The four flashers in F14's backbox are supposed to light when you "lose" the game, correct? None of the four light on mine.

All of the flashers work in my game except Flasher #7 and #10. My machine is a regular production machine and I only have two flashers on the ramp, so #7 should do nothing as far as I know.

When running through the diagnostics for Flasher #10 the two backbox bulbs faintly flash and the two ramp bulbs (white and blue) faintly glow. Pulling one backbox bulb makes the other bulb brightly flash during test. Jumping the ground terminal to the drive terminal on the backbox resistor board causes all four bulbs to illuminate. I have already replaced any faulty dropping resistors throughout the game and inspected all of the warming resistors. I also replaced the header pins at 1J11, 12, and 19.

Anyone have a hunch as to what might be causing this? Thanks in advance!

Any suggestions as to which one? One of the lamp matrix transistors?

I did not realize the solenoid table listed the associated transistor. So it is Q14 I need to inspect/replace. Thank you Grumpy and Slochar!

Flasher #7 was pulled by Williams. I'd like to reinstall this in the future.

I replaced Q14 before I saw your post, sorry Grumpy.

Replaced Q14 with a TIP102. Lights now on full time. Then replaced Q10, ran test, lights flashed as they should although dim. I started a game to see if the lights lit at the end. Halfway through the game the lights locked on full brightness. Pulling 1J12 causes the lights to go out. Perhaps the faulty Q10 fried my new Q14? I also used a 2N4401 for Q10 and did NOT change any pinouts on either transistor.

The only hackery I can find on the board is this array resistor hack. I'm hoping to replace this with a new array resistor after (or if) I fix this flasher.

20220420_191114 (resized).jpg

Pin #8 on U17 is .19V

Assuming that pin #1 is the one closest to the white dot printed on the pcb, pin #9 is .008 volts

Replaced Q14 again. During test mode flasher #10 backbox flashers flash dimly. After game ends no backbox flashers light at all. Two are supposed to light when game ends, right?

I did notice one of the filaments had a very slight orange glow when the game was in attract mode. Could the warming resistors be on their way out?

Flashers light britely when tab on Q14 is grounded. For reasons unknown the bulbs started flickering then stayed lit during game play.

Board is acid free. Only obvious issue I see is that resistor hack I posted above.

Is it worth replacing U17 at this time? I need to order more TIP102s so I don't mind buying a few.

I cannot observe any corrosion on the MPU

...what are AND gates? Sorry I have my tech limitations!

Got it, thank you. I understood ICs, but AND gates were above my head.

I also tried googling first

I'm still waiting on parts to arrive, btw.

Can anyone confirm when the four backbox #89s are supposed to illuminate? On mine two of them fire during game play. I thought two or four of them were supposed to illuminate (or flash/flicker?) during the end scene.

I played another machine in an arcade today and they were always on, so now I'm unsure of how they're supposed to work.

Grumpy, I replaced SRC-6 and Q14. Bulbs on full time again. Attract mode normal. After idling a few minutes the game began acting very erratic, various solenoids firing rapidly and random in-game sounds going off. This lasted a second or two before I killed power.

Pulled board, no shorts or obvious damage.

My next course of action is to replace U17 and Q14 again. Probably Q10 for good measure since I bought spares. If you do not suggest this please let me know.

I can change sockets.

Do you believe that the sockets are experiencing intermittent connection issues - which caused the erratic behavior, and the flasher issue is something separate?

The erratic behavior only occurs when a good Q14 is installed, it seems. The previous owner was using this game as-is, and I played a crap-ton of games with Flasher #10 not working.

I'm thinking the erratic behavior is related to a good TIP102 installed at Q14 and not faulty sockets. Please keep in mind this is just my thoughts and I don't claim to be any sort of expert. If I'm full of it please let me know!

There is no visible alkaline damage to the board.

I'm thinking about replacing the AND gate at U17 because I have them on hand, testing, and seeing where that goes. Please let me know if this is reasonable or if I shouldn't waste my time.

Another stupid question time.

Can anyone confirm that this is an adequate replacement for U17?

https://www.newark.com/texas-instruments/sn74hc08n/ic-quad-2-input-and-74hc08-dip14/dp/29AH1484?CMP=e-email-sys-invoice-NA-Product

These four flashers flicker during the game at times, two of them flash at end of game when one defeats Yagov and the cheery music plays, and none of them light at end of game when you don't defeat Yagov and he taunts you. Does that sound correct?

So, I eventually had my board sent out for repair. Interestingly enough, during the diagnostic mode Flasher #10 fires very faintly. The white and blue playfield flashers glow faintly when the test is ongoing and the backbox flashers barely flash. The original setup had a single white playfield flasher and two backbox flashers on #10. I wonder if Flasher #10 isn't working correctly as it should have three bulbs on it, not four.

I'm going to restore Flasher #7 and the two omitted bulbs nonetheless.

I was referring to early F14s when I said "original setup"

Should these flashers flash at the end scene when one does not defeat Yagov?