Strange behavior - must be spring

I have an in-ground sprinkler system with 7 zones. It is at least 14 years old and is run by a RainBird RC-7A controller. Yesterday, I turned it on first time this year. Zone 1 heads popped up and sprayed as normal then shut down about a minute later. Timer is set 10 mins. I reset and tried again but nothing happened. I moved the controller to Zone 2 and tried again, no response. Leaving the system turned to Zone 2, I went to the back yard. A short time later my wife tells me the sprinklers had turned on and were running normal! But, by the time I got to the front yard, they too had prematurely shut off. Each time the Controller was on AUTO and each Zone was set 10-15 minutes. I have not been able to get any Zone in the system to work since then.

I have been trying to pinpoint what is causing the problem. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about sprinkler systems although I have changed out sprinkler heads. To me, it seems like it could be something to do with the old RC-7A controller. Or could it be a pump or valve that might be causing this? Could anyone suggest where I might focus my troubleshooting?

Bad contacts, maybe. This sort of controller can have that problem. It's fixable, but not what I would be recommending, on account of Rainbird discontinuing the clock.

Controllers are not expensive, fixing a faulty one is hardly worth the time and effort.

Thanks for getting back to me. Someone suggested to me today that it could be a fuse that is connected to the timer. That can be checked fairly easily. I agree it is not worth putting a lot time/effort into trying to fix it. But, I just want to determine that it is not something simple like..well...a fuse that is the problem. However, I would agree with you and I think I see a new digital controller in my near future. Thanks again.