INTRODUCTION
I am new to the website and am new to repairing pins. This seems a great place for a lot of resources and I am excited to learn!

HOW I ENDED UP ON PINSIDE
I recently acquired a non-working Starship Troopers. I am in the process of doing research on what is going to be required to get the pin working. I came across this site and and I am so thankful to have found it. There are a numerous people with a true passion for the game and are very knowledgeable. From a few posts it appears the most important rule is to be safe and not to electrocute myself!

CONDITION OF PIN
Previous owner said it turned on and some lights on playfield illuminate, but it doesn't respond. Upon setting it up, the locks on the backbox are either broken or the key is bent, because it took awhile to get it to open. Upon inspection, batteries appear to be relatively new, the menu buttons in the coin door don't do anything. Since the previous owner had it turned on before without any issues I looked it over and didn't notice anything that seemed to cause damage in moving (I kept the playfield level the entire time) I decided to turn it on. After being on for a three minutes, the top of the display board had a small amount of smoke come from it (turned it off immediately). Light in backbox works, and red LEDs light up on the boards. Playfield seems to be decent, but appears it needs a good cleaning and polish at a minimum. Rubbers and bulbs need to be replaced, and the zip tie on the moving toy near the back is a sign of a repair that is needed. Batteries look to have been replaced recently (by the date), but corrosion on the battery holder and discoloration on the board may be signs of prior damage. I have attached some pictures to show current condition of the boards and also pictures of the rest of the machine.

GOALS (based on what I have seen on the site so far)
1. Get pin to power on normally
2. Relocate or install a cell battery
3. New pinballs
4. Replace locks on backbox
5. New bulbs
6. New rubbers
7. Clean playfield
8. Clean plastics
9. Possibly full playfield tear down if I get brave enough!

I am sure there will be more repairs or issues that are discovered soon!

MY PLAN
I look forward to posting updates of my progress and reading about any suggestions that anyone may have. Links to useful information to help in my challenge to get the machine operating properly are also appreciated!

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Both great suggestions! The batteries and corresponding damage sound like a great place to start. Thanks!

I moved the batteries off the board. Tried to clean it up following directions from posts on this site. I reseated one of the chips, but the game did not boot up. I did a closer inspection of the boards and posted my finding. If anyone has any suggestion or input to share, it is appreciated!

I looked over the boards closer and found some potential problem areas.

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In this picture the MOSEL chip on the right had the 6th pin on the left side bent and no seated in the socket. I removed the chip, straightened out the pins and put it in properly.

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Not sure if this is normal, but the square piece under "R116" looks damaged? Is this normal?

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Found this in the cabinet. Didn't see anything like it in the backbox. Perhaps it goes under the playfield?

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I found these in the cabinet. Looks like some replacement parts. I don't see a chip that resembles thie one on the left. Perhaps I need to remove the display to access these?

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Does anyone know if there is supposed to be something in this open slot?

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The gray wire on the left of the plug is just sitting on the connector. Does anyone know if there are supposed to be any other wires to this connector?

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Thanks for the suggestion~ I will consider a replacement board, but at this time I don't want to put a new board in and risk frying it, if I don't know where all of the problems are a this time. Once I can isolate the problems and verify they shouldn't be affect by a board swap, this seems like a viable option.

While I was waiting for some warmer weather and a paper copy of the manual to arrive, I decided to replace the broken locks on the backbox.

It was getting annoying not being able to close the backbox and fold down the head securely, so this seemed like an easy enough project. Did some research and found the right size locks that were keyed the same. The bottom lock has a tight clearance and I didn't have the correct size wrench so it too a little longer than expected.

Locks look exactly like the stock ones. Just swapped out the latch mechanism and they were good to go. There are several different diameters, depths, finishes, and keys on the locks out there. It took some searching to find one that was met all the criteria as the original.

Feels good to get something fixed on this thing... now on to the more important tasks... getting it to start up.

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The game boots up with lights only. There is nothing on the display.

I looked back through the pics I posted, and realized I provide detailed pics of the board after I tried to clean off some of the residue. I'll try to to get those posted soon, but it does look like the battery corrosion took its toll on that section of the board.

The part that was smoking was the board in the top left of the backbox, "Dispaly Power Supply Board". If I remember correctly, the smoke appeared to be emitting from the area closest to the rectangular part below the sega paper sticker near the top.

I would like to get the board sent off for repair, or buy a new board; however, I am curious how easily they could end up being ruined since I might have multiple issues.

They looked fine, but I'll check them with a meter.

Also, after reading about some other pins having issues, I believe the proper terminology used for my issue is.... "Powers on, but does not boot"

It's been awhile since the update, but several fuses were blown, and many fuses were the wrong type. All of the fuses were replaced and the display board was professionally repaired and tested.

When the game turned on all of the io/power board leds were lit for about a minute, then the 50v ledturned off. Thankfully the display board was not smoking (like it was prior to repair), but the game still does not boot.

Next plan of action looks to get the other boards checked out.

The game is working!

A fellow pinsider (Chris Hibler) did a great job repairing the boards. I thank him tremendously for the effort put into making the repairs.

Upon playing the game there are a few things I noticed I need to look into further:

1. Most of the time it auto-plunges the ball before you can plunge it. Both the manual plunger and auto-plunger work, just not sure why it tries to auto-plunge most of the time.

2. One of the green stand-up targets below the blue bug does not register.

3. The "Y" switch in the saucer does not register.

While I am working on these, I need to look into order a kit with new rubbers (going to try to see what the original color is and if I plan to make any changes.

Not sure if I want to go the LED route. Probably need to check out some before and after pics and make up my mind before I tear down the playfield.

I have noticed that screws are missing in a few places and there is some oxidation on metallic pieces. I will definitely need a few replacements, but also need to decide if I am buying a lot of new hardware of try to polish some of the existing.

Might check on those cliffy protectors.

Also, need some new pinballs.

Hopefully will have more pictures as soon as progress is being made.

Mine just had the GI lights before the repairs. Sounds like it is a different scenario since you are able to activate the flippers.

Appreciate all the good tips. That makes sense to replace w/led's at that time because it soundsd like the ramp replacement is a task!

Nope. As you can see before a lot of people looked at the post and several responded. If that is the case as you state, it would have been nice to try before sending it out.

I sent all of them out for repair. I might have you take a look if I have any other issues. Good eye!

Update on a few issues I was having...

The power plug needed to be replaced. I considered buying a new cord, but didn't want to wait on it to ship and have to solder it in, so I bought a replacement plug at Harbor Freight and one at Home Depot.

The Leviton plug from Home Depot appeared to be better quality, size, and a nice hard plastic/rubber finish. It was easy to install, and looks great!

If you ever need to replace a plug, be sure and check out this post by vid1900 https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacing-line-cords-plugs-wall-sockets-vids-guide?

It is immensely helpful and I am sure I would have done something wrong without it!

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While checking the game over, I noticed two wires (purple with yellow and brown with gray) twisted together.
Turns out these are for the token dispenser for European markets.

I cut the ends off, put electrical tape over them, then put a label on them for future reference, and finally tucked them under one of the wire guides. Now the extra wires are out of sight, and if anyone does stumble across them, the label will clearly inform them what they are for.

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I have to really admire all the people that document their progress, as I realized it is difficult to find enough time to provide updates, let alone make any actual progress on the game.

Recently, I noticed the start button was intermittent, and made it difficult to move through the menus.

Remove the button and switch, cleaned them up, reinstalled and now they work like new!

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I noticed the lockdown bar had residue from where the seal for the glass used to be.

I cleaned off all of the old grime and put some new weather stripping on the underside.

Fits nicely and actually makes the lockdown bar feel more snug!

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The coin door lock was an odd model that made it difficult to open and close, and to be able to distinguish when you could remove the key.

Purchased a new one that was easy to install.

Nice and bright... and much less frustrating to open!

Curious to know what orientation people mounting their lock (or if this really matters to anyone). I like my key slots to be horizontal when locked.

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Diagnostics showed three switches that weren't operating correctly.

1. Green stand-up target near the subway exit by the brain bug.
2. Y-swtich in the nuke hole.
3. Shooter Lane Switch.

Removed and cleaned all the switches in an ultrasonic cleaner, but they still didn't work.

Ordered replacements and was able to get them installed.

On the green stand up switch, I couldn't find where you could just purchase the internal electronics, so an entire assembly had to be purchased.

The shooter lane switched solved my problem of the auto-plunger firing the ball on the start of the ball (It's always nice when you solve two problems, when fixing one part!)

Finally, the new Y-switch had to be adjusted after being installed so it would register (Yes, I tried adjusting the broken one before replacing ).

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The shooter assembly was in need of attention as well.

The plunger had way too much power (turned out it was the wrong type spring).

It also made a loud 'knock' when used (turned out the outer spring was just worn out).

Installed the proper springs, polished parts, put back together and works like new!

Don't worry, the shooter tip will be replaced when all the other rubber is (before playing)!

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Alright... this took way too much time, but it was probably worth it.

I wasn't sure how this metal was supposed to look around the inlanes, so I figured I would put the dremel and polish to it.

Time and labor intensive (didn't want to damage the playfield), but there is quite a different in appearance in the metal rails!

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Yes it is very dirty! Tried cleaning one section and it looks like it will clean up well. I'll be looking out for the documentation you will be providing in the future.