Yes, I checked all of the sockets, switches and diodes that were shown in that column. I didn't see any wires touching, bent over lugs or bad diodes. If this was the reason things weren't working, wouldn't the culprit come from the next to last item working in the column on the play field?

Probably :/
I don’t know for sure just threw it out there to make sure it was considered

I removed the Driver Board and CPU, reflowed solder to the back of the connections and some chips. Also checked resistors and transistors. Everything looked good, but the problems still isn't fixed. I'm wondering if the IC11 (switch matrix) or IC18 chip is bad.

It's likely to be the transistor(s) that drive the row.

Do you have the manual/schematic. And a logic probe?

I have the schematics, but I'm not sure which transistor runs it. I tested all the transistors the last time I pulled it out and they all appeared good. I'll check them again.

So, it's definitely the board. I put my Blackout driver board into Firepower and it works. However, I still need to fix the problem to get both of my machines running.

It's a bitch when things aren't going right, But Hell Ya when they do! I couldn't find anything wrong with connections, transistors, resistors, etc. I started following the chips around and thought IC18 was next in line to give me problems. The great thing about it was, I had an extra N7406 chip to replace IC18. Installed it and problem solved. Yeah!

Thanks for the help everyone

I'm trying to follow the comments and what you've found so far. Just to clarify, is it an entire *row* or *column* that's out? Both were mentioned, but I think you meant entire switch column 6, not row. Looks like column 6 goes to 2J2-3 on the driver board, possibly IC18 like you mentioned, C54, R209, or R90. I had a row or column act up intermittently on a Data East TMNT that was previously working fine. Then it got worse and dead altogether. Took me forever, but I finally found a trace that had a weird scratch and glob of solder (that must have been there for a long time, maybe before I had it) and it was shorting between two traces. Maybe look closely along the trace of the related circuit to see if anything looks suspicious.

EDIT- Glad you found it! IC18! Awesome... such a rewarding feeling when you find that bugger.

Sweet!

Yes, switch column 6 was out. I noticed it go out all at once. I was guessing that the schematics led to IC18. The previous owner added SIPs connectors to a few of the chips including IC18. All the soldering looked good with nothing crossing. The SIPs made it easy to remove the chip and add a new one. It appears the IC18 chip went completely bad. I'm hoping this will stay fixed and not come back.

Good deal. Glad it worked out pretty easily. Hopefully the new 7406 IC will last a long time.

I have a problem where the ball drains and then occasionally comes out the shooter lane as if it didn't drain and I got an extra ball (sympathy ball). I'm assuming it's not suppose to do that. I checked the 3 trough switches and they appeared in good order.

My firepower will do this but it is very rare. I never figured out why or if it is normal.

Mine will also do this. Haven't seen any rhyme or reason to it.

It's specifically programmed to do this, the outhole switch has to be seen and the coil fire to move it into the trough - if the outhole switch is not seen and flagged, the game will fire another ball into play.

I added a post to the right part of the under apron area above the trough to help prevent this... just a metal post, no rubber.

This seems logical, because I don't hear the coil fire under the apron. Seems like the ball is sneaking by and rolling another into the shooter lane. Can you post a pic please?

Pic posted on this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/firepower-intermittent-new-ball-but-no-advance-#post-5182270

Awesome, thanks

Makes sense that this could be what happening. I'll pay closer attention next time. Thanks for the info!

I've noticed this erroneous extra ball thing happening too on occasion and it seems like every time it happened, it was when the ball sorta slung itself into the drain quickly, probably causing the miss at the outhole switch. I can see how the added post would help.

Has anyone had good luck with Firepower spinner decals? If so... where did you buy yours?

Thanks

What color lights are people choosing for behind the 6 targets? Doesn't matter what I try, they are blinding me. I'm just using red now, but I can't really see the artwork. Anybody try some of those directional bending lights?

This is from your other posting, but it looks like the ball could fall to either side of the post. Is the object to make sure the ball falls to the left side (looking at backglass)? Also make sure it doesn't get stuck on the right side?

e69896d7fb616a2a22ca2ed72849e4d975e1bcc0 (resized).jpg

This is my play field. I can see a small dot close to where you have your post.
15857019124281496185889 (resized).jpg

In the middle clearing my pf and I have a screw hole here. Looks like someone had the same idea on this one and same thing on my back up playfield that I have on standby for a hardtop

E6B4489C-17F5-4452-A040-1E3A12C87806 (resized).jpeg

D6955A4E-1360-4DA1-ABEE-F3708DD8D32F (resized).jpeg

Thank you
I don't want to drill anything until I know where to drill, haha

No, the object is to make sure the ball doesn't rocket up the trough. You need a ball's width on either side of the post or it could get stuck there, unless you move the post over a lot, which defeats the purpose of the fast moving ball.

If it falls on the post towards the shooter lane, you've still accomplished what you need to do, which is get the ball to rest on the outhole kicker switch so the software can pick it up properly. (at that angle, it's rolling to the left)

Anyone have any suggestions as to why my game would continue to play more than 5 balls? It used to stop after 3 balls, but it seems like the game will continue indefinitely and just keep spitting out balls after they drain. Even the display will show the number of balls going past 5, it's not like it's stuck at 5 balls and keeps popping them out. The display will show, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.

Edit: Never mind, figured out how to reset to factory settings and that fixed it.

When you're ordering LEDs for your Firepower do you have to look for ones that are longer?

I noticed that the incandescent bulbs are longer & up closer to the inserts.

I'm thinking about ordering more of the warm white frosted LEDs from comet.

Do led flashers cause issues?

Please post any other ideas or tips for leds for this game. Thank you very much.

I Think there are only 2 flasher bulbs (#84) and they are the 2 big bulbs under the fire & power inserts. You can probably buy warm white comets for everything else. Also there's a couple tight socket holes where my Pinball Life Ghostbusters had a hard time fitting (outlanes & 6 standing targets) and needed a slimmer bulb. I'm not sure if Comets are slimmer than Ghostbusters or not.

The bulbs under the 6 targets will blind you. I ordered 2 directional bulbs for this area. Hopefully this will fix it.

Additionally, I suggest to order frosted bulbs no matter the color.

Thanks very much ! I appreciate your info.

When you go through your pop bumpers.... do you usually replace the sleeve in the coils?

If cleaning a game for the first time, I plan to replace all the coil sleeves since I don’t know when it was last done.

Definitely agree on the bulbs under the 6 standups being a little blinding. I went with flex bulbs instead to get them to light things up w/o shining directly back at the player. Overall, I went with more clear lens bulbs than frosted but it's a matter of preference.

I threw together a video as an overview of the LEDs I put in my Firepower.

Great video ! I am going to use alot of your ideas when ordering from Comet.

Cool. Glad to help with some ideas.

Thanks for the video. I have a firepower that has leds but i like some of your ideas.

I have heard that when putting leds in this vintage of a game... that you should use non-ghosting. Would this just be true in the insert/controlled lamp sockets? And then use the usual leds in the GI?

Yes and yes.

I used mostly the regular 2SMD bulbs from Comet in my inserts. I haven't really noticed any ghosting issues. I don't think Comet sells a non-ghosting version of 2SMD bulbs; they seem to only list 1SMD and flex bulbs that are non-ghosting. So in the areas I used flex bulbs (behind stand-ups and under the ball lock saucers), those were non-ghosting but I don't think they needed to be.

So I just took a look at several of my bulbs in the inserts w/ the game on, first game initiated. The bulbs that were off didn't show any ghosting, except for one that had a very small amount that I had never noticed before until looking for it. So IMO, I still don't think there's an issue w/ using non-ghosting bulbs in the inserts for this game.

Still looking foor some scans of the area under the pop bumper. Nobody has them on their computer?

I can take some pics, but doubt this is what you're looking for since it's not a flat-on perspective-less scan, nor exactly high resolution. Still, if that helps I can send you some. Shoot me a PM.

These were already in this thread. Will they work?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-firepower-club/page/33#post-4013080

Thx, indeed that was what I was looking for. PM'ed Alex to get some more info.

Now back to the project

I got this error code when I last turned on my game

DF52E1A3-28F3-422A-AFCC-4A4E1B515CD0 (resized).jpeg

Batteries low volts, bad cmos etc

Also got 1497

yep, either batteries or 5101 ram. For me it was the ram. I ordered a NVRAM from pinitech.com and am very happy with it!