I just picked up a Data East Laser War a couple days ago. I got it all up and running other than the displays since there is an issue with the power supply in the back box. I removed the fuse on the PS for the display voltage until the HV rebuild kit arrives and that is resolved. Originally at first power up, the gi came on and that was it. I pulled all of the boards in the head for a complete re flow of all connectors since there were some cold solder joints on all boards. All of the connector pins were cleaned and the chips in sockets were all removed, had their pins cleaned, and reinstalled. This brought everything into working order except the displays, as mentioned above. At that point I was playing the game as everything else is up and running great other than some burnt out lights.

After playing for a good hour or so, I went through the game and changed out the burnt out bulbs and got back to playing again. All of a sudden I hear crackling under the playfield. I had the coin door open and glass off still so I heard it almost instantly, and powered the game off. Everything was still working, except that transformer was SUPER hot out of no where and what I think is the wax (?) was starting to bubble just a tiny bit on the top of it.

If you turn the power on for even a couple seconds, the game still boots into attract mode and you hear the speech board start up and the mpu lights are correct so it seems the game is still working and getting correct voltages, however, I turned it off right away since the transformer was heating up. I then unplugged the connector on the output side of the transformer so everything is disconnected in the game. Power it on and it still wants to heat up and crackle with in seconds. The whole cabinet was vacuumed out already and there is nothing loose in the cabinet that fell or is touching the transformer at all.

Anyway to repair/refurbish a transformer? Or is there something else going on here? I have never had this issue before and I've had close to 100 pins in and out of here over the last 15 years.

It's limited down to the power cord, line fuse, rf filter, varistor, power switch and transformer. The fuse does not blow, and is the correct value. I have 119v ac at all points from the power cord coming in, all the way up to the connector that plugs into the input side of the transformer.

I'm guessing a new transformer is going to be impossible to find if it cannot be repaired. Because I caught it so quickly, the wires to and from the transformer are not melted at all, and all wires seem to be securely attached to the transformer still.

I just had a look inside my Data East Monday Night Football and Playboy 35th. It's got a different number transformer in there, but all of the connectors are the same and all of the wire colors are the same. It's got the same voltage and HZ rating stamped on it as well. The only difference looks to be in 2 of the CN9 GI light wires. In Laser War, all 4 of the gi wires are pulled off the back side of the transformer. In Monday Night Football and Playboy 35th, 2 are off the front side and 2 are off the back side. All 3 games have the same power supply in them, so I would figure that the transformers are interchangeable, with no modifications. I know the transformer for the MNF and PB35 are available in a few places online, but I haven't found the Laser War transformer anywhere yet.

Is there any reason that wouldn't work for a replacement?

I'll have a look for a diode installed backwards on the PS and compare it to the MNF PS. I've had MNF up and running for years with no issue, so that's got to be right.

Laser War, Playboy 35th, and Monday Night Football are all non dmd games, but MNF and PB are alphanumeric displays..... not sure if that matters.

Also just got this in another response:

But there is another possibility. I am not positive but the early Data East games used the early Williams System 11 designs for nearly every part in the game. The displays and the transformers are interchangeable.

Can anyone confirm that the 10-5002-00 DE MNF/PB transformer, or the williams system 11 5610-10897-00 transformers would be interchangeable?

I just compared the power wiring diagram from MNF and Laser war. Everything is exactly the same with one exception. Laser War sends flipper power to the flipper power supply board, and mnf sends flipper power to the PPB board. Same voltages though. It would be nice if the amperage was listed here too, but it's not.

Just swapped in the 10-5002-00 Data East transformer from a Playboy 35th in place of the bad 10-5000-00 in the Laser War. We are up and working great. It's been on for over an hour with no issues. The new translite and rubber kit arrived from Marco today so while it was on I installed both of those and got the last few burnt out bulbs replaced, and got some good playtime in. Both the Laser War and Playboy 35th are plasma displays so I don't assume there will be any issues once the HV rebuild kit arrives to rebuild the HV secton on the power supply and get the displays up and going. I'll confirm if this is a 100% good working swap in a few days once that's all completed. On to ordering a new transformer.