TECH: STTNG (g'damn this game hates me)

[TheKorn]

I'm genuinely stumped on this one, figured I'd put it out there and see
if anyone has seen this before.

So last night I had some folks over to play pinball. After a few hours,
I notice my STTNG looking just... strange. The game is running, but
the attract mode lights are *frozen* in place. They're not overly
bright (so it's not as though I'm dealing with a shorted transistor),
but they're not changing.

So I kill the power. Turn it on a few minutes later and the lamps are
still frozen, but the game otherwise boots. Kill the power for the
night.

Come back to it today, at this point it's been off at least eight hours.
Flip the game on, it boots and looks normal except that the lamps are
still frozen. (A few lamps are on, but most of them are off, and there
is NO attract mode lamp cycling.) It *almost* looks like when you have
the driver board ribbon connector one pin off, except that no flashers
are stuck on.

*sigh*, guess I have a problem, right? So I throw it into test mode to
check the extent of what I have to fix. Run the game through solenoid
test -- no problems, everybody fires as they should. Run the game
through GI test -- insert 1 is completely out, but other than that
everything is again working as it should.

Then for giggles, I throw it into all lamp test and... the lamps work!
WTH?

So I step through the single lamp test, and now the lamps are working as
they should. I put it back in attract mode, and everything is hunky
dory -- the attract mode looks the same as it has all these years.

WHAT THE HELL!?? Anyone have any ideas? I kind of hate to go fishing
on a single incident but ... well I have league coming up (again) next
weekend and would rather feel more confident about the game.

(So in case you missed it, game appears to be fine at this point, no
lamp problems currently with exactly nothing done to fix the problem.)

Thanks!


--
TheKorn
This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com

[nwojedi]

in lamp test, only the lamps are getting power? So maybe when the whole
game is running, something is barely shorting some of the lamp power
over to another source? That's all I got.


--
nwojedi

* C a p t a i n N e o *
Pinball Playfield restoration service at:

_www.playfieldrestorations (\"http://www.captainneo.com\").com (\"http://www.captainneo.com\")__:D

[Silverball Amusement]

I wonder if it could be a flaky ribbon connector that may have somehow
corrected itself when you were testing the game. I've had enough
problems with these that I not only reseat them but clean them also.
Scott

[gbi...@gmail.com]

Dos that title have 'photo shoot' mode? Sounds like it might have
went into that mode. The only title I'm aware that has that mode is
Getaway, but there's got to be others.

Maybe the programmer's b-day was yesterday? LOL

If it was an isolated incident, I wouldn't worry about it. I'd be
sure to check your AC line voltage, though. That can cause some weird
things to happen. Really doesn't make sense that going into single
lamp test mode cured it. I'd have to agree about the ribbon cable
being the culprit.

-Gregg B.

[Lloyd Olson]

Your little bastards were confused. You gave them a kick start. Factory
reset can fix things like that too.

LTG :)

"TheKorn" <the...@thekorn.net> wrote in message
news:TheKorn...@rrgparchive.com...

[seymour.shabow]

Reseat ASIC, check all pins are tight.

[The Hammer]

I think you hit the nail on the head. If it stops working, reboot it. If
it still does not work, run a chkdsk. OK, this is a pin and not a Windows
PC, but the same still sort of applies. I think you cleared out some
garbage by doing what you did.

If it becomes chronic, then it is time to do more troubleshooting. You
might have a bad EPROM, RAM or voltage problem (low or ripple), flaky
connector, etc. But to have it happen once and 'fix' it the way you did
maybe, hopefully, just a one time thing.


in article TheKorn...@rrgparchive.com, TheKorn at the...@thekorn.net
wrote on 6/30/12 12:17 PM:

Find out about the beautiful Oregon South Coast at
VisitOregonSouthCoast.com

http://www.visitoregonsouthcoast.com/

Check out our live webcam at

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[Borygard]

'xactly. With older WPC games, weird issues like this are very likely
communication related and ribbon cables and the ASIC socket should be
suspect.

A good reseating, or even better a cleaning, of the ribbon cables and
ASIC is a good idea.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587

[Mike in P-Hill]

I love it when you go all techical on us and start quoting from the
manual! :)

MM

Lloyd Olson;1964702 Wrote:
> Your little bastards were confused. You gave them a kick start. Factory
>
> reset can fix things like that too.
>
> LTG :)

--
Mike in P-Hill

[TheKorn]

Silverball Amusement <silverbal...@gmail.com> wrote in news:c15e3d6a-94a7-
4c2f-87e7-d...@o4g2000yqk.googlegroups.com:

> I wonder if it could be a flaky ribbon connector that may have somehow
> corrected itself when you were testing the game. I've had enough
> problems with these that I not only reseat them but clean them also.

Yeah I'm a bit mystified by it myself. First thought would be a ribbon cable, but
those don't magically fix themselves without help.

I'll probably flip it on for a few hours (since my plans for tonight fell through...
natch) and see if it repeats the process.

--
Have a home video that's trapped on your camera? Want to share it on the web or on
DVD?

http://www.webwidevideo.com/

[TheKorn]

"gbi...@gmail.com" <gbi...@gmail.com> wrote in news:eae40eff-cc74-406b-b57b-
6645a0...@f9g2000pbd.googlegroups.com:

> Dos that title have 'photo shoot' mode?

Nope. That turns on all the inserts anyway. :)

[TheKorn]

Borygard <bory...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:9af96a08-ddb4-4cf9...@t20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com:

> A good reseating, or even better a cleaning, of the ribbon cables and
> ASIC is a good idea.

You want me to hit the outside of the ribbon cable with lemon pledge? :D

[The Hammer]

in article XnsA082C990D...@69.16.185.252, TheKorn at
The...@TheKorn.Net wrote on 6/30/12 5:48 PM:

> Borygard <bory...@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:9af96a08-ddb4-4cf9...@t20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com:
>
>> A good reseating, or even better a cleaning, of the ribbon cables and
>> ASIC is a good idea.
>
> You want me to hit the outside of the ribbon cable with lemon pledge? :D

I find that helps. But use the water based version as the oil based yellows
with time.

[Borygard]

But the oil based is so much better on salads!

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587

On Jun 30, 8:28 pm, The Hammer <LHNewsgr...@frontier.com> wrote:
> in article XnsA082C990DE4E6qqwwa...@69.16.185.252, TheKorn at
> TheK...@TheKorn.Net wrote on 6/30/12 5:48 PM:
>
> > Borygard <boryg...@gmail.com> wrote in

[Eric S]

Maybe a GI lighting string is shorting out to one of the lamps
intermittently?


"TheKorn" wrote in message news:TheKorn...@rrgparchive.com...

[Goonie]

Building off the ribbon cable problem/suggestion, could it be a flaky
solder point on one of those ribbon cable connectors?


--
Goonie

[TheKorn]

Goonie <akpi...@gmail.com> wrote in news:Goonie...@rrgparchive.com:

> Building off the ribbon cable problem/suggestion, could it be a flaky
> solder point on one of those ribbon cable connectors?

It could be. I didn't get a chance to run the game for a few hours to test my
theory and see if it bricks again. I'll try and get to it today.

Thanks all!

[schudel5]

"TheKorn" <The...@TheKorn.Net> wrote in message...

> It could be. I didn't get a chance to run the game for a few hours to
> test my
> theory and see if it bricks again. I'll try and get to it today.

Had this same issue with my TAFG. At a party I noticed all the insert
lights were frozen mid game. The sound, DMD and everything else was working
fine, just the controlled lamps were "stuck". I turned off the game, opened
the game an reseated the ribbon cables, turned the game back on and
everything was fine then. Haven't had the issue again, but it's only been 8
months since then.

--
Mike S.
Kalamazoo, MI
Gameroom: http://tinyurl.com/yxzavc

[freeman]

sounds like, it's a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey
problems.

[Mike S.]

On Jul 2, 1:22 pm, "schudel5" <schud...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "TheKorn" <TheK...@TheKorn.Net> wrote in message...

I used to have a similar problem on my WH20 where my controlled lamps
would "lock-on" mid game. I'd shut off the game and reset the ribbon
cables and it would work fine for a couple months but then happen
again. I finally ended up ordering a set of new ribbon cables from
GPE and the problem hasn't returned since (going on 2 years).

Mike

[NM]

Borygard;1964749 Wrote:
>
>
> A good reseating, or even better a cleaning, of the ribbon cables and
> ASIC is a good idea.
>
>

How exactly do you clean the connector ends of a ribbon cable & ASIC
connector points (and with what solution)?

TIA.


--
NM

Current: ACDC PREM, AFM, CFTBL, CV, HUO FGY, MB, NGG, HUO SM, SS, STTNG,
TAF, ToM, TRON LE, TSPP, TZ, WH2O, W?D, 1954 Gottlieb Stage Coach.

[Sean Casey]

Any plastic safe contact cleaner. Most electronic stores carry it.

Sean

On 7/2/2012 1:54 PM, NM wrote:
> Borygard;1964749 Wrote:
>>
>>
>> A good reseating, or even better a cleaning, of the ribbon cables and
>> ASIC is a good idea.
>>
>>
>
> How exactly do you clean the connector ends of a ribbon cable & ASIC
> connector points (and with what solution)?
>
> TIA.
>
>

--

Sean Casey
Easily Amused Pinball
www.eapinball.com
408/888-0805

[TheKorn]

"Mike S." <mgsi...@gmail.com> wrote in news:28d5c75c-cff9-4799-8a1d-
7a06c2...@q2g2000vbv.googlegroups.com:

> I used to have a similar problem on my WH20 where my controlled lamps
> would "lock-on" mid game. I'd shut off the game and reset the ribbon
> cables and it would work fine for a couple months but then happen
> again. I finally ended up ordering a set of new ribbon cables from
> GPE and the problem hasn't returned since (going on 2 years).

We'll see... I ran the game for five hours yesterday w/o issue. I'll have to keep
an eye on it.