Solenoids fire at random and the flash lamps never light.

Random coils firing and dead flashers on Tales from the Crypt

Cause: Some games were built with a 24 V AC relay at PPB K1 instead of the 24 V DC part. Its coil is only about 2 ohms (the DC relay is about 650 ohms), so it overheats and fails.

Checks

• Read the relay label: it should say 24v DC.
• Or measure the relay coil with the game off: about 650 ohms is right, about 2 ohms is the wrong relay.

Fix

• Fit the correct 24 V DC relay (service bulletin 52).

Systems

• Data East/Sega CPU Version 3b

Games

• Tales from the Crypt

Related tips

• Tales from the Crypt: random coils and dead flashers from a wrong K-1 relay
• All L or all R bank coils/flashers dead: PPB relay K1
• Balls keep launching as soon as a game starts
• Only flash lamps work when a game starts (L/R reversed games)
• Solid state flipper does not work: fuses and fuse clips
• Solid state flipper very weak: power side has failed
• Jurassic Park, Last Action Hero, Tales from the Crypt: random resets in play
• Jurassic Park, Last Action Hero, Tales from the Crypt: flipper dead from its EOS switch

Source: Repairing DataEast 1987 (Laser War) to Sega 1995 (Batman Forever), Part One, Clay Harrell (pinrepair.com)