Stern Meteor - miss connected J2 on Regulator/Solenoid Board. MACHINE DEAD.

[JRK1971]

Ok I was chasing the last fault in the Meteor - a target reset issue and managed to stuff up the machine...

Wondering if anybody has any advice on this one.

Machine was playing perfectly fine except for intermittantly dropping a few of the METEOR targets. I replaced U2 (CA3081), and then removed U2 - 74LS154 and put a socket in its place. Didn't have a new 74LS154  so just used the same (assuming I would get one today).

When I re-fitted the board, It was a little dark and I stuffed up I managed to connect the connector for J2 on the "Regulator/Solenoid Driver Board" such that pin 1 of the connector wasn't connected, pin2 of the connector was on pin1 for the board, pin3 for the connector was on pin 2 for the board etc etc (essentially 1 pin out of place). This blew the playfield fuse (but no others). I realised and reconnected correctly & replaced the fuse. Now the machine doesn't boot properly. The displays show garbled characters, machine does try and boot, and does chime/ light the led 7 times, then makes some crappy noise and the LED either stays hard on, or just goes out. I did chuck the CRO on it, and there APPEARS to be data on the address bus from a glance (haven't actually checked for correct lines yet)

Any advice?

I seem to have all the voltaged there, although the 5 volt rail is about 4.9volts (still in tolerance for TTL from my memory)

I've looekd over the pin outs for J2 and the Stern PDF doc I have is a little blury - it looks like the problem was probably caused by pin 8 on the connector (coin lockout) being connected to pin 7 on the PCB (ground) - Im guessing this shot 42V DC down the ground line before the fuse blew (Im not sure how well the ground works on this machine and therefore whether I fried stuff 

Im wondering if there is a way to test the MPU without taking it out - ie use the current power supply in the machine and go from there...

Man I've got to learn to move slower instead of rushing- major F up!

[The pinballist formally known as Dean Morgan]

If u have any spare 5101 ram chips replace these first.  I have seen numerous weird faults in my time from ram issues.  Do u have another machine u can swap ram with?

[JRK1971]

OK thanks for the tip - I'll have to order one in - is ther an aussie supplier or am I relying on Great Plains elec

B.T.W. " Im a Gottlieb Man - System 1 & 80 Rock"  You can't beat the System 1 machines - I love em!

[The pinballist formally known as Dean Morgan]

OK thanks for the tip - I'll have to order one in - is ther an aussie supplier or am I relying on Great Plains elec

B.T.W. " Im a Gottlieb Man - System 1 & 80 Rock"  You can't beat the System 1 machines - I love em!

Pm me your address and I will post u one

[Strangeways]

The ground on Pin 8 is common to the displays and the MPU. I'd say your 5101s could be faulty. Very susceptible to static and floating grounds.

[JRK1971]

Ok almost two months to the day since I fried her, I’ve got the Meteor working again!

Thought I’d post what was wrong in case somebody does the same.

I ended up replacing 2 x 5101 Static Ram, a 6800 CPU and 2 x 6821 PIA’s. Ironically the 6810 survived.
This problem (not booting up correctly with the 7th flash happening on the MPU LED and then going hard on – look at orig post for more info) was caused when I misconnected  J2 on the "Regulator/Solenoid Driver and sent 42V DC down the gnd line. I have now replaced the missing key in the connector so this mistake can’t happen again (I also went and checked all the other connectors for keys).

Thanks “The pinballist formally known as Dean Morgan” and “Strangeways” for the advice. This bloody problem had me tearing my hair out –I’d fix one bit only to find another problem.