My Tales of the Arabian Nights has a blank DMD and will not start a game. CPU LEDs look good (top off, middle flashing fast, bottom on), AV board LED slowly blinking, heard the one bong when I powered it up. Machine doesn't respond to Start Game, but it goes into attract mode with the playfield lights after about 5 minutes. I replaced my power driver board with a Rottendog, but that didn't help. All the LEDs on the driver board are on. I tried reseating all the connections. I pulled all the ribbon cables and tested continuity on each pin. I'm not sure what to try next. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Yes, it worked fine for a few years, then it started having an issue where suddenly during a game, it would go dark and then reboot. It only happened once every 10 games or so, so I just lived with it. Then I decided to replace my incandescents with LEDs. I started with just the GI strings in the back box. After doing this, the back box looked great, but the DMD was kind of freaking out, then it went solid on. After power cycling, it was blank. (I am trying to recall this from about a year ago, so I am not totally sure of the exact order of the failures.) I thought it might be a power driver board issue (without any real evidence other than it looked burnt in a few places), so I ordered a Rottendog one and installed it, hoping for the best. No such luck. So I gave up for awhile. Given the recent quarantining, I decided to take another stab at it. Like I mentioned earlier, I reseated all the connections, I checked the ribbon cables for continuity, I checked the voltages coming into the DMD. Everything checked out. What I did find this morning was the ground mesh cable from the playfield was barely hanging on with a broken connector ring. I soldered on a new ring and reconnected to the strap in the back box, still same symptoms. So that's where I stand right now. Oh, I had also replaced the CPU with a newer version, but I swapped it back to cut down on the variables (too many already). I made sure it was seated correctly with no bent pins.

Yes, you are right. I put in two quarters and the Start button came on. I hit Start and it fed me a ball. I shot the ball. No sound, no flippers. It fed me another ball when it drained. I'll get to work on those pics so you can see if I plugged the cables back in the correct orientation.

I didn't mention it, but the DMD was still blank. I had to tilt each ball to finally get the game to end, but then I matched and the knocker activated. Then the flashers started working. I hadn't seen those in awhile. I guess that was the end of game sequence. But still no DMD, sound, or flippers. Here are some pics of the boards. Let me know if you want better shots of any areas. Thanks for taking the time to assist me.

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I will take both of those suggestions, but first, the symptoms have changed. Yesterday, after I used coins to go through a game, I left the machine on for a few hours, then powered it off. Just for kicks, I powered it back on and it blew the fuse in the universal power assembly. Now it does that every time. Here is a play by play of what it does now. Power on, I see the CPU LEDs got to (top off, middle fast blink, bottom on), the AV board LED comes on, I hear the single bong, the flippers activate and hold, the playfield GI comes on for less than a second, then poof, the fuse blows.

The fuse is a 5A/250V. Is that correct? Looking at page 2-29 of my Operations Manual, it makes me think the fuse should be an 8A.

So, I should check those switches and make sure they close when the flippers are activated? Can I just test that by moving them by hand? And if anyone knows the answer to my fuse question from above, let me know. Thanks.

Ok, I covered my EPROM windows, replaced my batteries, unplugged everything, replaced the line fuse, and started plugging things back in, one by one. At the end of all that, the machine works except no sound, no DMD. The flippers work, all the playfield gadgets, lights, flashers. I did hear the bong when the AV board came up. I pulled each AV EPROM one by one, and it bonged the number corresponding to each chip. So, I'm assuming it is happy with those EPROMs. So I'm thinking something may be bad on the AV board? What are my options at this point? Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

No pins are loose. The board is not dead. It's LED is slowly blinking and it plays the single bong at startup. It just doesn't send any game sounds to the speakers, or any video to the DMD.

Here's the current situation. I bought a Rottendog AV board, installed it. Still no sound, no DMD. The LED501 was blinking slowly like it was happy. Voltages at the DMD are still checking out. Even though I checked every pin on the ribbon cables, I am replacing them. I didn't have enough ribbon cable around to get them all, so I still need to do the IO Extend and the DMD. But my hopes are not high. The only board I haven't replaced is the CPU/MPU, so maybe something is up with that. I will try pressing on all those chips, although I think I did that already.

But first, another problem. I swapped out the G11 chip for my 1.4 version one. Now it won't boot fully. Top and bottom lights are solid. I swapped back to old chip. Still won't boot. Is there a procedure I need to follow when swapping G11?

Yes, it stopped booting as soon as I installed the version 1.4 CPU ROM. And even if I put the old ROM back in, it still will not boot. The notch is lined up correctly and no pins are bent. I'm not sure how to test if the ROM is corrupted or not.

Sorry for the delay in response. I haven't had a chance to try your latest suggestion regarding the service button. I should have some time later today to give it a try.

Alright, I threw in the towel and bought a new MPU board with a new CPU ROM, U4, ASIC, and NVRAM. Swapped my security chip, installed it, and voila! Everything works again including sound and the DMD. So it was definitely something on the MPU board. I could start swapping chips to find out, but I don't really want to jack it up again. Is there a place I could send the board to have it tested and repaired? Then I would have a spare. Thanks everyone for your help!