Pinball 2000 Repair

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1 Introduction

Pinball 2000 (P2K) was the answer to a failing pinball industry. This was the last system used in a pinball machine before Williams ceased production of pinball machines. The reasons for why Williams ceased production is highly debated and more information can be found here.

This system was a hybrid of conventional pinball with a video aspect. Using a 19" arcade monitor and special playfield glass that is coated to reflect the image, it created the illusion of holographic images on the playfield. This is known as the Pepper's Ghost effect. To be able to handle both the pinball and video aspects of the game, the designers of Pinball 2000 used a commercial off the shelf PC based on a unique graphics and CPU processor, the Cyrix MediaGX. There are two proprietary components, the PRISM card, which contains the roms and booted the PC without a hard disk, and an audio amp. Unfortunately, the software requires the Cyrix MediaGX CPU for its display. The MediaGX did not sell well, and the boards and chips are now hard to find.

Only two games were released using the P2K platform, with 2 or 3 in development when Williams ceased production.

2 Games

• Revenge From Mars
• Star Wars Episode 1
• Wizard Blocks *
• Playboy *

* Denotes a game that was never produced

3 Technical Info

Pinball 2000 was run using a commercial PC with the Cyrix Media GX CPU. The software depends on the integrated graphics in the Media GX CPU to operate. The PRISM card is a PCI card that carried the ROMs, and ran the basic boot process of the PC to run Pinball 2000. Along with the PRISM card, the PC contained a custom audio amp to drive the stereo speakers and subwoofer. Optional pieces of hardware available for the Pinball 2000 system would be the XXX ethernet card and a barcode reader. These worked to be able to access bookkeeping info over the internet and also host tournaments involving barcode based "login" to the system. Currently working on this, including adding pictures

4 Problems and Solutions

4.1 Entering and Viewing Bookkeeping and Diagnostics

++++Discuss how to enter bk and diags via the door, and how to view the "reversed" monitor.+++

4.2 Power Problems

Pinball 2000 PC inside the head

The AT power supply in the PC case is a common failure. If your power supply fails, you have 2 options: 1) find another AT power supply, or 2) Put an ATX power supply into your machine. The first option is becoming extremely hard to do because of how long AT power supplies haven't been used, it is hard to still find one. Option 2 involves cutting 2 wires out of the molex connector and connecting them to each other to force the motherboard to boot.

4.3 General PC issues

Inside Pinball 2000 PC

Trim foam to look like this

One of the issues with the PC is that the fan on the CPU heatsink is prone to failure. Once the fan stops working, the CPU overheats and over time will eventually fail. A big factor that causes the fan to fail is the foam piece that goes across the lid. Due to heat, the glue gives up and it sags right down on top of the fan. The best thing to do is to trim it back to just over the PRISM card, which is the foam's original purpose.

Another tip for prolonging your PC's life is to underclock the CPU., which will be detailed here once I pull up my info for it.

4.4 CMOS and Prism card batteries

Pinball 2000 PRISM Card

Pinball 2000 ROM Card

There are a couple coin style batteries used on the P2K computer. One on the motherboard and another between the prism cards. The motherboard battery is a standard CR2032, and the one in between the prism cards is a BR2325 coin style batteries. It would be a good idea to replace these if they have not been already. The prism card battery is sort of an odd size and good luck finding it at your local Radio Shack. If so be prepared to pay much more. These can be ordered online for a LOT less delivered.

4.5 Motherboard Issues

Symptom: Won't Boot
Leading Cause: Bad Motherboard Capacitors

Pinball 2000 Bulging Caps

Pinball 2000 Bad Cap Locations

Pinball 2000 machines use computer motherboards that have capacitors very prone to leakage that tend to puff up and then leak out. Once they puff up, it can cause erratic operation. Once the tops break, even a little, and they begin to leak, it will cause the machine not to boot. Fortunately, they can be replaced.

There are at least two kinds of caps in the Pinball 2000 motherboards in the 5 spots numbered in the picture. One has green caps (bad), and the other light blue (good). The green caps are 6.3v, 1000uf, 105c and made by TAYEH. These are the ones that you will usually find as bulged, popped, or leaking. If you see light blue 10v 1000uf, 105c caps from Xicon, you’re probably all right. I haven’t seen any of these bulged or leaking and your problem probably lies elsewhere.

If your Pin2k computer box will not boot when hooked to an external monitor with the prism card removed, look at the 5 numbered locations in the picture. They are all the same capacitor. If ANY are bulged or leaking replace ALL FIVE. Mouser carries suitable replacement caps. Check for part number 647-UHE0J102MPD. Or, if you want to use a 10v cap like the blue ones, go for it. Just make sure they’re 1000uf, and the same form factor.

When removing the existing caps and replacing them with the newer ones, be VERY CAREFUL. There are a ton of fine traces near the pads for these caps, and this is a multi-layer board. Take it slow and use a bit of new solder to loosen up the existing solder if necessary. Just stay patient, and do NOT overheat the solder pads. Remember, just one “oops” will make this basic repair much more painful or even impossible.

Once you get the caps out, note that the caps are marked with a “-“ and a stripe on the negative side. Just make sure you put the positive back on the positive side and the negative on the negative (the board is marked with a "+" where the positive lead goes).

Once all 5 are replaced, put the machine back together and power it up. If you had the Tayeh caps, chances are you’ve just rescued the motherboard in your pin2k machine for about an hour labor and $1.00 in parts.

4.6 Solenoid problems

Be sure connectors are on coil lugs tight. Vibration can loosen them and burn the lugs. The female spade connectors were used to allow for quick and easy replacement of solenoids. If a lug connection is loose or sloppy, it is best to just solder the wires directly to the coil lug.

If a connector slips off the flipper coils, it could potentially short to an adjacent flipper coil lug, and take out the drive transistor for the flipper coil. The short can occur, because the connections are unfortunately not insulated.

Connections between the playfield and cabinet's interconnect can also be problematic. This can be caused by the playfield wiring harness stressing the connections. If solenoids are not engaging, check these connections.

4.7 Lamp problems

Lamp Test Menu

With Pinball 2000 came some methods to help make operator maintenance easier. One of those features is a burnt out lamp detection. The only problem with this is that if you put LEDs in your machine, they draw too little current to be detected as good and will report as bad to your machine. LED bulbs will also strobe incorrectly for the feature lights after the machine is on for some time. Generally speaking, LED lighting is a bad fit for Pin2k machines, other than possibly the General Illumination.

4.8 Switch problems

The switches are a common failure on these machines. The sub-microswitches used throughout the playfield are susceptible to sporadic or total failure, like some WPC-95 games. Most switch related problems are the switch itself not the switch matrix. Replacement of the switches is the only resolution to make them reliable again. There are 2 common switches in a Pinball 2000 machine which are XXX and XXX.

Problem: Machine reports coin door open all the time
Solution: Check motherboard mount in Pin 2000 computer case

If your machine is reporting this, check the raised mounts under the motherboard in the Pin2k computer case.

Inside the Williams Pinball 2000 computer case, there are 6 raised, threaded metal lugs acting as mounts beneath the motherboard to secure it to the case. However, some of the replacement boards don't allow all the holes to line up. The top middle peg (closest to the power supply) can grounding out on the bottom of the motherboard where there was no hole to secure it and causing the machine to think the coin door was open.

To fix this, cut three rubber mini post grommets in half horizontally to make two small rubber doughnuts and use the six rubber pieces to create insulators for all six posts. Once it's insulated and re-secured to the mounts through the insulator/spacers you made, problem should be solved!

4.9 Monitor problems

Bad idea if charged

The monitor inside a Pinball 2000 machine is a normal low-resolution arcade monitor. Two different brand CGA monitors were put in Pinball 2000 machines, a Wells-Gardener 19K7302 or a Ducksan CGM-1901CW. At this age, most of these monitors could use adjusting, if not a capacitor kit. Working on the monitor or chassis is not much different than working on a video arcade game monitor & chassis. Re-capping the chassis, neck board and re-flowing major solder joints is a good start to bullet proof your machine. If you are removing the high voltage connection to the CRT tube DISCHARGE IT a couple times before grabbing it. You can do it with a long screw driver with the shank grounded. Slide it under the rubber insulating cup, and when contact is made, a pop or snap will be heard. Do this a couple times before touching it. The tube can sometimes have a residue charge, even if it hasn't been turned on in awhile. Always discharge it before touching it. One note on the Ducksan chassis. There is a fuse on the chassis that if blown, it will not discharge a couple big capacitors on the board. If for some reason this fuse is open or blown the capacitors will have a charge until you ground them or touch it. Look for a blown fuse on the chassis before prodding a lot of things.

If you see a blown fuse, discharge the big caps on the chassis. On the upside if you do discharge it with your body you will remember it longer than reading about it!

Another option for Pinball 2000 monitors include purchasing an LCD and mounting it place of the CRT. This option will require a signal converter to convert the low resolution signal to something a VGA computer monitor can handle.

4.10 Video Amplifier

Video Amp

Amp mounted in a Revenge from Mars

Adding a video amplifier to the standard CRT monitor drastically increases contrast and color. This is a fairly simple and relatively cheap add-on. The recommended video amp can be purchased from Ultimarc. Installation is basically feeding the serial cable output from the P2000 computer into the video amp. Wires will have to be attached to the amp's screw down terminals. These are the RGB (Red,Green,Blue) and Sync. wires. These run from the amp output (screw down terminals) to the CRT chassis.

With Wells Gardner, the sync wires can be joined together. On Ducksan chassis, they will be separated. If using the Ducksan chassis, there is a small board trace on the amp that must be cut. This is so the video sync is correct. If the sync is wrong, the symptom will be a rolling picture that can not be adjusted. If hooked up incorrectly, there shouldn't be any ill results, except there will not be a picture.

After the amp is installed and running, it's a good idea to turn the contrast down on your chassis or neck board adjustment pot. The amp will really kick it up a lot from its previous setting. It's not a bad idea to adjust the focus on the flyback too. Re-capping the chassis, neck board and re-flowing (solder) connections are highly recommended. With the amp installed, it's a night & day difference for image quality, color and contrast.

If the existing CRT tube is good, video amp is a nice add on. I am not a huge LCD display advocate for games that originally used CRT tube monitors. The black level of CRT tubes is difficult to replicate with LCD / LED panels. However, that is not to say modern LCD panels don't look good. Since the CRT display is going the way of the 8 track player, I want to keep mine running as long as I can!

4.11 Sound problems

The audio amp inside the PC box is pretty reliable, but if it does ever have problems, there are 2 strikes against it: 1) it is proprietary from Williams, and 2) it is all surface mount components. This makes service and replacement a little bit of a challenge.

4.12 Flipper problems

It should be noted that the E.O.S. switches are normally open.

5 Repair Logs

Did you do a repair? Log it here as a possible solution for others.