Williams Solved Flash (Williams, 1978) problem

[unit416]

I just had Flash repaired professionally from a state where the table didn't work at all. After the repair the table worked great except that the background sound wasn't working. After doing some research I found that this was an option that could be turned on or off by changing the settings with the door buttons. I was successful with turning on the background sounds and then decided to mess around with the different options. Since doing this the table will only play one ball per player though I have it at 3 balls. If I have 4 players the table will play one ball per player and goes into "game over". I've tried to correct this through the settings but I haven't had any luck. Any suggestions?

 

[spalmer]

I am not convinced that you have the number of balls set correctly. Make sure option # 31 is set to 3.

 

[unit416]

I am not convinced that you have the number of balls set correctly. Make sure option # 31 is set to 3.

I tried option 31 with 3 and 5 balls but nothing changed. Is there something I need to do to save the settings after changing them apart from turning the pin off and back on? I'm not clear on that.

 

[spalmer]

No that should save the settings. If you advance through all of the setting however it should exit audit mode and go back to normal. If all else fails, turn the machine off and remove the batteries from the MPU board in the backbox. It should have three AA batteries. Reinstall the batteries and that will restore everything back to factory default. When you first turn it on it will not boot but it will go directly to audit/adjust mode. Change the option back to turn on the background sound (it is turned off by default, change option 33 to 1 also change option 18 from 20 to 0, this will set the maximum number of credits to zero thus setting it for free play no coins needed). This should fix you up. I have looked all through the manual and can not see anything you could have changed that would cause your issue. You might want to replace the batteries while you have them out. If the batteries are week it could have corrupted the NVRAM settings and could cause strange behavior. Make sure you use a good alkaline battery to prevent leaking and MPU board damage. Let me know how this works out for you.

 

[unit416]

Thanks! I replaced the batteries and it is working. The only problem I still have is that I have the pin set for 5 balls but I'm only getting 3. I can live with the 3 but ideally I'd rather have 5. Either way, I really appreciate your help!

 

[Bamaro]

Remember that some of the options are different depending on which MPU system is in your game.

 

[unit416]

Remember that some of the options are different depending on which MPU system is in your game.

Ok, so even though I have it set to 5 balls (and getting 3) I may need to set it to a different number? I don't know anything about the MPU and just recently ventured into changing the settings by necessity to get background tones turned on.

 

[Bamaro]

Number of balls is function 31 on system4 MPUs and function 30 on system6 MPUs. If you have a system6 option 31 controls the background sound. Try setting function 30 to 5, turn machine off and back on and see if that fixes it.

There are pictures of the different Williams MPUs here:
http://pinball.flippers.info/system6repairpart1.asp

If you dont have a Flash manual, here is a link to a PDF. At the very end is a chart showing New (system6) and old (system4) functions:
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/871/Williams_1979_Flash_Manual.pdf

Hope this helps. I have a Flash and it is my favorite game.

 

[unit416]

Number of balls is function 31 on system4 MPUs and function 30 on system6 MPUs. If you have a system6 option 31 controls the background sound. Try setting function 30 to 5, turn machine off and back on and see if that fixes it.

There are pictures of the different Williams MPUs here:
http://pinball.flippers.info/system6repairpart1.asp

If you dont have a Flash manual, here is a link to a PDF. At the very end is a chart showing New (system6) and old (system4) functions:
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/871/Williams_1979_Flash_Manual.pdf

Hope this helps. I have a Flash and it is my favorite game.

I'll give it a try this evening. Looking at the photos I think I have a system 4 board. I've noticed that when I am in settings that the game identification number is 1486-2 while the manual lists the game identification number as 1486-1.

 

[Tomm1963]

This is and old thread but it certainly helped me out.

I have a Williams Flash System 6. The manual I have uses System 4 so the features are not correct. Thanks to this thread I have finally gotten the ball count changed.

But now I am stuck on what feature code to use to activate scoring awards. Manual says function 30 set to 01 to award extra ball. Obviously that's a conflict with the information above.

So what feature controls scoring awards?

Thanks, you guys have saved me headaches already.

 

[pinballdaveh]

Try setting function 30 to 00 for credit awards.

 

[Tomm1963]

Number of balls is function 30 on system6 MPUs.

I have 30 set to 04 and it is giving me the correct ball count.

 

[Tomm1963]

Setting 30 to 00 gave me infinite balls. Function 30 on my board controls ball count.

Thanks

 

[Tomm1963]

Found a manual supplement that addresses changed functions.