help Bride of nbot will not start up

[Gordo]

Hi,

Mate has a Bride of Pinbot. Has`not used it in a while and now it will not boot up.

Screen says to press enter button, however nothing happens and it will not self test. Sometimes music starts and sometimes flippers work but nothing else.

Any ideas what I can test or check next

Driving me crazy.

Cheers

Gordo......

[MartyJ]

Just to clarify Gordo - if you hit the test buttons at the error report on startup nothing happens?

Does it go into gameplay at all?  Is it suffering from reboots?

First thing I would be checking for is obvious signs of damage from battery leakage on the CPU board.

[Gordo]

Hi Martyj
,

Nothing happens when I press test. Scores come up as zero like its ready to play but nothing happens. Looks like some battery damage but minimal. Back of board very clean.

Volume set on high as it goes ( if I press the tilt the music starts). Occasionally the head rotates and lady speaks.

Gordo

[Pintoxicated]

Do you have access to another CPU board to swap over and try in the machine and see what happens with a CPU in there that you know is good?  This would be my first option so you know whether the board is dead or alive and go from there.

Re-seat all the connectors maybe and see what happens as well. 

Check switch contacts for corrosion such as the start button to make sure it is actually working, if it has been sitting for a while the contacts may have corroded or similar.

[Gordo]

Hi Pintoxicated,

Yes, I've tried most of these things. I think the IC's have been damaged by battery leakage. I thought I would replace the ones directly under the batteries, however, I cannot buy them anywhere. I went to Jaycar and they cannot source them. I have sent e-mails to the US without any luck.

Is there anywhere in Australia to try?

Thanks for your interest.

Gordo.....

[johnwartjr]

Assuming all voltages are in spec on the driver board, you've likely got some flaky traces or ICs damaged by corrosion. Not uncommon to happen.

I really don't like fixing corrosion. It's a LOT of work, and if you're not super super careful how you clean things up, it's very easy to miss some and have it rear its ugly head later.

I tend to replace boards that have leakage damage. May cost a little more now, but may save a headache later.

Blindly replacing components really isn't the right thing to do, though. Get the logic probe out and start checking signals etc and try to find out which component is flaky and replace *that* component. Once the traces are compromised, it's that much easier to damage them and turn what might be a small problem into a much larger one.

One final bit of advise, if you're not comfortable with the repair, find someone who is.  As these games get older and the boards start to dry up and components get obsolete, it can be VERY expensive to repair a hacked up board.