I was playing my Data East Secret Service this evening when, mid-game, the machine “froze” and stopped responding. Power cycling the machine doesn’t seem to get it out of this state.

Upon turning on the machine the “Secret Service in Digital Stereo” audio track plays and the back glass lights and the “normally on” playfield lights turn on and remain on. The displays are blank. The board has the “+5V” LED on but the “BLANK” and “PIA” LEDs are off. Fuses all seem to be fine. The game is completely unresponsive.

If it helps, the game seemed to “freeze” after I nudged the game, typical gameplay nudge, I would have been surprised had I gotten a TILT warning…

I’m not really sure where to look first in trouble shooting this one… I’m fairly new to the hobby but have worked on a few machines previously and have a strong technical background. This is my first DE game, I’ve had it a few weeks.

Curious if anyone has any ideas! Thanks!

#2 1 year ago

GTX

gdonovan

Pinside member

7y 185K 13,220 70

Check 12 pin power connector on power board, right side.

Common to be burned or dirty and you lose power to mpu causing no operation or reboots.

Try plugging and unplugging a few times to see if it starts.

#3 1 year ago

OMW

Seamlesswall

Pinside member

Dorset, VT

10y 39,200 696 3

All I can suggest from life experience with Data East: My first "electronic" game was Secret Service after owning dozens of EM's. I recall getting it home and it didn't work. Forgot what I did to get it running but when it fired up it was so exciting! Speech and everything! But here's where possibly I can help - soon after I got a Jurrasic Park. Went to pick it up and some things worked, display all garbled, but unplayable. Brought it home and set it up on some skid pads to be able to move easily. Turned it on. Same result. My girlfriend was about to come home so I needed to push it out of the way. When she got home I showed her my new acquisition ($800 imagine that) and said it lights up but that's about it. I flipped the switch and wouldn't you know, it was all working. It turns out, the fuse holders were bad and brittle. I recall some under the left flipper area. I replaced the holders and never had a problem after that.

#4 1 year ago

???

Bultron

Pinside apprentice

Lancaster, PA

2y 10,400 2 4

Quoted from gdonovan:
Check 12 pin power connector on power board, right side.
Common to be burned or dirty and you lose power to mpu causing no operation or reboots.
Try plugging and unplugging a few times to see if it starts.

I unplugged everything on the power board and mpu and replugged and that seemed to do the trick, games working again! Thanks for the help!

Promoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!

$ 18.95

Eproms

ROM SECRET SERVICE -CPU

Pinballrom

$ 54.99

Cabinet - Shooter Rods

YELLOW Lighted Shooter Rod Plate Cover for Data East

Lighted Pinball Mods

$ 27.95

Eproms

ROM SECRET SERVICE -SOUND

Pinballrom

2,600 (Firm)

Machine - For Sale

Secret Service

Cleveland, OH

Luckydevil216

2,999

Machine - For Sale

Secret Service

West Chicago, IL

GAP

$ 19.99

Eproms

Secret Service Pinball (Data East) - ROM chip set

Matt's Basement Arcade

2,199

Machine - For Sale

Secret Service

Wichita, KS

Ry4bo

$ 18.95

Eproms

ROM SECRET SERVICE -GAL/PAL-SOUND

Pinballrom

Hey modders!

Open a free Shop and start selling on Pinside

Your shop name here

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!

This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/secret-service-game-wont-start and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.