Support this Pinball Repair Website & PHoF. Please purchase the pinrepair.com/top

Scope.
This document is a repair guide for Williams System 11 pinball games made from 1986 (High Speed) to 1990 (Dr.Dude). Some Bally games from 1988 to 1990 are also included as Williams bought the Bally pinball name in 1988. Updates of this document are available for no cost at http://pinrepair.com/fix.htm if you have Internet access. This document is three parts (part one, part two, and part three). The basis of this document came from the WPC Repair guide. These two systems are very similar in design.

IMPORTANT: Before you Start!
IF YOU HAVE NO EXPERIENCE IN CIRCUIT BOARD REPAIR, YOU SHOULD NOT TRY AND FIX YOUR OWN PINBALL GAME! Before you start any pinball circuit board repair, review the document at http://pinrepair.com/begin, which goes over the basics of circuit board repair. Since these pinball repair documents have been available, repair facilities are reporting a dramatic increase in the number of ruined ("hacked") circuit boards sent in for repair. Most repair facilities will NOT repair your circuit board after it has been unsuccessfully repaired ("hacked").

If you aren't up to repairing pinball circuit boards yourself or need pinball parts or just want to buy a restored game, I recommend seeing the suggested parts & repair sources web page.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started:
1. Experience, Schematics
2. Necessary Tools
3. Parts to have On-Hand
4. Different System Generations
5. Game List
6. The Circuit Boards and How they Work

2. Before Turning the Game On:

1. Check the Coil Resistance
2. Check the Fuses
3. Burnt GI Connectors & Non-Working GI
4. Quick and Dirty Transistor & Power Supply Testing
5. Should I leave my Game Powered On?

3. When Things Don't Work:

1. Replacing Components
2. Locked-On & Non-Working Coils/Flashlamps (Checking Transistors/Coils)
3. Game Resets/Boot-Up Problems, and Immediate Blowing Fuses
4. Power-On Tones and Sound Diagnostics/Problems
5. CPU LED Codes and Diagnostics
6. Fixing a Dead or Semi-Dead CPU Board
7. CPU Test EPROMs
8. Problems with Flippers
9. Flash Lamp Problems
10. The Lamp Matrix
11. The Switch Matrix
12. Infrared Optic Switches (Drop Target switches)
13. Score Display Problems
14. "Factory Setting" or "Adjustment Error" (Battery Problems)
15. Sound Upgrades
16. Miscellaneous Oddities

4. Finishing Up:

1. Rebuilding Flippers

Bibliography and Credit Where Credit is Due.
Many of the ideas in this repair guide are not original. Lots of people contributed to this document, and I just want to say, "thanks!" Below are a list of the resources used in the development of this guide. Some resources/people may have been innocently left out. If this is the case, and an idea is here that was originally yours, please notify me and I will make sure to give you credit!

• Tom Cahill at Williams, who provided me with lots of telephone support!
• Jerry Clause, who provided tons of tips and tricks.
• Jonathan Deitch.
• Tom Callahan and his web site at www.repairconnection.com.
• Mr. Johnson and his web site at www.aros.net/~rayj/action/tech. Ray's postings and tips were most helpful.
• Duncan Brown. Duncan provided lots of tips and tricks.
• Tuukka Kalliokoski's web page at www.flipperit.net/tkalliok/flipperi/index_en.html.
• Rob Hayes, who's advice and proof reading were very appreciated.
• David Gersic, who also did proof reading and provided some tips.
• John Robertson and his posts & tips helped mucho grande.
• Pinball Liz Tech Reprints #1 to #6, August 1995 to August 1996, for their tips and tricks.

Why is this Document Available?
When I was first started fixing pinballs, I was amazed at the lack of any books. So when I fixed things I wrote them down. This is a cumulation of all those notes. The best book I found on WPC and System 11 was Norbert Snicer's Pinball Machines: How they Work & Troubleshooting, 1992. An excellent book which I highly recommend.