Hello to all and welcome to my nightmare.

[Gorgar]

Just thought I'd toss a quick intro your way then it's off to lurk in the forum to see if I can find any obvious answers to the problems my poor Gorgar has been experiencing before I pester you with ?'s.

I have been a proud owner of Gorgar for almost twenty years and you'll probably have to bury me in it. I put him to sleep 7 years ago because he wasn't playing right so I shut him down and pulled his batteries figuring he would be in a cryogenic state until I could deal with him.

I got tired of seeing him sleeping all the time and tried to wake him up today. I figured he would of been in the same state he was when I shut him down but he won't even play at all now for some reason. Now I'm scared I won't be able to afford to deal with him after all and be forced to put him to sleep again.

Found you guys to be fellow Canadians and figured I had to become a member and see if I can restart his heart without breaking my wallet.

 

[Fifty]

Welcome! I'm sure we can help you out! No power at all?

 

[Gorgar]

Welcome! I'm sure we can help you out! No power at all?

Thanks for the welcome.

I didn't want to throw my dirty laundry all over the floor in the intro section, figured I'd throw the whole story out in the appropriate area. To answer your question, yes, he does seem to power up, but he just seems to be "on" and not in attract mode showing only the ID number in player one as 1496 1 and then the (last) 1 flickers back and forth from 1 to 3 and ends up as 1496 3.

He won't accept credits, the solenoids don't seem to reset. I tried the open coin door on off on but I don't think he is actually booting up. Then all of a sudden I will flip the power on and he will be acting like he's tallying up last ball and spit a ball out with barely audible sound no matter what my volume is at, I will hear the solenoids reset, flippers will work, the lights will flash, score is 874K, bonus lights are seen counting down score then all of a sudden he's back to just "on". This only happened twice, the rest of the time it's just been 1496 3.

I don't know what is up with him but I will start a thread somewhere and write a detailed pattern of events and see if it jingles any bells anywhere.

 

[sylvain]

Is there any corrosion on the posts of the battery holder posts?

Because 1496 is usually shown in the player 1 display upon power-up with no battery power detected
at the MPU with closed cash door, with the software revision number (1 or 3) as the last number.

With fresh batteries in with the correct orientation and with coin door opened, power-up the machine.
If 1496 comes-up, turn it off and quickly back on with the cash door still opened.
The game then should go into game attract mode.

Close the cash door, then power-off the machine.
Wait a few minutes then power-up and see if now it goes to game attract.

If still stuck at 1496 with 1 (or 3), there is an issue with either the batteries, battery holder,
memory switch protect inside the cashdoor, or memory circuit/protect on the MPU.

A few more additional details can be found here as one of the numerous Gorgar example on the web:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gorgar-with-a-relentless-1496-1-error

Maybe this post can be moved later to go along your future post in the other tech section, if still required.

Good luck !
- Sylvain.

 

[Gorgar]

Is there any corrosion on the posts of the battery holder posts?

Because 1496 is usually shown in the player 1 display upon power-up with no battery power detected
at the MPU with closed cash door, with the software revision number (1 or 3) as the last number.

With fresh batteries in with the correct orientation and with coin door opened, power-up the machine.
If 1496 comes-up, turn it off and quickly back on with the cash door still opened.
The game then should go into game attract mode.

Close the cash door, then power-off the machine.
Wait a few minutes then power-up and see if now it goes to game attract.

If still stuck at 1496 with 1 (or 3), there is an issue with either the batteries, battery holder,
memory switch protect inside the cashdoor, or memory circuit/protect on the MPU.

A few more additional details can be found here as one of the numerous Gorgar example on the web:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gorgar-with-a-relentless-1496-1-error

Maybe this post can be moved later to go along your future post in the other tech section, if still required.

Good luck !
- Sylvain.

Hi, thanks for the tips.

Batteries are good, installed correct and no corrosion anywhere on or around the battery holder. I keep getting strange non consistent reactions when doing the on off open close hoe down and then I noticed something on the driver board that may be screwing with Gorgar's brain?

I am off to post the story of symptoms I experienced before trying to wake him up the other day and pictures of the driver board which may just be the culprit. I don't know what it does exactly but I have a rough idea what it may link with and I know for sure it 100% needs fixing probably even before further trouble shooting of the present symptoms.

 

[sylvain]

Hi, thanks for the tips.

Batteries are good, installed correct and no corrosion anywhere on or around the battery holder. I keep getting strange non consistent reactions when doing the on off open close hoe down and then I noticed something on the driver board that may be screwing with Gorgar's brain?

I am off to post the story of symptoms I experienced before trying to wake him up the other day and pictures of the driver board which may just be the culprit. I don't know what it does exactly but I have a rough idea what it may link with and I know for sure it 100% needs fixing probably even before further trouble shooting of the present symptoms.

I just fixed a Firepower with similar symptoms - the battery holder appeared OK but one of its post did not make good contact with one of the battery, basically not providing backup power to the RAM chip. Validated with voltage measurements using a DMM, across each battery at the PC board solder joints; one of the battery measured negative voltage due to this. Luckily I was able to save the battery holder in this case (as opposed to replace it), by lightly sanding the bad battery post contact.

- Sylvain.