Basic Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting, whether its your WiFi, your phone, or cable box troubleshooting usually begins with unplugging it and plugging it back in. Well in the case of pinball machines, that is usually not the case. Instead pinball machines prefer to focus on a self diagnostics test. On what I believe to be all or most pinball machines have a self test button located on the coin door. [I do not have an image but it will be updated with one.] This button sends the machine through different tests with every press, or sometimes with just one if it automatically runs through. In order to properly troubleshoot everything it is highly recommended to have your pinball machines manual. This is because your manual tells you what each self test is and what you should look for to see if something is broken. For example on my machine if I press the self test button 3 times it activates the solenoid driver test. If I didn't have the manual I would have been concerned when all the solenoids start making a crud ton of noise and sounding like something is going horribly wrong. So beside the self test button the number 1 thing for troubleshooting is the manual, as is gives all the details of your machine. Okay, so now you have gone through all the self test stages according to your manual, now what? Well if everything worked as the manual said it should, then Congrats it looks like your machine is in working condition in respect to minor details. But you encountered a solenoid that doesn't work, or a strip of lights that supposed to be on but isn't. For the solenoid try and find a tool to run a current through it to see if you can manually set it off. If it works when you apply the current that means that it is a problem in the back box. In order to fix this problem, as far as I know, is to replace all of the wafers connected to the solenoid board as it is difficult to pinpoint what wire specifically it is, also it is just overall better to just replace the wafers as they are more often than not the larges liability for breaking. As I am not experienced in this repair I highly suggest you google how to strip the wires and replace the pins[insert link here]. The same goes for your lights that are off, unless the lights are dead which should be checked first, you are going to have to replace the wafers and connections in the back box. After doing the replacement rerun the self test. If all went well everything should work good as new.

In the next blog post I will be detailing the cleaning of the machine and how to make sure all the connections are clean and working along with giving the cleaning supplies recommended. Feel free to give feedback and ask questions I am more than happy to help.