I have a TAF machine I purchased back in June, and shortly after I got it it started restarting itself. The machine came with a warranty, and so the business I purchased it from has been sending techs to my house try to remedy the problem. Today a tech was attempting to replace the wiring connector that hooks to header J101 on the Power Driver Board, and he made a mistake that shorted the two sides of the AC circuit feeding bridge rectifier BR1 (which creates the +18VDC supply). There was smoke, and fuse F104 popped.

The tech fixed the initial mistake but fuse F104 still blows, and now the machine's main fuse does as well. It turns out the two AC wires feeding bridge rectifier BR1 have melted insulation and shorts at multiple points along the run from the transformer to the Power Driver Board, so at the very least those wiring runs have to be completely replaced. My worry is what else may have been damaged as the fuse that's blowing on the PDB (F104) isn't part of the +18VDC circuit but rather one of 5 fuses associated with the 50VDC supply (F104's circuit is marked "LO POWER PULSE" on the schematics.)

What all should be checked when something like this happens? I assume there's some chance the transformer's been damaged. What else? The business I bought it from is going to continue to try to fix it, under warranty, but I want to be certain it's fixed right this time as the machine's mostly been down for one reason or another in the four months I've owned it.

They're packing up the machine to take it back to their shop as I type, to attempt to fix the problems there rather than in my basement. I've told them that, when they think they've got it all fixed, I'm going to go to their shop and verify I'm satisfied with the work (including playing it quite a bit to ensure the reset problem really is gone) before they bring it back. I've let them know I expect it to be fixed both properly and quickly this time, and if not I will be pressing them for a refund. In four months of ownership I've only been able to get a few dozen games played on the machine, and a fair number of those were compromised by a problem with "Thing Flips".

After four months of the game being non-functional far more often than not, 'quickly' has become important. It's good that they're honoring the warranty, but I really don't want this to continue to drag out. They either need to fix the machine, or agree it's beyond their ability to make reliable and give me a refund.