he aint a thief at all, but color might be a bit darker than original

You’re thinking of MAD amusements. That guy is a thief who allegedly steals from our friends overseas.

Classic Arcades does good for the hobby. Only problem is that the repros can be hit or miss in terms of coloring, but if you’re like me, a slightly miscolored replacement is better than a broken and roached original.

Yessss that’s the guy I was thinking of

mmr61184 I have a parts WW machine, I will see what it looks likes and send you a PM, not mint for sure, but I don't think it is too bad. I also have my personal machine that I have new plastics for, but I don't know when it will make it into the queue for its update, I have too many more in front if it at this point.

I'll never purchase from him again. I got a speaker panel for my Funhouse project from him and was not too thrilled. I would describe it as a good enough quality print of a poor quality copy.

20230206_162129 (resized).jpg

Make me an offer....

Is that a new piece?

No, it is an original. I've kept the plastics and ramps from when I did a full restore on my WW.

Transported a whirlwind and when I got it set up the disks didn’t work after they were previously working. They spin freely I get code ID 00 574 LA1 does anyone know what it would be?

It’s probably the small connector up in the backbox that reaches to the top of one of the boards. Mine came a bit loose in transport too.

Yeah I unplugged it and plugged it back in maybe I’ll try messing with the wires. Wish I would have disconnected it before transporting it. Is there a way to look up the id 00 574 LA1? Trying to find that code.

"00 574 LA1" this is not a failure code but the regular screen when the machine is booting up or one enters the menu for settings
When machine fully boots that info screen should be gone

I'm 99% sure that is the rom version, not an error code for the disks. My machine works flawlessly and this is what it does on startup and on pressing the far left button in the coin door.

Edit to add, see the un-numbered second page as well as page 40 of the manual here. It looks like the blower motor and the disk spinner are on the same fuse. See if you can turn on the fan blower on top of the backbox in the menu. If you can't, it's related to the fuse and or the connection to the board in the backbox.

https://www.ipdb.org/files/2765/Williams_1990_Whirlwind_Operations_Manual_English_January_1990_with_schematics_OCR_searchable.pdf

574 is the Williams model number and LA1 is the game ROM version.

Yes "LA1" is the game rom version, 574 the "model" number for whirlwind-however not a failure code at all

Ok, so that doesn’t mean anything. Thanks for the video I’m not sure how to go to test mode I’ll tinker with it a little. All I know is the fan blower works just fine in game. The only thing is the three disks don’t work with the fan. I made sure it wasn’t set to off but one of the wires in the plug could be loose? I’ll have to do more work on this tomorrow or after the Super Bowl. BTW I’m a Noob this is my first pinball so don’t expect much from me! Lol

Download the manual from here; https://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=whirlwind&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#2765

Have a read, use the index and you should figure out the menu sequence, i find it hard, but i can get into most of my games.

It does mean you are on the old game code. L-3 is the latest.

Screenshot_20230213-010810 (resized).png

Does anyone know what the differences between LA1 and LA3 are?

Williams didn't keep changelogs for ROM revisions back in the System 11 days, so it's hard to tell what updates were made. From what I've come to understand, System 11 ROM revisions, on the whole, are very minor. They may contain coinage/pricing updates, or other little odds and ends. You won't see any changes to game rules or coding. Generally speaking, I'd just keep what you have in the game.

(Anecdotal) Example: I'm running prototype ROMs in my Taxi, and as far as I can tell, the game is completely indistinguishable from every other Taxi with the most recent ROMs installed. Never bothered upgrading because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That’s great to know and maybe look into probably not a big deal. I hear they will have a whirlwind 2.0 I know some people have it probably won’t get it but it looks cool.

I found it and tested it everything tested fine minus the three disks not spinning and spinner 41? Does anyone know what spinner 41 is? I don’t think that’s the disk not a big deal. I’ve looked at the wires and I can’t see any problems with them. I know I probably should do a continuity test to see if there’s a break in the wire but I may just hire someone to come over and fix it. It’s annoying not having the disks working as I makes it a lot easier. Lol

I will stick with the original bad ass game code. I don't need a DMD to enjoy this game. Happy with the way it is.

Anybody have a proper location mapping of the lightbulbs that go into the backbox behind the translite. Brother in law bought a beat up game and we aren’t even sure if the bulbs are right. Manual offers no help

455's are blinkers, there are no flashers.

Blink Bulb Locations.jpg

Thanks a lot

Tbe original code does have a few flaws with stealing locked balls during multi-player games.. other than that, not a whole lot I would change either! The 2.0 version does look pretty cool though! And this game definitely deserves the attention.. it's better than many dmd games already, the animations looked good in the early vid i seen! But not for everyone, our dollar stinks & i cant afford one dammit! Love whirlwind tho! Great game

Was a little nervous trying to get the new cloud stickers on the new cloud evenly but I'm happy with it.

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Wow, that's a big difference. Look how the plastic has yellowed.

Mine was so yellowed, I didn't even know it was supposed to be a cloud until I saw the new white ones.

Where did you get the new topper from? Mine isn’t as yellow as the one on the left but certainly not as white as the one on the right.

I ordered it from Marco but it looks like it's out of stock.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8374

Ah man you guys got me excited, thought you had found a goldmine. The broken plastic on my topper is getting annoying to look at

Direct from the source. https://www.starship-fantasy.com/ramps/Whirlwind-Topper

I'm getting that "momentary short" message on switch 59 (shooter lane). Didn't see anything. Any advice on this?

Well I love you, thank you

bad switch, bad solder or loose connection at the switch would be first check

Have you checked out Ryans Whirlwind topper repair page? It might help you get it pretty again
http://elephanteater.com/8088

Love this game. So happy to have it in my collection!

In the last month I have occasionally encountered a situation where the cellar eject plunger misdirects the ball to the other side of the cellar instead of back into play. A couple times it happened the game never found the ball even after it went into search mode.

I took everything apart, cleaned the metal (it really wasn’t that dirty), replaced the coil sleeve and adjusted the switches.

Having done that I have been able to get a consistent successful refire onto the playfield when it happens but it’s still happening about 1 time every 5-10 games.

What would cause this? The plunger didn’t look that bad but might it be worthwhile ordering a new one?

Does anyone have any recommendations for side blades? I have reached out to two individuals that would appear to be selling them, with very little luck.

I really like the stuff from Tilt. I'm on my second Whirlwind, and both have his blades in it. https://www.tiltgraphicsinc.com/whirlwind

Magnetic Apron looks great too.

I've got the apron and blades from tilt.

Has anyone seen mirror blades on a Whirlwind? How do they compare to these side blades?

I have them on mine. WW is unique with the lightning cloud. The blades need to be modified to fit.
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A switch row randomly stopped working on my Whirlwind. In the manual it says the transistor running it is Q48. I can’t seem to find that transistor on any of the boards.

Could anyone help?

CPU board.

I must be missing something. I can’t find Q48 anywhere on the list.

5B72CE2C-59DC-4E3F-A07C-28E1CCA4AEC0 (resized).png

I just found two broken/disconnected wires on the opto board for the upper drop target. Hopefully this is the cause of the issue. Could anyone confirm where these should go?

image (resized).jpg

It’s line 10 on that list, but if you had a bad transistor, an entire row or column would be out, not just one switch.

The wires go into the connector and meet up with the same wire color just like the wires that are not broken.

Wow not sure how I missed that, thanks. It is an entire column, but I just found two disconnected wires on one of the switches and am hoping this is the issue.

Before and after galvanisation

IMG_2149 (resized).JPEGIMG_2351 (resized).JPEG

Now I can start putting it all together again.