When you get it home, take the balls out, take the playfield glass off, and put the table up at ninety degrees. Most machines have a bar in the bottom right of the cabinet to use as a "prop bar" - and there should be a metal bracket that the bar can go into. Look around at all your PCB boards - look for any burned areas on the PCBs - look for any fuses that could be missing or blown. Do a visual once-over of the underside of the playfield, looking for any missing bulbs, loose wire from broken solder joints, or any loose screws/bolts at the bottom of your cabinet. You don't have to do a complete and thorough inspection - just look for things that look "out of place". Once you're satisfied, put your playfield back down and proceed to the translite...

Unlock and remove your translite glass - make sure all the bulbs are back there behind the translite (you'd be amazed how many could be missing. Your translite backdoor where the bulbs are mounted is hinged like a door with a latch that you will pull straight up on, that releases the latch holding that "lighted swing door" stationary, and you should now be able to move the "lighted swing door" to view the MAIN PCB boards. Look for any burns on the PCB boards/around the black IC chips, or hackjobs such as cut wires or ribbon cables where the ends are not firmly seated in the plastic prongs - typically on the edges of the PCB boards. Check your batteries on your main cpu board, make sure they show no signs leaking battery acid, and I would flat-out just change them for my personal peace of mind.

Once all that's been done, re-seat your translite backbox door and don't put the translite glass back on. Fire up your new machine by flipping the toggle switch - it should typically be on the underside of the cabinet near the bottom right leg. After 1-2 seconds at the most, your machine should come to life. Look at your translite backbox door - are all the lights on/flashing ? Look over your playfield, visually see that the majority of your lights are active. Some obviously won't be; the behavior of your lights varies from one machine to the next depending on the manufacturer and the title of the game. Get your manual (if you don't get one with the game, go to ipdb.org and download the one for your game), and read up on how to do all the tests - most notably your lamp test, light column test, coil test, and flasher test. Everything you desire to test is strictly up to you - those are the first things I check.

Once all that is done, TURN your machine off. Reassemble your translite and lock it in place. HANG YOUR TRANSLITE KEYS on the inside of your coin door - nearly every machine has some kind of clip inside the coindoor that the keys should hang in. Put your playfield glass back in place and re-seat your lock-down bar. Lock your coin door (make sure your game is on free play ), turn your game on and enjoy! Look for anything not behaving as you play and take mental notes.

Come here, tell us what problems are, get help, fix problems, play game, note that you need another pin, buy another, get it shipped, wash, rinse, dry, repeat .....

Oh, and to help you out, here at Pinside, Starship Troopers = SST

Congrats on the acquisition. Not a bad first pin!

If you really, really want to be careful, measure resistance of every coil in the game. Make sure each coil measures above 2 ohms. If a coil measures less than that, it's experienced too much heat and should be replaced. Of course, they experience that heat for a reason, like a transistor being shorted on. Check the 16 flasher lamp covers. Any melted? This is common on SSTroopers.

Some of the GI lamps under the rear plastics and certainly the ones under the orange top lane guides are a booger to change. I mod the game so I can change them from the bottom of the PF. Remove enough GI staples to pull the lamp socket out, then use a screw to secure one side of the lamp socket once you've changed the bulb.

Make sure that the worm gear that drives the bug over the multiball hole isn't being stripped by having too much range of motion. You'll hear a rapid "tick-tick-tick-tick" at the stops if there is too much range of motion. There is a microswitch on each end of the assembly that tells the MPU when the worm gear has reached the end of travel.

Pins are sensitive to low voltage. Fortunately, nothing serious can occur due to low voltage so a UPS is overkill. A surge suppressor, just like the one you might have for your computer is a good idea.

Yup...I have to do this to mine too. Here's the article. You'll need some parts...
http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/speaker/index.html

"If you don't do your job, I'll shoot you" ... SSTroopers quote

--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

Oops...

SST doesn't have the more common type of backbox and lamp insert that I think you have in mind. It has a different kind of head used on some Sega games. There is no lamp insert...only a fluorescent tube. And the translite swings out with the backbox front panel.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

I'm packing my lunch and getting my books together cause I'm getting schooled!

You're totally right - my bad!

<blockquote cite="#219360"
I'm packing my lunch and getting my books together cause I'm getting schooled!
You're totally right - my bad!

Nah...I have the advantage of having the game right here and having recently worked on it.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info

Wooohooo. Another Sega Showcase pin! I've done two of the stereo mods so far with slightly different results. X-Files = very happy! Star Wars Trilogy = meh. One each of them, there is a noticeable different in volume. On X-files, you can tell the second speaker is there, just a little lower in sound. On the Star Wars Trilogy, its significantly lower in volume. I'm not sure if that is the speaker difference, or an issue with 12 year parts competing against the newer ones.

On the pinball news site, it's not always apparent which part you should choose when some multiples come up. The one I remember the most, is the heat sink. Use this one:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=531102B02500Gvirtualkey53210000virtualkey532-531102B25G

Also, the speaker from marco is thin crap. I don't have a good replacement recommend. As this was one of my first mods, I bought double of everything, and also took the opportunity to stock up on 1N4004's and 1N4001's

Mouser was quick to ship. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be happy to help out if I can.

Enjoy your pin, one day I hope to land a Starship Troopers and a few more from the Sega Showcase collection.

Showcase collection...that may be the name of the head design.
I was thinking "Marquee", but my memory is foggy on that.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

You will want to check that the brain bug is flush with the playfield when it is in the down position. You will also want to make sure that it stops where it is suppose to or it can damage the metal bracket around the brain bug window. If the bug stop is set too low the bug will slam down instead of stopping flush with the playfield. $40 part at Marco.

Cliffy has a set of protectors for this game as well. Good investment.

Chris is right about some of those bulbs. When I shopped mine out with bulbs and new rubbers, I put LEDs in most of the game. There is a bulb under the left ramp that can melt the ramp too, I would take that one out or replace with a led.

Fun Game.

Wow - check every coil? Really?

Just play the thing, and anything not working will be clear soon. Clean it, re-rubber it, rebuild the flippers and slings, change the balls, and you shoult be set for another 5 years.

Sorry to drag up an old thread. I'm having this issue. I'm posting this as a reminder to myself to check this out tonight. Thanks in advance, Chris. I guessed that it was something along these lines, but I was pressed for time and couldn't even locate the switches last night. Hopefully my motor is still in decent condition and I can skate by without having to replace anything. I'll be sure to hit you up if I have any questions.

how do set starship trooper to give free games all the time

I'm assuming you mean putting it on free play. This will be in the pricing adjustments in the service menu.