Trying to find out why a pin would boot up but not start a game, checking coin door is closed, checking ball trough then realising it just needed credits...

Not buying that Apple stock back in 1980.

Had blowing GI fuse in a RCT and after pulling my hair out fuse after fuse checking and testing things I then realized that there was 2 more lamps on that fuse than I had thought, duh, and found a blob of solder from the bottom of a bulb in one of the lamp sockets that was shorting just enough to eventually blow the fuse.

Squeezing the Charmin.

Pulling the playfield too far back on a new Stern, expecting to feel a safety catch, and having it drop into the cabinet. Fortunately no damage other than some scrapes.

Trying to figure out why my machine would reset when I slammed the coin door. Then I learned about the slam tilt switch.

That just happened today.

Believing in JPop.

Ouch.

Well, if that matador had spent any time in prison, that shouldn't be a problem for him.

Not buying that HUO Spectrum for $600 10 years ago. I did buy the HUO Elektra sitting next to it though.

2nd... behind Jpop. Buying a pin from BarryWNJ.

Getting Married?

First time I bought a pin myself - a Stern Dracula.
Put the head on and didn't find the plug.. had forgotten to get it out of the cabinet

You really mean not buying AAPL when it was $2/ share back in 2003 (pre split so actually $14/share). It was actually twice as expensive back in 1980.

AAPL went from $20/share in 2000 down to almost $2/share in 2003, so you might have been a little nervous during that time period.

Spending hours trying to work out why my METLE sound was not working..
I had knocked the cutout switch at the headphone jack.

I bought 2 off him on ebay 3 summers ago. They were 100% as described. One (JD) did have a few dots off on the dmd. Called him. He said go buy a new one, send him receipt he will reimburse. He did exactly that. It cost $165. He did not even make me send the old dmd back to him...or even make me send photos to prove I was being truthful.

The total pin deal was $4k delivered to my Michigan door. He wrapped and packaged these pins perfectlyl i have heard dissapointments from others though like you perhaps. Makes me always wonder why his reviews are not more consistent?

Yes I did that the other day on my AC/DC. Pulled out the playfield towards me waiting for the click, only for one side to come off the rail and fall downward. Lots of swearing, sweating and panic as finally I got it back in. I've got a scratch in the red paint of the right hand side armour, but it could have been a lot worse. I'll be extra careful next time.

Leaving the stupid power cable inside the cabinet after securely bolting down a head on an early SS game.
I'm sure most have gone thru that famous FML moment

A few years back I was cleaning up a T2 and the bottle of millwax that I'd had for a few years fell and shattered spraying everywhere and leaving a noxious smell. I opened up some basement windows to air it out.

Late that night I went downstairs pretty exhausted and tried to close the window. It wouldn't close. I put pressure on it...on the glass. I put my hand through the plate glass window and had to drive myself to the ER, shifting with my left hand so I could keep the other elevated and wrapped. I was very lucky that I didn't kill myself.

Major lesson: don't do anything tired

Brought a machine home that I had lent out, set it up, maneuvered into position between other machines, powered it on, playfield lit but game was dead, no lights in backbox. Scratched head and poked around, nothing. Got frustrated and went to bed.

Woke up a few hours later realizing that I never connected cables to backbox.

I feel better now. Thanks!

I gotta tell you, O-din...I'm rooting for the bull.

Just reading this gave me that "Oh god dammit" feeling in my stomach.

bolting the game legs all together, bolting the head bolts in, standing there in admiration. now time to plug in, wait where is the plug? having to take the whole head off again!

Thinking that I had a problem with Revenge from Mars on first startup, because I did not give the computer a chance to boot up. I turned it on, nothing, turned it off and then proceeded to check everything.

pulling the plug for my display out to see if reseating would fix the flicker on my F-14 displays.

Not realizing that at some point the key in the plug was lost.

Plugging it back in wrong.

Turning the machine on.

Frying all my displays, killing them, and blowing my powers supply up as well.

Had to buy new LED displays

I take the heads off to moves games down into my basement. I moved Super Mario Bros down. Got it assembled, plugged connectors where they fit assuming each connector could only go into the correct place, turned the game on and blew some stuff up. Turns out connectors aren't unique or keyed on System 3... I then figured out that most of the connectors were labeled and if I had actually paid attention, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.

Pulled the playfield on my IM right off the support rails and dropped it into the cabinet while the game was on ...

Getting sucked into Pinside drama, rumors, and gossip from know it all egos.

yep. i was actually a developer of Macintosh software in 2001 ... most people were like "Apple is still a company?? why??" ... and then the iMac and iPod happened.

trading a very nice WCS for a JVL Vortex. Very dumb decision.

Predator.

Sucker #91 reporting for duty.

What, me nervous?

whatmenervous.jpg

Selling my apple stock in 1995

God there's so many pinball related things I've done wrong while shopping a machine its hard to pick. I almost always cause some sort of short in a GI string. Shorted lamps have burned up transistors on circuit boards. Dropped solder on a socket and shorted the string. Ugh. Backwards kicker switch wiring, little bits of hardware in empty lamp sockets burning when the machine is on, putting target decals on my machine, putting playfield glass on my tile kitchen floor to clean it and it exploding in my hands when it got dinged, paying 2100 for a dingy t2 when I was new to the hobby, and countless pointless drains while playing that were me just not paying attention for a second. Honestly don't regret any of these either. I almost always have to learn the hard way!

Really glad to hear he might be getting a bit more honest. The pins I bought off him were at least 10-12 years ago. I bought a Tommy where every, I mean EVERY socket was rusted from water exposure and the cabinet was water damaged as well. Several parts scarfed off the machine that he never replaced. Bought a Dr. Who from him that had the cab falling apart in the front.... He counted on not being willing to send the damn things back. Really glad to hear his reputation has been making him get a bit more honest.

His shipping was not a problem. Did a fine job there. He just wasn't honest with the condition and actual product as presented.

I did this too! Scared the crap out of me. I got lucky too and didn't have any damage.

Changing #44 bayonet bulbs with the power on, playfield up and high voltage engaged.

BUying a Pin and getting it all wrapped up, then going "oh crap, I forgot to take the balls out". But you're so hot and sweaty, and spent so much time at the seller already you go screw it.. then you hear the balls jingle all the way home, and all you can think about is a ball getting jammed somewhere, or one of the balls bending a switch in the trough.

Also my TAF kept on resetting. What I did:
- reseat connectors
- change connectors
- change BR2
- change C5
- change voltage regulator
- do the last resort mod on voltage regulator
- change flipper coils diodes (all 4)
with no results. I stopped playing it.
One day, I can't remember why, I pulled up the game rom, but it went with my bare hands without any effor whatsoever! In the end it was this loose chip which caused the resets... *facepalm*

One time also I replaced a whole lot of components on a JD driver board as all flashers weren't working anymore, in the end it was the connector on the coin door switch which was disconnected... sigh...

biggest mistake, I hate to use the word silly. Went to change a fuse with the machine on. Was using a small screw driver to lever it out of the holder. Dropped the screw driver and somehow shorted the high voltage to the data buss, and seriously damaged three boards in the process (driver, sound, DMD), took weeks to track down and fix all the damage.

Along the way was having a heck of time on the sound board. Just was not getting the right bongs. Took the board to test at a friends house since I did not have any other games with that vintage of sound board (wpc non-dcs), where we determined that the repair guide was wrong on the 'bong' behavior for the board with no ROMs in it (I think was the issue), and ultimately turned out I have fixed the board, but the ROMs were bad.

Got hit with live 70VDC off the SAME COIL TAB three times in one night.....was trying to troubleshoot an issue and the capacitors were not discharging after the machine was off and unplugged from the wall. After the third time I started grounding the tab to the side rail with a 2 foot long flathead screwdriver any time I worked on the game.

Calling a tech before checking the fuses. Ok, not bad when first learning...but then doing it again way after I knew better.

pinball wise i just recently cleaned, waxed, and replaced rubbers on my Aladdin's Castle

well long story short there quite a few star roll overs and i ended up waxing them with the playfield.
So after the shop it wouldn't work right here i had to clean all the star roll-overs with a toothbrush.

Don't worry I didn't use my toothbrush... my girlfriends is electric

I had a very dirty unshopped WMS IJ with every pf GI bulb out. I spent a couple of hours checking voltages, connectors, triacs, fuses etc....turned out that every pf GI bulb was burnt out Lesson learned: don't overlook the obvious problem first!

Pluggin in the 5v connetor to the 12V, that mistake will cost me around 3 to 4 hundred dollars. Damn

changing my last name when I first got married