First mini restoration project!! I have wanted a Xenon for a long time- I love the looks, the lights, and especially Suzanne Ciani, the Italian-American woman responsible for the sound engineering. Tried (and very quickly failed) to secure the Banning auction Xenon. lol.

When I finally found a Xenon listed at a local pinball co-op (July), I said i'd take it right away! Unfortunately there were a few changes in the "story" behind what worked and what didnt, when they were available to meet for months etc... Many people advised me to steer clear of this machine but I simply could not resist. The price was right, the playfield was original and the machine was CLOSE! It was really important to me that it had original PF (even if not in perfect condition). I care about the character of the machine and so many nowadays have an overlay! Despite my warnings, off to the co-op I went to purchase it for $1500.

Here are some photos of when I first got it. At this point, it was able to power on and had GI but no sounds and not starting.

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It was extremely dirty both inside and outside the machine.. it had probably been sitting unused for quite some time.

My first order of business was a thorough exterior cleaning. I was very careful to make sure no paint was being damaged at any point. I also vacuumed the inside and very carefully on the playfield to remove the extra dust. I cleaned the playfield very carefully and put a layer of Novus 1 for a bit of shine. I know it gets mixed reviews on here but I was happy with the result--subtle, but definitely improved! PF does have some wear, but I like the "character" of it and don't plan to touch up any time soon.

I discovered that the F3 fuse underneath was blown. I ordered a replacement as well as a replacement plunger tip, new pinballs and some other items from Pinball life. Fuse worked great, replacement tip broke on the first shot! It's made of plastic instead of the original rubber one, so I had to put the original back on for now.

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It was missing the metal post + rubber right by the outlane and I couldn't find an exact replacement. Lovef2k was kind enough to mail me one and it worked perfectly!

The new F3 fuse was enough to get the game to start in combination with the new Alltek MPU (came with purchase). The flippers were getting stuck in the up position though-- after thoroughly examining the solenoids and making sure no diodes were backwards it turned out to just be the leaf switches. Another lucky break- I adjusted them and lightly sanded to fix that problem.

Here is a view under the pf:

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The sound issue was still persistent as ever... and the silence was deafening! It had the original two boards inside and actually DID run through the vocal rom cycle using the red test button. Although the vocals played in that test, I could never get the music/sounds to come through in game no matter what I did. I checked all the settings for the game itself and a few other things too..

- sounds all ON
- volume on high
- speaker working
- wires good
- voltage good
- volume pots on the board (one worked, one had no effect)
- driver board good

I did get the startup sound to eek out ONE time, but that was the only music I heard. Many people suspected it could be a problem with signals the boards were receiving since the speech DID work but never came through during game. I had been in contact with Jeff geeteoh about his new replacement board which had JUST came out for Xenon. He didn't think the replacement board would solve my issues (Seemed like my boards were working) so I went back to troubleshooting for a few weeks.

Now that my birthday has come around, I went ahead and bought his replacement board.
It arrived quickly and came with its own instruction manual. The board also fits perfectly into the place where the Sounds plus board was once mounted.

WOW.. Not only does the sound work perfectly, but the installation was a breeze and there are are so many varying sound banks I can use. I was in complete shock to hear MY xenon finally speaking.., well, moaning, alongside the gameplay! He even left some soundbanks empty in case I ever want to create custom sounds or settings.

There are still a few things on my to-do list, but the most urgent issues are resolved due to some lucky breaks. I mostly wanted to post to give a shout out to geeteoh for the incredible work on this board. It's compatible with other games too ( Flash Gordon, Embryon, etc.). If you are looking to swap your old, broken sound boards and add modern tech to your game, this is the move!

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Sounds in action: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yiAXyo2Jc9ALs6Nb7

Replacement board

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