Flash
Williams, 1979Today my Flash started randomly resetting mid game. It will play fine for a few minutes, then reset into attract mode. I've seen a few threads about hitting both flippers causing a reset but there doesn't seem to be anything specifically causing it. The last time it happened for example, the ball was just up in the pops. I assume I'm losing 5v for some reason...just time to rebuild the power supply?
That era Williams games were notorious for having crappy socket, and interconnect problems
Did you read Vid's guide?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-bulletproofing-williams-system-6
Quoted from zacaj:Check what the 5v is, if it's borderline low rebuild. Try wiggling different connectors, see if you can trigger a reset. Try just hitting one thing or another on the playfield a lot
Quoted from songofsixpence:That era Williams games were notorious for having crappy socket, and interconnect problems
Did you read Vid's guide?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-bulletproofing-williams-system-6
I have, I'd really like to understand what the issue I'm having is before I just shotgun the whole thing. It has been completely fine up to last night so I doubt everything just failed at once (although can't rule that out in pinball ha). Ideally I'd like to see if I can narrow down the issue to the root cause and go from there. His guide is what got me thinking about starting with the power supply rebuild and the related connectors that zacaj mentioned above. I'll poke around there and see what I can find and go from there.
Sounds like a voltage drop causing the game to reboot. Bad connectors would make the game freeze up, not go to attract. (At least in my experience)
I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment...
Do you ever, in those quiet moments... when you are at peace and all is calm and still... can you hear God whispering quietly into your ear...?
Grantopia... Grantopia... put fuses on your bridges...!
Not that I'm telling you what to do. Just when I think about how much my house, and property costs... Also I have a pretty good imagination, so if I start to think about just how unpleasant for me and/or my family to die in a house fire - all for the want of $5 worth of fuses - then I can express without reservation that following vid1900 's advice is an easy decision for me.
Having said that: Yes, C15 on your power supply board is likely old and dried out. A replacement in the 16v-25v & 12,000µ-15000µ range you can find for the 10-20 dollar range. If that doesn't work, maybe look at the fuse clips, and see if they are tarnished.
This concludes my advice. Good luck to you
-d
Quoted from TreyBo69:Sounds like a voltage drop causing the game to reboot. Bad connectors would make the game freeze up, not go to attract. (At least in my experience)
Quoted from jeffc:Reseat the 40 pin connector and see what happens.
Good to know. I'll try that and see if I can recreate the issue too.
Quoted from songofsixpence:I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment...
Do you ever, in those quiet moments... when you are at peace and all is calm and still... can you hear God whispering quietly into your ear...?Not that I'm telling you what to do. Just when I think about how much my house, and property costs... Also I have a pretty good imagination, so if I start to think about just how unpleasant for me and/or my family to die in a house fire - all for the want of $5 worth of fuses - then I can express without reservation that following vid1900 's advice is an easy decision for me.
Having said that: Yes, C15 on your power supply board is likely old and dried out. A replacement in the 16v-25v & 12,000µ-15000µ range you can find for the 10-20 dollar range. If that doesn't work, maybe look at the fuse clips, and see if they are tarnished.
This concludes my advice. Good luck to you
-d
Ha! Thanks. I do appreciate the advice, and I'm not ignoring it - keep it coming by all means. All I meant was I want to diagnose the problem at hand. I'm not opposed to going through the guide as well, but I'd like to understand this specific problem as well as look at preventative stuff.
Quoted from grantopia:His guide is what got me thinking about starting with the power supply rebuild and the related connectors that zacaj mentioned above.
This is your best bet.
When my Firepower and my Blackout started resetting, it was the power supply on both.
Quoted from zacaj:Try the regulator.
Sorry...not entirely sure what you mean.
Quoted from grantopia:Sorry...not entirely sure what you mean.
The part on the heat sink. X1 or Z1 I think.
https://www.ezsbc.com/index.php/psu5.html#.W1OklRkpBqQ is a good alternative. They get weak over time
Quoted from grantopia:I have, I'd really like to understand what the issue I'm having is before I just shotgun the whole thing. It has been completely fine up to last night so I doubt everything just failed at once (although can't rule that out in pinball ha). Ideally I'd like to see if I can narrow down the issue to the root cause and go from there. His guide is what got me thinking about starting with the power supply rebuild and the related connectors that zacaj mentioned above. I'll poke around there and see what I can find and go from there.
I have written some test ROMs from scratch that can be run in the game. Give them a try and see if they help you find the problem.
You can download them from here: http://pincoder.reversion.ca
There is also a thread on this site where you can leave some feedback: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-williams-system-6-in-game-test-roms
I Hope this helps 
Quoted from pincoder:I have written some test ROMs from scratch that can be run in the game. Give them a try and see if they help you find the problem.
You can download them from here: http://pincoder.reversion.ca
There is also a thread on this site where you can leave some feedback: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-williams-system-6-in-game-test-roms
I Hope this helps
Thanks! I realized I never closed the loop on this. I reflowed all header solder on the power supply and replaced the headers on the power supply and mpu that correlate to the 5v (sorry it's been a few days and I'm not home typing this so I forget which ones exactly) and the issue seems to have cleared up!
Quoted from grantopia:Thanks! I realized I never closed the loop on this. I reflowed all header solder on the power supply and replaced the headers on the power supply and mpu that correlate to the 5v (sorry it's been a few days and I'm not home typing this so I forget which ones exactly) and the issue seems to have cleared up!
Nice! Glad it's working again
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