I'm helping out a guy that bought the Banzai Run that sold recently on Ebay. He used to play one in his formative years in a local pub and he's always wanted to own one himself but has never been able to find one for sale. His dad passed away recently and left him some money so he bid big on the Ebay one as he knew his dad would have loved him to use the cash for something like that. He drove a long way down south to pick it up, played it before he paid for it and of course, sod's law, he's got it back home and has issues.
He was not getting much help from the guy he bought it from ("It was fine when it left me") and got my name from Martin as being someone local who might be able to help out.
Popped down Monday and the issues that were presenting themselves were a switch error and "a loud banging when the machine was first switched on and after the end of some games". I fixed the switch error - was just a non activated switch. This also resolved the knocker firing up (loud banging) at switch on as this is apparently another way a system 11 game lets you know there's a switch issue - I did not know that! Knocker after the end of some games was diagnosed as him getting the match (if only all diagnostics were so easy
).
Anyways I came away Monday with a shopping list of a few spare parts to get for him with the intent of going back in a couple of weeks (Pinball Mania website is closed for orders at the minute and Pinball Heaven don't have everything I need) to do cosmetics.
Tuesday I get a message to say that the machine is randomly resetting (he did mention this to me on Monday but as it was working fine whilst I was there after I fixed the switch issue we both thought no more about it!).
Reading the pinball repair guides and they call out Aux Power board components as potential weak spots causing random resets. Guy says he doesn't mind spending a bit of money on the machine to get it 100% tip top working and I did not really want to spend hours and hours doing diagnostics and then board repairs so I got approval to buy a Rotten Dog Aux Power board to swap out with the old one. Took that down tonight and swapped out the old one but reset issues are still there. Spent an hour or so playing the game trying to ascertain if the resets could be attributed to one particular thing - flipper button presses, particular coils firing, the motor that drives the motorcycle up and down the vertical playfield running etc. but they are totally random.
I really feel for the guy as he has spent big bucks on the machine, he's waited years to get one and there's the sentimental connection to his dad so I said I will go back when the spare parts come in from Pinball Mania and spend more time trying to diagnose the reset issue.
Just wondering if anyone has had similar issues with a Banzai Run and can point me in the direction of a likely culprit where I can start before I go down the Williams System 11 pinball repair guide list of things that might cause resets?
As he's not that bothered about spending a bit of money on the machine, he just wants it right, I might also suggest he buys a replacement power board - thoughts?
Cheers
Andy
He was not getting much help from the guy he bought it from ("It was fine when it left me") and got my name from Martin as being someone local who might be able to help out.
Popped down Monday and the issues that were presenting themselves were a switch error and "a loud banging when the machine was first switched on and after the end of some games". I fixed the switch error - was just a non activated switch. This also resolved the knocker firing up (loud banging) at switch on as this is apparently another way a system 11 game lets you know there's a switch issue - I did not know that! Knocker after the end of some games was diagnosed as him getting the match (if only all diagnostics were so easy

Anyways I came away Monday with a shopping list of a few spare parts to get for him with the intent of going back in a couple of weeks (Pinball Mania website is closed for orders at the minute and Pinball Heaven don't have everything I need) to do cosmetics.
Tuesday I get a message to say that the machine is randomly resetting (he did mention this to me on Monday but as it was working fine whilst I was there after I fixed the switch issue we both thought no more about it!).
Reading the pinball repair guides and they call out Aux Power board components as potential weak spots causing random resets. Guy says he doesn't mind spending a bit of money on the machine to get it 100% tip top working and I did not really want to spend hours and hours doing diagnostics and then board repairs so I got approval to buy a Rotten Dog Aux Power board to swap out with the old one. Took that down tonight and swapped out the old one but reset issues are still there. Spent an hour or so playing the game trying to ascertain if the resets could be attributed to one particular thing - flipper button presses, particular coils firing, the motor that drives the motorcycle up and down the vertical playfield running etc. but they are totally random.
I really feel for the guy as he has spent big bucks on the machine, he's waited years to get one and there's the sentimental connection to his dad so I said I will go back when the spare parts come in from Pinball Mania and spend more time trying to diagnose the reset issue.
Just wondering if anyone has had similar issues with a Banzai Run and can point me in the direction of a likely culprit where I can start before I go down the Williams System 11 pinball repair guide list of things that might cause resets?
As he's not that bothered about spending a bit of money on the machine, he just wants it right, I might also suggest he buys a replacement power board - thoughts?
Cheers
Andy