I have been fighting this thing for weeks if not months, done research until my ears saw color, and need some guidance here. The short and sweet:

- F-14 Tomcat (first and only pin so far)
- Rottendog board in nice condition
- Pop Bumper/ Ramp switches column is out (I Believe grn/ylw)
- Disconnected 1JP8 and 1JP10 connectors from board. Jumped all affected pins in switch test, all register when jumped as intended).
- Checked continuity as best I could from the wires in the playfield to each pin on the harness of the connectors at the board (while disconnected)
- Checked the continuity best I could between each of the wires down the line.

- I would think transistor on the board, but jumping the pins works.
- I would think short in the wiring, but I can't seem to find any.
- coming off of the 3 ramp switched under the playfield, there is a small board with 3 diodes connected. For the LIFE of me, I could never figure out where these are mentioned in a diagram, but know they are directly in the line. These have been replaced.

Am I missing something? I could go down the line and check every other diode by disconnecting one end and DMMing but that seems like a hassle. Would one butt diode even cause all of this? I'm at a loss and just need some guidance as to where to try next.

Continuity I can't imagine would be any different since I'm testing from the pin at the harness but I'll give it a go.
Apologies if I sound oddly uninformed (my head is fried) - what am I checking for for ohms down the line?

And are we ruling out that one bad diode or something in line would be enough to cause something big like this?

Continuity between grn/ylw and all white/x colored wires from the switch matrix check good when connected. What the heck am I missing here

Okay so here's the stupidest thing you'll ever hear that caused me dread for the past 2 years off and on.

The JP connector at the board. I resoldered EVERYTHING I could think of.

I pulled it out 10% of the way.

Everything works. All of it. It was making a trash connection to the board which explains why everything looked okay.

I am dumbfounded and defeated, but also triumphant.

Wtf.

I will grab you that picture tomorrow once I'm done drinking my confusion away but if you life the playfield up, it's at the deepest left corner and goes directly to the molex that runs to the ramp switches. I'd love info on where this is on a diagram.