Can anyone who has installed one of these plasma mods tell me which connector on the board you attach to for power? I have these on my JM (J114) and Tron (top of CPU/sound board), but I’m not sure where to hook to the board on STTNG.

Maybe a pic of where it goes?

Thank you!

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I need help with a new prob that I can’t figure out. I recently installed new canon lasers and they work great. But today I installed mirror blades and when I put the playfield back down and turned the game on, I had 5 switches out - the entrance switches to Alpha and Beta ramps, and the 3 neutral zone switches. I raised the playfield and noticed one alligator clip to the canon motor on the left had come off (perhaps touching something it shouldn’t). I reconnected the clip and the canon works fine, but the 5 switches do not respond in test or in play. All other lamps and switches are fine. Can anyone suggest what might be happened with these switches?

Thanks very much for your help!

The coin door switches barely work, I have to push them a bunch of times to get the game to go into settings. This seems odd, shouldn’t it either work or not work at all? Something on that matrix is definitely glitchy.

What’s the fix for that, if it’s that entire matrix? It does seem to be all of that column.

The game recognizes the coin door is open, because it will allow the settings to be accessed, but the coin door buttons are barely responsive (have to push them repeatedly). But all 5 switches on that matrix are out.

I don’t have another board for that system. Looks like just 5 pins (demo man, Indy Jones, Popeye, STTNG, and JD) shared it? Assuming something happened on that matrix, would it then be a transistor or something on the board?

Thanks, I’ll try replacing that driver chip at U20 and see if that fixes it. At least it’s a cheap fix, if that’s what happened. Incidentally, I am not getting an error message or credit dot for some reason.

It was a temp install until I brought my soldering iron up north. Worked fine until it didn’t. Hopefully the switch matrix driver chip at U20 fixes it. It was only $1.19.

What would the fix be for that? I ordered a couple switch matrix chips, so I’ll try that just in case. If I can’t diagnose it I’ll take the board to a local repair guru, he’s talented at that. He can solve it fast. Thx.

Thanks! When I’m back up there I will do that!

Thanks very much for all the help. Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t do the board work myself. I know an experienced guy who is very good at that. I can handle most repairs that don’t involve the boards.

I’m not up where my sttng is right now so I can’t check it yet. I just know the 5 Playfield switches on that matrix are out (the 2 ramps and all 3 neutral zone targets). The coin door does cut the high voltage power when opened and you can access the settings, but only intermittently. I had to push the 4th button on the far right several times to get it to go into the settings. In switch test mode, all playfield switches respond except those 5 I mentioned.

I’ll probably take the board with me to have it looked at. Hopefully he can diagnose and repair. If I cooked it, I’ll bite the bullet and install a new driver board. That’s a last resort tho.

. Oh. wow.

I was going to show off my new alt translite, but after Xingothx it seems a bit underwhelming! But here it is.

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Mine pre-loads 3 balls and keeps 3 in the trough.

Wow, that’s an incredible deal. I just bought one NIB for like $130 + shipping. Very nice deal!

So...we last left the story of my STTNG, it was struggling with 5 switches all on the same switch matrix not responding, and then I lost the ability to use the control/settings buttons in the coin door. I removed the board with U20 switch driver chip to have it checked by a tech. The tech said this board and the others should be re-pinned. I decided to install a spare coin door I had on hand with control buttons to see if that fixed the control button issue. I also put the original board back in (without re-pinning anything) and now everything works 100%. No credit dot. All switches returned and the coin door buttons work perfectly. So what happened?

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I agree. It could have been a connection or possibly a broken ground wire somewhere near the coin door? I’m glad it’s working again. I’m finally getting good enough at the video mode to collect the crystals in the 9th cave. This is a great pin.

Went to change a GI bulb between the rollovers and the bulb felt wobbly in the socket, with no spring pushing it back upward. I lost 5 bulbs, including the 2 in the coin door. It definitely was a bad socket, see pic below. I ordered a new one and will swap it out next week. Should that bring all 5 lights back? Or did the socket ground failure cause a short and harm something on the board? I guess I’ll find out when I replace the socket?

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I would personally trade a SW pro for a nice STTNG any day. STTNG is such a loaded game, with fantastic rules and amazing theme integration. The sound and light show is great. This game is growing on me the longer I own it. It’s a top 10 pin for me. So much pinball in one machine. Congrats on your trade!

So I replaced the failed lamp socket between the rollover lanes with a new one. But the 4 lights I lost when it shorted are still off. Is this a fuse? If so, anyone know which fuse protects those 4 lamps? It’s the bottom 2 lights for the pop bumpers and 2 of the 4 rollover lane lights. Oh, and the coin door lights. Lost those too.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!
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You were right about the fuse for the GI bulbs. The 5 or 6 bulbs I lost came back when I replaced F106. But the 5 switches that are all on the same switch matrix are still out. It’s driving me crazy. I’ve been told my power driver board needs re-pinning. I think I’m just going to replace the board, unless a repaired 1993 Williams board is vastly superior to a new Rottendog board. I already replaced the main switch driver chip. Didn’t fix it. I tried reseating all the connections too. If I buy a new power driver board, is it all plug and play? Or do any chips require soldering to the board?

That’s why I asked, I’m happy to invest in board work if it’s the way to go. I have my STTNG a couple hours north of where I live, so I have to break it down and haul it down where my tech people are. If I can simply drop a new board in and not have to transport it, that would be easier. But if salvaging the Williams board is best, that’s what I’ll do.

Awesome, thanks!

U20 is a chip on the driver board. See pic. It’s often soldered to the board, unless a socket has been installed, as it was on my machine. Then you can pop them off and on. The good news is if you need to replace the chip itself, it’s about $1.50. But if it’s soldered on, that’s a tricky job. Also, if you are having trouble removing fuses, there is a cheap tool you can buy for pulling them. I recommend getting one.

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That chip looks cooked! I installed a NVRAM upside down once in my LOTR and turned on the power. The game didn't boot properly and I smelled that electrical-plastic burn smell almost immediately. I flipped the power off, and waited for the chip to cool. Flipped it around and it worked correctly and has worked correctly for over a year. I was lucky. The game was only on for maybe 2 seconds. Now I know the chips usually have a tiny circle or semi-circle on one end to prevent mistakes like that.

So I still have 5 switches out and haven’t solved it yet. I found a fuse that was out and that fixed the GI. But the 5 switches all on the same switch matrix are out. I have a tech alert to check all 5 of them. Is it either the power driver board, or could it simply be a bad switch? Are switches daisy chained together such that you could have a broken wire or cold solder and lose 5? Maybe that’s a dumb question.

Thanks! All 5 are switches. It’s the 3 neutral zone targets and the entry gate switches for the Alpha and Beta ramps. I did a visual check and made sure all the wires are soldered on each of the 5 solidly. Could still be a cold solder, but they appear fine. I didn’t think about a diode, certainly could be. The other symptom I’m having is rebooting during play. I just checked all the fuses again and they seem fine. I’m gonna bring the game down to my super-tech and let him fix it for good. It’s beyond my skills. He’s got tools to diagnose these things better and replace diodes and bridge rectifiers, etc. Thanks very much for your help! I bet it’s something like a diode.

Yep, coin door closed works. Just the 5 switches. It’s weird because the coin door buttons for the settings also stopped working, so I tried simply replacing the door. That solved everything for a few days, all control buttons worked and even the 5 switches came back. But now the switches are back out, but the coin door buttons work. I can go into test mode and all switches work except those 5.

I can’t see any, the boards look really clean, but I know that doesn’t mean they are 100%. They are 28 years old, I’m sure things can just go. I’m gonna bring the game down near Lansing where smarter people than I can take a look.

I’ll post the solution for sure. It’s a mystery to me. Hopefully next week.

Agree. Lithiums are solid and safe. Last summer I opened a Simpsons toy made and packaged in 2003…it worked perfectly with 17 year-old-lithium battery in it. Crazy.

Hiya all. So my quest to solve the 5 switches out on my STTNG continues…(all 5 switches are on the same switch matrix, the 3 neutral zone switches and the ramp entry switches for Alpha and Beta). So I dropped a new backup power driver board into my game to see if that was the trouble, same thing - game works fine except those 5 switches. Hoping that narrows it down for you smart/tech guys. Is it one of the 5 switches that’s bad? Anything else to check? Thanks!

I misspoke. I replaced the MPU. The board on the left with the batteries on it. That one is fine, both are working the same. So the issue isn’t the MPU. If not the board, what would be affecting those 5 switches?

Thanks. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks! It’s definitely not the MPU. I replaced it with a new one and it’s the same, 5 switches out. I’ll check the connections on all 5 switches again. If I can’t fix it, I’ll take you up on the help. Is your friend Clay or Parker? Or someone else?

Thank you.

Thank you so much, I’m going to check this tomorrow for sure. I’ll share what I find. I really appreciate the help!

I’m going to check this out tomorrow too, and hopefully find the problem. Thanks so much for your help!

Thanks to Manny65, RellikJM and Pin_Guy, and others, for pointing me in the right direction. I checked everything from J207 to the switches and all seemed fine. But the 5 switches wouldn’t work. I noticed the obvious replacement of the connector at J207, so I checked the quality of each wire seated into the connector. Sure enough, a loose wire in the first or second position. I’m not sure the proper permanent fix, but I did my best to push the wire in tightly and…voila. All 5 switches came back. I had my original MPU board checked, but the problem wasn’t the board, but the connector. Thanks to all for your wisdom.

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That’s the problem, as best I can tell. It’s working right now, so I’ll keep an eye on it and replace that connector at some point. It will be good practice. Thanks again!

I found a single black wire coming off the trough board severed. The kickout and trough work fine and it’s been that way for a long time. No errors noted. Anyone know why this would be severed? It’s not deliberate for some reason, is it? It’s easy to reattach, but I don’t want to mess something up.

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That could be. Weird that it would be severed in the middle of the wire. Like it could be deliberate.

Sounds like there is no obvious reason not to reconnect that wire. I’ll do that soon.

I’m getting some random power re-boots from time to time. Sometimes I can play a very long game with no issues, other times it reboots within seconds of pressing start. Is that little device you install on the board the best solution? Or is it first essential to identify the specific cause? Thanks!

Yep, I agree. I had this issue on my TZ last year. I’m concerned that if I spend $40-50 for a daughter board as temp fix to prevent 5v from dropping, it will just come back or persist. Might as well fix the power board the right way now.

Yeah, the caps on my TZ were bad. Someone had replaced them but not correctly. If you aren’t overwhelmed I can bring my board home to Lansing this week and get it to you to check it out?

Romulin ale? Bones, isn’t that illegal? I only use it for medicinal purposes.