manual nor online about this LED; does anyone know what solid amber means?

Everything computer-wise seems to be spinning up.

Oh snap. As I was sitting here typing this out, it came up. Eeek, that doesn't inspire confidence.

I see the D50 LED is now flashing amber instead of solid on, so apparently:

solid == bad, flashing == good.

Are there any obvious fuses I should check? (edit, can't be a fuse; ain't never heard of a fuse blowing then going back to good)

If and when this recurs I'll confirm all power is good from the power supply. Next thing I'm thinking is maybe the capacitors on the motherboard? (According to the above URL, the green capacitors are not good, which is what I have, though none look obviously blown. )

Anything else to check the next time it's sick?

That's my first guess.
On my Mobo; the caps started bulging. Unless you have the equipment to replace these easily (a good vacuum desolderer); you'll want to send this out to Borygard for repair if they are indeed bulging.
Otherwise; IIRC - the original PSU was a Deer AT powersupply. I'm pretty sure I replaced mine as soon as I found it.

As always take a close look at what you have ... on mine, at first glance it looked like it had already been gone over. The power supply was replaced and the heat sink/fan had been replaced on the CPU.

The PSU was ATX type so it had been modified to work (which is fine)... but I decided to check the CPU cooler and the person before didn't actually remove the original thermal pad or prep/clean the IC. They put some crappy compound on top of the pad and it was all dried up and crumbly. So I basically had little to no real cooling. I also replaced the caps as a preventative measure as they came from the era of the "capacitor plaque".

I never trust anything I get second hand (especially pinball machines)... everything "working" doesn't mean it is or that its in true good working order.

Ricochet and Zitt do you know the specs on the capacitors to replace?

From that pinwiki page:

The green caps are 6.3v, 1000uf, 105c and made by TAYEH. These are the ones that you will usually find as bulged, popped, or leaking. If you see light blue 10v 1000uf, 105c caps from Xicon, you’re probably all right. I haven’t seen any of these bulged or leaking and your problem probably lies elsewhere.

OK... so do I want 10v 1000uf 105c, or 6.3v?

Also, what the heck is "c" here? I thought capacitors had a voltage (v) and a capacitance (uf); what the heck is c?

And, I think I can replace it with a higher voltage capable one, I'm good. In other words, a 10v capacitor can replace a 6.3v one (but not vice-versa, obviously)?

Can you recommend a place to buy? I"m comfortable enough with desoldering/replacing myself.

"C" is for Celsius. Temperature rating.
Go with the higher-rated 10V cap.
These are multi-layer boards with fairly heavy ground/power planes... so desoldering may be more difficult than you'd expect.

mattosborn is absolutely right on reworking those caps. You really need good equipment to remove them.

I like to use greatplainselectronics.com whenever possible. Otherwise digikey.com or mouser.com

I do not. Just look at the Caps in your board and replace if they are bulging or have evidence of liquid escaping.

This is a multi-layer Motherboard - maybe 6 or more layers. Simple desoldering you've been use-to on pinball boards won't cut the mustard on this. IE it's hard to desolder all those layers without damaging inner layers... or applying enough heat to melt the solder on the massive power planes these caps are on.
Seriously; unless you've worked on 4+ layer boards with some high end thru hole desoldering equipment - just don't. Consult a professional.

If you're still serious about ruining your board yourself; capacitance (uF) can generally be replaced with slightly larger value caps without issue. IE only have 1200uf but the original is 1000uf.
Voltage rating of the cap (VDC) is simular. You should try to match voltages in general. This measurement is "working voltage". Running a 50V electro in place of a 6.3VDC may lead to issues, IIRC. Never use a lower rated voltage cap in place of a higher. Sparks will fly.
Temperature ratings (degrees C) are ratings for the temperature profile of a given device. I usually go with higher temperature for motherboard caps. IE I will replace 80C caps with 105C as long as they are rated better. IF you are really curious: Wikipediahas a good description of lifetime effects and failure modes. See Arrhenius rule.

Yikes! Okay, I'm sufficiently scared. Will contact @borygard, and also am reaching out to local folks; I know some electronics nerds locally.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CERHL-1000uF-25V

25V seems to be all Great Plains has.
"Best alternate for replacing bulging 1000uF, 10V capacitors within Samsung LCD TV's."
...makes me think this will suffice, ya?

Or Digikey:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/rubycon/10ZLH1000MEFC10X12.5/1189-1072-ND/3134015

Did a quick check of the green LEDs on the coin entry ... I think I’m going to stick with it! It’s a deeper green in real life, the camera is washing out the pic a bit. The little ruby flakes in the finish also twinkle nicely in the light.
611E3849-DA54-46D9-BA33-365CB04F2B12 (resized).jpeg98560904-0B7E-45A1-9F5D-1F92923824FE (resized).jpeg

Get some coin reject art on that coin buttons - Stat:
http://pinball-mods.com/blogs/?p=88

CoinRejectSTRFM-300x211 (resized).jpg

Oooh! Yep that's gonna happen! THANKS!

Pretty! I might have to do that as well!

I have a RFM with a dead monitor. I have decided to do the lcd screen upgrade and have been reading up on how to to the conversion in previous posts, but I am looking for any opinion on the monitor to get, and which cga-vga converter. Is there a consensus on the best way to go about the switch? Thanks in advance!!!

9 out of 10 times it's the monitor chassis board that will have gone and not the monitor itself. The chassis boards can be repaired! I don't have this machine any more but i will always advocate keeping the machine CRT whenever it is still possible.

If you do decide to go LCD; please don't trash the CRT. Donate it to someone here who can keep it for parts/repair. CRTs are no longer being made; and replacement tubes are hard to find. It'd be a sad day if the CRT ended up in China/Philippines ewaste craters.

If you decide to remove the CRT I would be interested in purchasing it from you.

This^ and adding the Ultimarc video amplifier makes the picture look even better on your CRT.

I have some monitor chassis's available for wells gardner monitors and ducksan to i think, plus some original computer parts if you are in need of something. motherboards, prism cards, empty cases, sound cards etc etc. Get in touch if you need something.

Code updates wise, working on finishing up the midnight madness mode and some other tweaks. Aiming for 1 more release this year time depending

For those of you who bought my Stern motor pigtail... I’ve just finished correcting some intermittent issues with it. The fuse holder was crap and the .156 connector was not as robust as it could be.

It’s redesigned, all fixed and rock solid! I will be sending out replacements this week.
1CB1C7A6-C986-49E7-8471-2109A77A4F91 (resized).jpeg

Jim, can you tell maybe a bit about the new release (planed changes) or already post a video from the mm mode?

Love it! Now I want one for my RFM.

Class act my friend! Thanks again!

Dash... You're becoming addicted to Pinside. Does your wife need to stage an intervention?
But seriously; welcome to the rollercoaster of Pinside.
Have you installed applejuice 's RFM update yet?

Installed my new harness and shaker motor hardware and hooked it all up.
Works fantastic. Simply awesome mod to do.
The only issue I had was with the Bill Ung LED slings UFO mod.
The Molex Mini Fit Jr drive connector J110/J111 used is the same connector slot as Bill's UFO LED mod uses, albeit only 1 wire on pin 1.
Sorted that by cutting the Bill Ung mod wire off pin 1 the old connector, and re-crimped and installed into the Shaker's Min-fit Jr connector Pin 1. Same identical connector but fortunately different pins. Bill Ung Pin 1, new Shaker and Knocker on pins 2 and 3 (Blue and Orange).

Sorry for being rather sloppy in the describe. I was lucky in that I had spare Molex Mini-Fit Jr females handy to use. Its a bugger without the right female crimp pin. Could a Molex Mini Fit Jr female crimp pin be included just in case this happens to others?

Great news on the next upcoming update Applejuice.

Is the next software update Going to make use of the 6 ball trough as well??

I honestly am.

I joined here a few years back when I got my AFM(R). That was my grail pin I sought after for over 20 years. I’ve mostly lurked and learned.

Dialing it in and maintaining it was a little more than I bargained for. But I honestly love it.

Vids threads on pinball waxing and cleaning were a great read. I have dozens of posts bookmarked in his, this, and other threads.

Pinside in general has been a great resource.

I didn’t do anything more with acquiring pins until recently because my old house was not accommodating to them.

My game room was on the third floor but I couldn’t fit arcade cabs through the door and pins had to be brought in in pieces and assembled in the room.

Fortunately my wife shares my gaming addiction so the house we moved into a couple months ago is specifically laid out for a ground level gaming floor and the double doors make it a little too easy now to buy more pins and cabs. I have a full on in home arcade now. (Maybe I’ll post pictures in another thread).

I am running @applejuice’s latest which I installed from a pub card.

I have the stern shaker and a Data east knocker and plan to install them into my RFM soon. Just looking for a new rubber kit and waiting on the pigtail from Ricochet and my playfield protector to arrive (RFM playfield needs some cleaning and touchup in a few places). The company selling the protector (Cointaker) seems to have taken my money and ghosted me though. Maybe I should have guessed by their name. They sent me my AFMR protector but they cancelled my RFM mirror blades order and it’s been radio silence for the last month about my RFM protector in spite of numerous emails from me.

Thanks for your advice on STNG. I ended up getting one this week from a pinsider for much cheaper, squeaky clean, with tons of upgrades and I have the Color DMD ordered for it with some of the money I had left over.

As I kid and teenager I saw a lot of pins and arcade games but never really got to play unless someone abandoned a game or I found a coin in the slot. Just didn’t have the money. So they were mostly an out of reach fantasy and attraction to me.

In college there was an on campus arcade with Area 51 and AFM. There was a guy that could beat AFM like it was no big deal. I’d watch him play day after day.

One day he let me take over his game as he was late for class. I was game over in less than 3 minutes. But that was all I needed. I told myself someday someway I was gonna buy that game and play it whenever I wanted.

Took 20 years of hard work but someday arrived.

Great story!!!

CoinTaker is a very good and reputable joint. You should be able to work that out...even if you have to give them a buzz.

On the protector tho... I’ve done this once and only once and will never do it again. The lure of what it is supposed to do is really compelling. In reality what it accomplishes in a home environment is another. The amount of dust and stuff that gets between the playfield and the protector really mucks up the look. You really need a spotless playfield and a clean environment to get it right. Even then over time... somehow shit gets under there. Also the amount of crap you potentially need to remove to get it on there is so much that you might as well do a good clean and wax job and be done. This playfield is rock hard and really won’t get any worse for wear with it in your home. Put a Cliffy on your stroke of luck hole and be done..

Playfield protectors do in fact change the physics of the game, there is more friction between the ball and the protector than what you typically have on the playfied... consequently they scratch up like hell and eventually look like crapolla.

Just my 2 cents... I get the reason why people are attracted to the protector and don’t criticize those who do use them ... but I would always advise against it. IMHO the protector does the exact opposite of what its supposed to do... it actually adds maintenance and takes away from the game.

The RMF I have needs the top playfield removed and a good cleaning.

Reason I wanted the protector is there is some lifting of decals on the lamps in a couple of places. I’m less concerned with how shiny it is and more concerned with reducing further damage.

I’ll take some pictures of it.

Vids post on cleaning/waxing was good for my new AFMR table.

But honestly I’m unsure how to best proceed with my RFM playfield without causing more harm than good.

Ok well if you have significant damage then a protector will allow you to use it without having to deal with that damage. My playfield isn't horrible except for the stroke of luck hole but I was able to fix that with some quickwood and cliffy and a mantiss protector. I'm in the middle of restoring my machine and one day I'd like to get a clear-coated NOS playfield... just because.

I haven’t been able to find a replacement playfield. Honestly not sure how good/bad mine is. Maybe a protector is overkill.

RFM was my first used pin. I’m having a blast with it as is. Original crt still going, cab is in great shape.

I really want a red or green sparkly door like what you have. Did you make that?

I had it powder coated by @robertstone0407 and I replaced the coin inserts with clear ones from pinballlife.

I swear to God you guys are gonna bankrupt me.

Yeah the $$$$

I'm VERY much aware I've WAY more money into this thing than what its worth. Powder coating is a personal taste sort of thing and isn't for everyone... its basically just flushing your money down the toilet for a look that you and only you can expect to like. There are purists and powder coating haters out there... and I get it but I'm considering this machine mine forever and if I ever sell I'm not stupid enough to think I can get one ounce of my money back on the powder coating "investment"

I kinda want the trim, legs and door to all get this treatment... ima contact @robertstone0407

Then don't go look at the mods I did for my STNG.

Don’t you dare provide a link!

Ok. I won't .

I’m getting the metal decals. But I may not use all of them. The other stuff I’m not sure about.

IT's ok... let you're pocket book recover. Don't piss off the wife.

Actually, she’s an enabler.

Nearly bought an MMR and custom topper tonight at her request!

Hey guys..... The first run of MRS' are done.... All but one switch has been purchased..... So I've got one left for sale... Just shoot a message if you want it... I'll be taking a brief hiatus then start making some more by November..... If no one here is interested in the remaining switch I'll post over at the CFTBL group for use with the bowl mod.... It's $25 for the switch plus $4.50 for shipping in the lower 48....

Has anyone gotten around to wiring in the Martian eyes into 33A & 34A?

What is this? I may be interested.

Folks, I need to clean my playfield and replace the rubbers on my RFM. And would like to have some spare bulbs.

Is this kit a good deal?

I’d rather have some color on the playfield but not sure what would go well.

ebay.com link: 0

Just go to the top and type MRS (just like that) for the "Find In Topic" search bar and you'll see posts from this particular forum as to the MRS....there are 3 in RFM and others in several pins like SC, CV, CC, SWEP1, NBAFB & NGG...it is also used as a popular mod in the CFTBL whirpool to garner more spins....they went unobtanium a few years ago and I simply started making them....