Gang:

I am the current owner of the "Smoking Hot" Playboy as featured in the following thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/first-stern-a-smoking-hot-2002-playboy-extensive-smoke-damage

It has a nagging issue which has me puzzled.

When I received the game it was resetting at random to the point which a single ball could not be completed. I started to methodically go through molex connectors and found several shorts where insulation had melted thus causing wires to touch each other. The boards were not securely fastened to the ground plate and were literally not touching it in places, so was definitely missing ground points. There were several connectors with wires in the wrong slots and hitting the wrong pins. All the aforementioned issues have been cleaned up and the game is error free. Now, it will play a complete game UNTIL the auto launch engages. Whether it be for a ball save or for multiball, as soon as that coil (#2) fires, the game reboots. Firing the coil in test achieves the same result. The coil and diode both check out good.

The boards were new and installed shortly before I took ownership and there is no evidence of any components blowing on the board. I have not pulled them out and tested individual components, but certainly can, if we suspect a culprit there.

All voltages at test points on the board are within acceptable thresholds.

Photos attached of relevant pages in the manual.

Thanks for your help!

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Monday AM bump!

Tuesday bump.

Wednesday bump!

Great feedback, thank you!

I know the coil lugs are not making contact with anything else. 50V is not the issue as everything else fires without disruption to the MPU as it should.

Once I run through a couple of tests with J8 disconeccted, I will update with results.

So, checked my resistance on the coil and it is in spec. Cut a leg off the diode and it tested good, but I replaced it with a new one (of course, banded side on the power side - yellow/violet). So, it sounds like it is not a shorted coil or diode.

Removed J-8 and when I go in to coil test and fire coil #2, the game does NOT reset. It does reset when J-8 is installed and coil #2 is fired. So, it sounds like this is not a board issue, correct?

I have inspected the wire from end to end and do not see any more stressed areas or melted insulation. Any suggestions or tricks for finding the short?

Would a viable test be running a brand new wire from the coil to the header pins and seeing if that eliminates the issue? That may eliminate the ability to overlook a physical short, no?

OK, so a fresh wire on the Brn-Red side accomplished nothing. Wondering if I should remove the power side and try the same trick...the power side is daisy chained to other coils though...not quite as easy to accomplish.

Problem did not go away by running a fresh, independent wire in place of Brn-Red. Is it possible that the YL-VIO is the one that's shorted? If so, wouldn't that affect more than just the one (Auto Launch) coil?

Open invite to the Xeneize Arcade for both of you - themadman and @futurepinhead!

We WILL get this thing up, running, and eventually super tuned. She has tons of potential. I just refuse to move on to cosmetics/shopping (aka as the "fun stuff") until functionally we're at 100%.

I'll start down the jumper path tomorrow evening. Thanks again to both of you for the encouragement and advice!

themadman this is where I stopped. Ran through all steps above and it continued to reboot after every firing. Coil on order - will post once it's installed.

Again, the coil's resistance is 3.4...right where it should be, but who knows...

OK, time for an update.

New coil came in...got it installed and for the first time was able to play a complete game. Then I did it again and played another full game. No issues with the game resetting. Made sure that the auto launcher (coil #2) fired several times each game to put it through its paces.

Noticed that the centerfold was no longer opening, so powered down and when into diagnostics. As a matter of habit, fired the auto-launcher in coil test. Game resets.

Now, I am right back where I started - everytime the auto launch fires, the game resets.

It does not seem to be a board, coil, or Brn-Red wire issue....

Starting to get frustrated...

Weekend bump for fresh ideas.

So, went back to this last night for a few minutes and discovered something that gives me cause for question... when I remove J-8 and probe the pins inside the connector I get continutity between several of the wires. They are obviously all independently running into the connector, which means that at some place farther back in the chain, they are making contact.

This is the only WhiteStar I have ever owned and don't have a point of reference, but SHOULD there be continuity across these wires at the connector? If not, then I will definitely have to remove the playfield to track down where they are meeting.

Again, there is not continuity across ALL of them, just SOME of them. It may be that only the 50V have continuity with each other and the 20V have continuity with each other... I'll need to look at the schematic and spend some more time making notes to confirm this, but wonder if this is possibly the culprit or another rabbit hole...

Future, I bet you thought you were DONE troubleshooting this game.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Tsskinne - no worries, it's what pinball is all about, right? We'll figure it out!

Several tests later...

On J8, continuity runs across pins:
1&3
4,5,7
6,8,9

For a simple point of comparison, on J9 (the other high voltage connector) there is continuity across pins:
1,2,4,5

So, it seems that continuity is NOT a problem as the wires that have continuity are all for coils requiring the same voltage, and (as I interpret the schematic) should not be a problem.

To try something new, I went ahead and flipped wires/pins on J8-3 (the cursed auto launch) and J8-6 (the perfectly functioning drop target). This yielded what one would expect - auto launch now performs as as it should (which removes all doubt about a bad coil or diode) and the drop target then became the culprit every time it fired, for causing the game to reset.

This makes me think that even though the game does NOT reset when J8 is disconnected and the auto launch is triggered in diagnostics that my problem must be located on the board.

Before, I order transistors and start replacing components on what was supposed to be a brand new board - can anyone out there refute my logic - please?

Gracias!

J8 is a standard molex 9 slot connnector that fits onto 9 header pins.

Insane , not sure what you mean by a "wire connector".

Insane
Ah, got it...J-8 fits directly onto the power driver board.

Not yet, but I think I am close...moved all of my issues to an updated thread.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/100-stern-playboy-fix-it-challenge-experienced-tech-help-needed#post-3668387