Williams Fish Tales (Williams, 1992) pinball machine smells bad, first time started in years

[fishtales]

I just plugged in my Fish Tales pinball machine for the first time in about two years. After being on for about a minute I could smell the scent of melting or burning electronics. Not a very good smell so I unplugged it. I am not a dealer and have never dealt with Pinball machines before. What should I do?


On a side note. When I put the machine in storage two years ago I thought it was broken. All the lights would come on, but then it wouldn't do anything. When I plugged it in today there was some kind of factory reset process it went through and seemed to be ready to use. I bought it thinking I would need to have it repaired so I'm excited that it seems to be working now (just need a ball). Bonus number two was it had money inside. Never noticed all the quarters before.

 

[fishtales]

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[GreenLED]

First off, remove the backglass (carefully). There may be a lock on top of the backbox or somewhere. If you don't know where the key is, try inside the coin door. Lift the glass and it should come out. Then grab a flashlight and look around. The manual (available at ipdb.org) may have better details as some of these locations vary from game to game, depending on who made the game and when. Look for anything that looks like it 'sploded or burned. If you don't notice anything, you might try running through the tests, probably starting with a solenoid/coil test. If there wasn't something smoking in the board up top, I'd think the next likely suspect is a stuck, burning coil somewhere. Let us know what you find and we may be able to give more guidance.

This will also be a help:

http://www.pinrepair.com/wpc/index.htm