@SuperSelena64 I got some grey hairs and a story about crystals

Working on a Gottlieb pinball from the very early 80's. Damn thing wouldn't boot up. So y'know usual stuff, logic probe out and check reset, find a pulse on clock, oh a few seconds after I probe the clock line it's starting.

Also if I TOUCH the clock crystal, it starts, and plays fine. Huh. Also this is old enough to have tilt and game over relays, a holdover from the electromechanical era, the tilt relay starts up energized and if you wiggle it back and forth a bit then the game starts.

Bit of fiddling and it turns out the clock line isn't pulsing when you turn the game on, but if you pay it any attention at all - touch anything, probe anything - then it starts.

So, schematics out, let's see how this can go wrong - and here's where I get a grey hair, yaknow the couple of wee caps that you're supposed to put in with the crystal, to provide enough noise to kick it off and start it going? Yeah they weren't in there, Gottlieb didn't bother

SO HOW COME IT EVER STARTED AT ALL, is the new question

Turns out the first instruction is to turn the coils off, and gottlieb were banking on that making enough of a racket to start the clock crystal going ㄟ(ツ)ㄏ