I very rarely, if ever, change BR2. Biggest culprits are connectors J101, J102, J114 on the power driver board and J210 on the CPU. Reseat those, turn the game on, check the DC voltage at TP2 and and see if the problem goes away. If so, you'll want to change out the headers and connectors eventually. You want the DC voltage as close to 5VDC as possible. Typically 4.9V and below will be an issue.

Next is replacing the filter caps at C4 and C5. Those go out of spec and can't filter the +5V causing resets. If you change the caps at C4 and C5, check the voltage at TP2 and see if it's better.

If all that fails to get the DC voltage close to 5V, change the 5V regulator with one from EZSbc http://www.ezsbc.com/index.php/featured-products-list-home-page/psu5.html#.WV0mIITys-U it has a small potentiometer to slightly adjust the output by adding some resistance to ground.

Some people will suggest buying a kahn daughterboard, but those really aren't necessary. It's good in an emergency but you really should fix the board. I have about 20 WPC games with several out on location and none are running the daughterboard.

I've had great success with this temp fix. Have one in my TZ, and they have a horrible reputation of resets . Bet it fixes the issue , and if you are not comfortable with board work, its safer than your practicing soldering skills on them .

Great to have around too, even if you repair the board, just before a party is when most games develop the reset syndrome and you'll be happy you had it.

JP

I am having a similar issue with my Fish Tales and my Judge Dredd.

However, the output from BR2 is above 9 V, and AC voltage on the same circuit is very low (200-300 mV) on both games. So according to Pinwiki, both BR2 and C5 are good. However, I am only getting around ~4.8 V on the CPU board at the game ROM and at the U10 watchdog (again, on both games). I have also gone through the rest of the troubleshooting steps, leaving only the voltage regulator as the cause. But I am having a hard time believing that the regulator needs replacing on both machines.

I am interested to know if the caps do need replacing or if I am just not getting accurate readings on my meter. Let us know how it goes.

That 5v power supply always runs right at the brink of a reset anyway. It is over taxed, it was a poor design. Getting your cpu off of that supply and onto the 12v supply is the best thing you can do for that machine for this issue. I have a daughter board in all of my WPC 89 and S machines even the ones that had never had a reset since I have owned them. It will stop the resets period.

Uncomfortable with 4.85V?
If the game is operating fine then there is no reason for discomfort. An absolute rule for minimum voltage does not exist other than the 4.75V that the watchdog requires. I've used boards in my TZ, arguably the most power hungry machine ever, that are producing 4.8x bolts and he game plays fine.

I'd leave well enough alone, especially is you haven't repaired many boards before.

While I'm at it, wholesale changing of the big caps is not advised. The only caps that could ever contribute to a reset issue are C4 and C5. C2 often leaks and causes 12V issues.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/contact/
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info

Hi Chris,

I agree with all your points. However both games do reset during gameplay on rare occasions. Not often, but it happens. So there is something failing somewhere along the line. I am beginning to think C4 so I will see how much AC voltage it is putting out.

All voltages are the same across the power driver and CPU boards. I also suspect the regulator however it seems unlikely given that I have the same situation on two games.