Fast Flash on Bottom Candle, IGT S-Plus Haywire Slot

[ajenka]

Hi,  I have an S-Plus Haywire machine with a 10 Mz Moboard and a bill validator. I've had this for a couple of years, replaced the battery, a coin knife and reset the BV and I have a reset key for it.
Starting a month ago, when I turn the slot on it runs through its startup, the reels spin, the BV resets and turns, a 0 shows in the Coins Played and everything looks/sounds right, then all lights go out, the bottom candle light flashes fast and a 2 shows up in the Coins Played window, no other lights or buttons are lit and it stays like that no matter what I do.
I have done a flashlight optics test, test was good.  I ran an input test 13, test was good (fast 0/1 state change), all other input tests work.  When I lift the front door lock the game resets like it should and runs through startup when I close it.  My BV doesn't have an open door switch that I have been able to find, but I took that out to reset it also, no fix.  The game does not have a bottom coin or belly door.  I have removed the MoBoard and nothing looks obviously wrong, the chips are fully seated as is the board itself.
I do have a reset chip but I have never used it.
This one is driving me a little batty, I'm hoping someone will help.  Let me know if  you need pics or chip numbers or whatever.  Thanks!

[knagl]

For clarification, the MPU board is the board you've been removing -- the motherboard is the fixed backplane board in the bottom (or back, if a slant top) of the machine that the MPU board plugs into.

It's odd that it's seemingly powering down after the initial startup stuff that sounds normal.  Your description is good, but since this sounds a little odd are you able to take a short video and upload it to YouTube to show us what's happening?

Have you tried dropping a coin in?  It might be ready to go and is just waiting for credits to be inserted.  A fast flashing bottom candle light can just be indicating that a door had been opened and is now closed, and will stop flashing after the first paid game.

Finally, something to try, just below the coin comparator in the door is the coin-in optics.  On that board there is a very small white button.  With the door open, press that button to add a pseudo credit.  Does that work, and if so while keeping the door open does the spin button cause the reels to spin like a normal game?

[rickhunter]

Do you by any chance have another slot kit for it, or at least a different SS eprom?

[ajenka]

Thanks for the response, guys.  Here's a few pics, I'm working on the video.

[ajenka]

Sorry, I don't have any other parts, this is my only slot.

[ajenka]

The video is at

[rickhunter]

Wow, I've never seen an S+ that looks like that before.  Usually with the early S+ models with the credits on the side of the reel box, there was no validator, first time I've seen where the validator is to the left of the reel box.  Where did you get this machine?

[ajenka]

Craigslist, where else!  I'd been looking for one for years, I like the old ones and found this one 20 minutes away.  Everything worked except it wouldn't push any coins out.  I brought it home, took it apart and found a broken coin knife, 5 bucks and a week later it worked like a champ.  I've since replaced the battery and now this, but I've had it for a couple of years.  Gets a good workout at parties, and we like parties!

[ajenka]

I have tried putting coins in and playing a game, it doesn't work, the coins just drop into the hopper.
I tried the reset button on the coin comparator, it reset fine and the game played normally, both hitting the spin button and pulling the handle with the door open, close the door and I get the flashing light, the handle locks and no buttons work.

[knagl]

Okay, thanks for the video -- that really helps.   

The good news is that your machine is mostly working fine -- the behavior you described and showed in your video is perfectly normal.  Upon power-up, the machine does its maiden spin, and then does it again once you close the door.  The rapid candle flashing is indicating that the door had been open, and is now closed.  You can tell your door optics are working correctly by the machine reacting to the door being closed.  The "2" in the Coins Played display is indicating that the last paid game used 2 coins.  I would suspect that the light bulb for the "Insert Coin" blue section of glass next to the $0.25 denomination sticker is burnt out, as the machine should be ready to accept a coin once the door is closed.

You also indicated that using the pseudo coin button on the coin-in optics worked, and you were able to play a test game with the door open, good!

All that's really left now is getting the machine to acknowledge that you've inserted a coin.  You indicated that when you put a coin in that it goes to the hopper without giving you credit.  That means that the coin comparator is likely working correctly (otherwise the coin should be getting rejected to the tray), but that the coin-in optics aren't sensing that a coin has passed through.

Edited to add: Uh... looking at your pictures, there is no sample coin in the coin comparator.  You need to have a sample coin in there (it looks like you're using quarters, so a quarter) in order for the comparator to know what to accept and reject.  If you do indeed have a sample coin in there and just didn't for the picture, disregard this paragraph. /Edit

You'll want to do a test of the coin-in optics.  There is a test in the setup menu (similar to the door optics test) that will allow you to test the three A, B, and C coin-in optics.  If you can tell us what SP chip is in your machine, we can get you the PSR for it to help guide you through the process.  You'll want to use a popsicle stick or similar (a thin piece of cardboard will work) to block the optics as you test them to see if the "1" changes to a "0" when blocked, then back to "1" when the optic is not blocked.  I suspect one or more of your coin-in optics is stuck "on" ("1"), causing the machine to not know that a coin has been inserted.  You'll likely need a new optics board, but the first thing to do is test your old one to confirm it is malfunctioning.

Please let us know what SP chip you have.  You can determine that with the instructions found here.

As an aside, the Western Money Systems bill validators like the one in your machine are crap.  I don't know if the bill validator has ever worked for you, but if it doesn't work I wouldn't even attempt to try and fix it.

[ajenka]

Thanks to everybody for your help.

knagl, you were right, it was no coin in the comparator.  I had printed out the tech manual for the S+ and it showed how to put one in, I closed it up, dropped 2 coins in and it works fine.

You were also right about the bill validator, it cycles when I turn it on and even lights up, but it won't accept a bill.  It never feels like it seats correctly.

By the way, my chips are an SP 0873 Type 2/21 and an SS3732 Type 2, any other tips you have for this game would be greatly appreciated.  Such as, it was great to find out when I looked at the pictures on this site of the processor boards that the little blue wheel was a volume control, the game was always so loud in my game room, now its so much better!

Thanks again!