Check your manual and see witch swithes are activeted..

Check your cable for continuity. Could be a bad connector somewhere.

According to my 1979 Williams Solid State Flipper Maintenance Manual, functions 31-35 are unique game adjustments specific to the machine. 30 controls the number of balls (3 or 5), 29 the max number of tilts, etc.

Here's a manual that may help you if you don't already have it: ebay Item number: 370185675346

Grab the manual off ipdb (link in other post). We'll help all we can but it's not easy troubleshooting via forum but we try. Is the ball being sensed in the trough by the switch there ? No ball = no start. Benboogaard mentioned this in checking your switches.

Check where the ball rests in the machine, I guarantee the switch needs adjusted or re soldered. Another thing to check is the door switch, the game won't start if the switch thinks the door is open.

an easy way to check the door switch is as follows:

remove back glass
open to reveal PCBs
turn machine on
Make sure coin door is closed
On the CPU board look near the center ( there should be a # lit on the board) if it's "0" your processor booted correctly - "7" it has a system failure ( corrupted on boot up )
you need to pinpoint the problem.

If your system shows "0" continue to next steps
Look near right bottom edge of the cpu board, look for sw2 and press it
if the coin door switch is working "5" should appear on the cpu board ( 5 means the solenoid test cant test due to door being closed ) = your door switch is good

If the door switch is good

- check the trough switch where the ball rests
move the switch w/your finger while pressing start - did the game fire up?
if not check the solder connections on the switch - did this work?
if no - Get out your DMM and make sure you have power to it and the switch is good.

Hope this helps!!!!
GL

I'm having the exact same problem with the same machine posted here:

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-williams-1985-system-9-game-will-not-start

The ball trough switches seem to be OK but I haven't checked the door switch. I'll go through the procedure posted above when I can get to my shop (snow!) and report back.

Post of the day by Muscle Cars Only, good stuff.

TXplayer or NSmith1002,

I'm curious???
Did either of you get the machine up and running? If so, please post the fix. If you both have identical issues, Might help with a quick fix in the future for someone or if one of you figured it out and the other hasn't It might help them.

If both of you had no luck, post up also and I'll take some detailed pics of components for you to focus on.

P.S. There's not a lot of documented info out there that's system 9 specific due to only a few machines utilizing it.

Well, I late reporting back, but my Sorcerer still won't start.

The LED on the CPU board indicates that the door switch is good and as detailed here:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sorcerer-williams-1985-system-9-game-will-not-start
ALL lights, switches and solenoids work OK in Test Mode. The machine's "attract mode" appears normal (i.e. lights flash in attention getting patterns). The start switch is GOOD as is it's diode. There is continuity on both wires from the start switch back to the CPU board. The switches in the ball trough are GOOD and are activated properly by the balls. The game itself will not start. Perhaps I should say the game's PROGRAM will not start. The ROM self tests indicate they are good (no errors) and I have carefully re-seated all socketed chips on the board.

I'm probably going to take this machine back to it's owner and say "sorry, I can't get it to work". This has been a big disappointment to me as I've been working on pinball machines for almost 20 years now and this is the first time I tried to do a repair outside of my job. It's also the first time I've encountered any problem like this one, Usually when everything works in the Test Mode, the game program itself will run.