gator is sold!

Just went out the door about 2 hours ago.  I find it odd I couldn't get rid of it for $200 just 3 months ago.  I list it now at the same price, I have people begging to buy it at that price.  Actually ended up getting a buyer that offered $250 for it, so with parts I at least broke even (possibly profited).  Odd story to that, I get an email from one guy, says he's emailing me in advance to make sure it's not sold yet, but the guy who's buying it can't email from work (blocked from craigslist).  Then I get an email from the buyer later on.. From Lincoln nebraska!  I'm like "woah man, that's a haul, you sure about this?".  Turns out he's friends with a pinball repair guy up in Racine, WI.. I guess he pays this guy to snatch up pinballs in the area, and 2-3 times a year he hauls them down in a trailer (he has family in NE).  Tells me this guy has only been in the hobby about 3 years, already has like 300 pinballs in his collection (that's a pin every 4 days!)  I not only don't fathom how you afford that, but where the hell do you store a collection like that?

Oh how it seems like just yesterday I bought it:
http://homebrewpinball.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-first-pinball-machine.html

Ho-hum, time to find a replacement :-)

space shuttle sound fixed

I haven't had sound since I bought it.  My first guess was to replace the soundboard.  At least by doing that, I got really faint sound (like quieter than ipod headphones).  I thought maybe it was the CPU, maybe a volume adjustment pot?  So I finally got around to buying a new power supply recently, knowing that it's probably not a bad idea to replace that since the one in there looked like a cap leaked (new modern replacement power supply is also more efficient and reliable).  Taking the old powerboard out, I saw that there was also some black pins on the back, more proof that this thing was just not stable.  Get the new board mounted in, turn it on, low and behold my machine is screaming loud.  I was so happy at that moment, I had actually got something else working, and sound was half of the game.  I had guests over, so I could only play a quick game.  After they left, I went back down and played another 3 games.

I think my next step is figuring out why I have one section of general illlumination out. From what I've read on message boards, it's either a popped fuse (doesn't look that way), or the ground wire to that section is shorted (or possibly cut), so I'm going to prop up the playfield to see if I can find something obvious.  Once I get that figured out, mechanically it should be 100% working.  Then I just need to do my playfield swap and repaint the outer cabinet to make it look all pretty.