LOTR resetting!

[Monkeyboypaul]

Hello,

I had an issue with LOTR over the weekend. A friend said it reset on him during a multiball - and for a game that's NEVER reset on me; i was a little surprised.

Then i watched it get into a 'restart loop' - where it couldn't really boot fully, with the playfield lights freezing up and the GI relay clicking every few seconds... so he moved on Iron Man instead

Checking PinballInfo and Pinside later, as you do, I found this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-lord-of-the-rings#post-1843356

It listed a few possible causes:

1) Power cord was loose and when I was stepping to do a switch test I was making the power cord come out of the wall just a bit. The power cord is fine.
2) Corrosion had snuck into the chip right under the batteries. This machine has NVRAM fitted, and i can't see any corrosion except for 2 or maybe 3 pins at CN1, the little ribbon cable connector at the bottom right.
3) The chip right under the batteries had become loose. They're not loose.
4) The switch in Balrog was making contact with one wire that has voltage to make the light work in Balrog so it was causing problems on restarting the game. It's possible this could be a problem, but has never happened til now.

Has anyone else ever had this reset issue before?

Those pins and the little CN1 cable probably need replacing anyway, and the Balrog may get taken out for some 'tidying up'.



Cheers.



(...ignoring my little red/blue + resistor audio hum hack)

 

[thejefu]

You ever figure this out Paul? Happening to me now. Can hit the reset button on the board and it boots fine. Only happens rarely, but it's annoying. F22 blows once in a blue moon.

 

[Judderman]

Don't think so (not completely, anyway) - I bought the one that @Monkeyboypaul sold to @thejefu and it went through a phase of doing this (was especially noticeable when I took it to pinfest), but not happened for a long time. If there's any further info, I'd be glad to hear it for future reference.

 

[thejefu]

Don't think so (not completely, anyway) - I bought the one that @Monkeyboypaul sold to @thejefu and it went through a phase of doing this (was especially noticeable when I took it to pinfest), but not happened for a long time. If there's any further info, I'd be glad to hear it for future reference.

It's a curse. Went all the way to Dorchester to rescue another one and it's doing the same bloody thing.

 

[thejefu]

It's a short on J13. Disconnected it and all's well. Now I just get to find which one

 

[Monkeyboypaul]

Sorry, didn't ever find the cause, so rare and intermittent. But from memory, I think I did clean/neutralise that corrosion in the picture, and it never happened to me again up until the time I ended up selling it. It was over 10 yrs ago though... (time flies!)

 

[thejefu]

I do have corrosion on 2 of the topmost adjacent pin sockets of the eprom mount under the former battery area, but it's hardly noticeable and there's good connectivity, no corrosion on the eprom legs itself so I doubt it's that.

I popped the J13 cable out and thought I'd isolated it, but it happened again today - although F22 didn't blow this time. Looks like J13 is blowing F22 (presumably from a short) for entirely different reasons.

I pulled the CPU and checked continuity on practically everything relevant and everything looks goods. Boards are all spotless OG.

Was having the problem consistently without pressing the reset button, now it's gone away again. I've a sneaking suspicion it's one of the ribbon cables.

 

[thejefu]

Further investigation.

So the machine won't boot with J13 connected *some* of the time. Some of the time it's blowing F22.

If I disconnect it, it boots everytime. If I reconnect it post boot, no problem until I power it off, then it fails to boot (and F22 does or doesn't blow).

Am I right in thinking this rules out a short in the wiring or a faulty transistor because it'd blow immediately upon reconnect? I'm now investigating what can cause the machine to fail to boot but what it can tolerate once booted.