White Water - starting a game is a pain!!

[fsr88]

My WW started acting flakey when trying to start a game. I had it set to free play and occasionally it
would not start a game the first time I hit the start button. It started getting worse and worse and now
it's pretty tough to start a game, only after hitting the start button many time, sometimes holding the
start button down will work. I've checked continuity back to the CPU board and all of the connectos look
like there in good shape. I've played this game, personally almost 3K times with no problems, before this
started happing. I don't know if there is a difference but I'm playing on resetting credits and it seems to
work a little better but still is a pain to start.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Frank

[Mark Birsching]

Frank:

Whitewater is a great game! (I have one I bring to the show each year).

A couple of things to check - you said you checked the connections to the CPU - have you checked the actual start button to see if it's making contact when you press the button?  If you haven't, try running the switch test to make sure it is reliably making contact or use a DVM to check continuity with the button closed.  Also check the diode and the physical connections to the switch.

If that doesn't work, check for a flaky column or row transistor (though you would have problems with other switches if one of the transistors goes flaky).

I'm guessing the microswitch is going intermittantly bad and needs to be replaced or there is a bad connection at the switch.

Good luck!

Mark

[Ken Chaney]

The problem is almost certainly a worn switch.  The contacts wear and the switch gets more and more flaky over time.

Test in switch test.  If you press slowly and it flutters, or press in all the way and wiggle the terminals where the wires are attached, and it flutters, that's pretty much it.  Replace the switch (cheap) (not the button - expensive.)  If you don't have a replacement handy, bending the terminals on the switch will slightly alter the position of the contact inside, and it will work better for a while until you can get a replacement.

[fsr88]

Thanks for the feedback. The switch is actually new and I did check the switch for continuity. I actually checked
it all the way back to the wires plugged into the CPU board and no problem there. I have tried several other switches, just in case and all exhibit the same symptoms.  The game actually plays perfectly once it starts.

[toast]

Check continuity from the connector headers to the next step in the circuit, you'll probably want to look at the schematics but you can also just trace the traces.  On my Bride of Pinbot (early WPC), some of the switch traces were intermittent between the headers and the board... I ended up replacing the headers (and the connector from the cabinet, because they were poorly hacked), and I still had to make a jumper to fix a broken trace :/

It looks like the start button is in the switch matrix (column 1, row 3),  so I would expect to see similar problems in the same row or column, and I think there are enough useful switches on column 1 and switches on row 3 that you would notice something else.

Another thing to check with the continuity meter:

CPU board J206 and J207 should be the same circuit wise, so verify pin 1 to pin 1, etc.  The manual says the connector from the playfield will be on J207, and J206 will be not connected, but you can swap them.

Same for J208 and J209 (manual says use J209, but J208 _might_ work better if something is damaged).

All of these are below the battery holder, so if there is a problem you can find, you might want to check for acid damage.

Hope this helps (even if it wasn't timely)