Of course you've reseated connectors, checked your power supply, etc... Maybe do a short check on the 6118s. Do they show up at all in diagnostic mode?

Unfortunately unless you have a scope and can verify your getting a signal at the display input pin there is not much you can do AND it very well could be a bad display although when the glass goes it all goes.

XPin and Rottendog both make good LED replacement assemblies, and you could even go a nice red display on Bad Cats,

Start here:

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11#Display_problems

I assume when you say the second line of the display is out you mean the entire bottom half looks like this all the time:

http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=127&picno=32752

Honestly if you have nothing on the bottom display and the top display works correctly 100% (all segments/digits work in diagnostic test) then most likely it is a bad glass.

viperrwk

Hey Chris,

Just wanted to make sure you were familiar with this:

http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index3.htm#display

M

If the first line is working, your power supply should be good. You have a few options: 1) learn to troubleshoot and repair this yourself; 2) send the board out to be repaired; 3) Replace it with an LED powered display board.

I can't really comment on 1, you will have to decide if this is up your alley but to perform repairs correctly and with quality on these boards requires some practice and skill and you will need some specialized tools.

Now the choice between 2 and 3 comes down to aesthetics. Chances are the display glass is bad in your display. It could be one of the driver chips but even having that replaced by a repair shop will cost close to 1/2 the cost of getting an LED replacement display board. If it is the display glass, your repair will cost much closer to the entire cost of the LED display board. This is why it comes down to aesthetics. If you want to keep the "retro" look, have your existing board repaired or monitor the pinside and ebay for someone selling a working board. If you want reliability, save yourself some time and get the LED display. The drawback of this is they really don't look 100% the same as the original displays. The "unlit" segments on the display is more noticeable than unlit segments on the original display. However, they should function forever. If you go this route, you can sell your 1/2 working board to someone that wishes to keep the retro look and recoup some of the cost of the LED display. The other benefit of LED is some manufacturers let you choose other colors for the display (red, green, blue in addition to stock orange) for an additional charge.

LED options I found in a quick search (there may be more):

Rottendog ~$150 http://www.rottendog.us/DIS240.html around
Pinscore ~$200 http://www.pinscore.com/products/pinball-displays/18-ps-12232-p16
X-Pin ~$200 http://xpinpinball.com/products/displays/XP-WMS12232

Any burnt resistors?

IMHO, replacing the displays would be the smart move.

Then I would definitely make a FS post about the old displays. Two known bright working displays, plus the working board, are probably worth $50 to a fellow Pinsider. If making and posting a FS video sounds like a pain, feel free to link to my Bad Cats Youtube video in your FS post; a potential buyer will probably want to see the good displays in action.

M

When you say "the display" what exactly do you mean? The entire display or just part of one of the displays?

If you could post a picture, it could save you some possible frustration here.

Please keep in mind that this may not be a display issue. I have seen resistor arrays, bad resistors, and even PIA that controls the displays all be bad on the MPU creating this exact problem.

For what it's worth.... Given the age of the display if it was an original,,, it did it's job.

My DE Playboy and my F-14 both use that same display,,, and both failed in the last year due to outgassing of the display, both by losing the entire 'line' as you call it, and now have Rottendogs.

As an aside, I was able to take the good glass from one and the good glass from the other and make one good original spare.

ok, thank you for clarifying this. That likely means that the bottom display glass is bad. Those long type glass displays are expensive and tricky to replace if you never have done one...

If it's any consolation, you could take a pic of your half working one and probably get $75 for in on ebay to help pay for your new one.