And then Mrmendit came along to give advice on how to fix Andy's shoddy restorations
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Very Irritating noise from my Getaway
- Thread starter AndyB53
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On that basis anyone who uses the English language to the full is also a suspect?? So let me get this right because I use English and use punctuation and question marks I am supposed to be someone else. Is that right?? Sorry to break you theory Sherlock but I am not this supposed "evil incarnate Andy" and only know him because he sold me a machine that I am delighted with. For all the interested parties My full name is Alan John Jensen I am 58 yrs old and was born in Sowerby Bridge (nr Halifax) I now live with my wife in Maidstone in Kent. I work for Euro-tunnel anyone want my Passport No: and blood group for f-cks sake GROW UP! And someone commented as to why I do not post often. Thius is why. You are like a load of old women! Rant over.
biglouieuk
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...the twist will be that "I'm Andy...and so is my wife..."
Anyhoo
I followed @myPinballs advice on cable pulling...
If I pull the end of the ribbon cable on the dot matrix board (see below pic with yellow highlight) the now infamous "irritating noise" goes away....plug back in, comes back.
I tried pulling the ribbon cable that goes to the colordmd, with the main ribbon cable still plugged in, it doesnt make the noise go away..
So I assume we can conclude we are now looking at the dot matrix board in some way?
Anyhoo
I followed @myPinballs advice on cable pulling...
If I pull the end of the ribbon cable on the dot matrix board (see below pic with yellow highlight) the now infamous "irritating noise" goes away....plug back in, comes back.
I tried pulling the ribbon cable that goes to the colordmd, with the main ribbon cable still plugged in, it doesnt make the noise go away..
So I assume we can conclude we are now looking at the dot matrix board in some way?
Nice to be back on the tech side of this saga!
So, as I said originally, the sound problem is to do with a data issue because the data system is shared across various systems and uses latches/bi directional buffers to transmit data at the required time to and from the cpu board. If 1 of these ics is slow/mis communicating/partially failed it can corrupt the bus and allow the wrong data to appear. This is why you get the sound appearing seemingly randomly
As you have now proved, the failing chip is on the dmd driver board. This isn’t too much of an issue as they are regularly available.
2 choices, get another board, which I have a few spares, or send to me to see if I can fix it.
Something else to try now to. Run the dmd test from the test menu, take a vid so we can see if anything is reported bad or looks odd. Ram pages etc . may be useful for fixing the dmd driver
If you watch the vid looks like the end of the r of “timer” is a different colour to the rest is that just a colour dmd issue or a problem with rendering? 
biglouieuk
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Yes I've noticed that too. I clicked into a shorter menu name to see if it made a difference to sound in the video. I didnt notice the sound on one without the yellowing...But it doesnt look right to me!If you watch the vid looks like the end of the r of “timer” is a different colour to the rest is that just a colour dmd issue or a problem with rendering?
biglouieuk
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biglouieuk
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Back of the dot matrix board..
Wow! That got hot.
****s sake Andy...
Toasty 
Electoral Roll doesn't appear to back up previous post. Also Eurotunnel isn't hyphenated.
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biglouieuk
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@myPinballs I've pulled dot matrix and power board. Think it best that you give them both the once over as discussed.
The sound board will be replaced by pinsound shortly regardless and the CPU board is pinled and new..
Looks kinda empty!
The sound board will be replaced by pinsound shortly regardless and the CPU board is pinled and new..
Looks kinda empty!
Well this has certainly been a rite of passage for you
Respect for just pulling out the power board like it’s nothing. I’ve got 3 pins and I’ve been putting off pulling out the power board for a long time on one of them, for a minor fault I know exists that annoys me, just because of the number of connectors etc.
Respect for just pulling out the power board like it’s nothing. I’ve got 3 pins and I’ve been putting off pulling out the power board for a long time on one of them, for a minor fault I know exists that annoys me, just because of the number of connectors etc.
Just label the connections dude, it's not as scary as it looks. The majority of them are keyed so they they can't be plugged in wrong but there are a few that have nearly caught me out a couple of times. Failing that take loads of pictures. Once you've done it once you'll be fine with itWell this has certainly been a rite of passage for you
Respect for just pulling out the power board like it’s nothing. I’ve got 3 pins and I’ve been putting off pulling out the power board for a long time on one of them, for a minor fault I know exists that annoys me, just because of the number of connectors etc.
I never bothered marking the connectors when I first started. 
I found that the cables, having been in place for so long, have a kind of 'memory' and they bounce back to where they should go mostly.
If in doubt however, mark them up and give it a go...
I found that the cables, having been in place for so long, have a kind of 'memory' and they bounce back to where they should go mostly.
If in doubt however, mark them up and give it a go...
The plugs will mostly have pinouts that mean they only fit in one place anyway BUT this is not true in all cases so yes, marking them will ensure they go back in the right place and any damage is avoided!I never bothered marking the connectors when I first started.
I found that the cables, having been in place for so long, have a kind of 'memory' and they bounce back to where they should go mostly.
If in doubt however, mark them up and give it a go...
Yep - this is the classic that caught me out in a moment of carelessness [emoji16]
J124 on WPC games - a warning
Just a word of advice .... if you have the driver board out of a WPC game, for example on a Fish Tales to sort out the GI header pins, be very careful when you reinstall it not to accidentally plug connector J124 into J132. Keyed alike (nice idea Williams !) ....fits a treat except J132 will...
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biglouieuk
Site Supporter
Well this has certainly been a rite of passage for you
That it has!
I'm looking forward to having it all straight, knowing it's playing as close as I can get it, to how it should.
In a way it’s good you are getting to grips with taking things apart as there is nothing worse with not having the confidence to do this although I can see you don’t lack this!
On the other hand if someone bought it thinking it was fully restored and should get trouble free use because they don't want the hassle and/or can’t fix things this would be pretty stressful as it’s a big purchase.
On the other hand if someone bought it thinking it was fully restored and should get trouble free use because they don't want the hassle and/or can’t fix things this would be pretty stressful as it’s a big purchase.
Yeah, exactly.
It's fortuitous in some ways that @biglouieuk has been hands on with this, to a point - I think some of the remedial work was a bit premature and added unnecessary cost, but he seems to have taken it in his stride.
That said, as you point out, the whole point of people buying restored pins - and paying a premium for it - is that they don't have to be doing any of this stuff, at least not for some time in a home environment. If he wasn't comfortable pulling boards, and didn't even know about this forum, how on earth would he get this stuff resolved?
biglouieuk
Site Supporter
If I wasn't a little bit handy with arcade bits and bobs, I wouldn't have bought off eBay, I'd have bought from a shop/retailer that had a warranty. THAT said, I wasn't expecting quite so much drama..
Having forums is obv incredibly helpful when learning, youtube is also useful...even if I am just watching board repair videos (I need to get out more!)
We will get Getaway firing on all cylinders again! Playfield has some damage..I wonder if there are any specialists in Essex/Kent/Sussex who people could recommend to touch up to prevent further damage. I'm not ready to strip a playfield down, I'll save that til the end of the year, so it would be best to have some sort of in-situ fix done if that is possible?
Image of damage below...And tbf to Andy, I saw this before I bought it and accepted the damage as Andy said it could be fixed easily. So lets do that!
biglouieuk
Site Supporter
HAHA...I only found the forum because I was googling 'irritating noise Getaway pinball machine'..trying to see if it had happened to other owners...and you know what?
.
.
.
"it had"
The most convenient coincidence
glad you're making progress on it mate, did you manage to get it playing for your festive get together?
Ah the old 'easy fix'.... so 'easy' that nobody has bothered. Hmmm. [emoji3]If I wasn't a little bit handy with arcade bits and bobs, I wouldn't have bought off eBay, I'd have bought from a shop/retailer that had a warranty. THAT said, I wasn't expecting quite so much drama..
Having forums is obv incredibly helpful when learning, youtube is also useful...even if I am just watching board repair videos (I need to get out more!)
We will get Getaway firing on all cylinders again! Playfield has some damage..I wonder if there are any specialists in Essex/Kent/Sussex who people could recommend to touch up to prevent further damage. I'm not ready to strip a playfield down, I'll save that til the end of the year, so it would be best to have some sort of in-situ fix done if that is possible?
Image of damage below...And tbf to Andy, I saw this before I bought it and accepted the damage as Andy said it could be fixed easily. So lets do that!
View attachment 99133
Fixing it properly so it doesn't look even worse does not fall in the 'easy' category in my opinion. The reason why a lot of owners don't attempt it.
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