Electrical smoke and smell

[smileman83]

Hi all- partial noob here but will try and describe my issue and see where to go. I turned on my game king 19" with LCD. It began warming up. I had turned away and heard a small thump and turned around and the screen was blank. I smelled electrical smoke , unplugged, opened the cab and smelled more electrical burn smell. Looked around- didnt see anything obvious. Plugged back in and turned on to see if I could see any areas with the door open. Thought I saw smoke from behind the bill collection casing, but could have been dust around the light bulb. Still smells like smoke and there is a rumbling coming from a speaker. The screen comes on and I dont see anything burnt behind the LCD screen when pulled out

On this machine I see the lower speaker and of course the smaller speakers up above on the sides of the cab.

I am afraid to turn it back on, but want to try and troubleshoot. Any ideas and what to do next? I tried looking for wires that were burned but didnt see anything. Something could be shorting and coming through the speakers I guess. Have never had an issue with the machine so dont know where to turn.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Bruce

[Amechanic]

Has this machine been working, or has it been moved recently? Electrical fans will go bad.. I know some of these machine have small fans blowing on the MPU boards, and vent to the outside.. You could remove your monitor and main MPU board, then power the cabinet back on to check the fans.

[Ken]

Are you saying you have a picture on the LCD? .. and can you play the game?

[smileman83]

I did not let the game boot all the way because of the pop and smell. When I unplugged and turned back on I get the smell or electrical burn and what sounds like garble coming out of the speaker. The monitor does go to the startup screen. I guess i was asking before I completely ruin the game should I check something, or just turn it on with the cabinet door on and get past the startup screen to see if it runs. It has been running fine, but I turn it off during the week and on during weekends.

[bpracer]

I did not let the game boot all the way because of the pop and smell. When I unplugged and turned back on I get the smell or electrical burn and what sounds like garble coming out of the speaker. The monitor does go to the startup screen. I guess i was asking before I completely ruin the game should I check something, or just turn it on with the cabinet door on and get past the startup screen to see if it runs. It has been running fine, but I turn it off during the week and on during weekends.

Pull out the power supply and start with a visual inspection.

[Dirtguy]

Hi
 I had the same thing happen one time on a machine and it was a ballast that popped, smelled like something electrical. I looked all over then noticed light out,smelled the ballast & that was what it was.

[Amechanic]

Hi
 I had the same thing happen one time on a machine and it was a ballast that popped, smelled like something electrical. I looked all over then noticed light out,smelled the ballast & that was what it was.

Nice suggestion  ..

[smileman83]

Will start the look today. Will look at both lights top and bottom. The thing that worried me was the horrible sound when turning it back on. Trying to figure if its coming through the speakers or its a bad fan or what. Thanks for the early help- wil post what I find after looking.

[rickhunter]

Also have a look at the I/O cards.  I've had them smoke on me before.  You can just pull them out and smell them, that smoke smell lasts for a long time.

[smileman83]

Okay guys- status report.

Visually looked and didnt see anything obvious. Started game with door open to evaluate ballasts- okay there. and to see if I could see anything smoking directly- nothing. Before I had a horrible sound when turning game on, this time nothing. Game boots normal- plays normal but no sound. Turned game off. Pulled mainboard . Nothing obvious. Smelled burned from under top mounted daughter board. Pulled daughter board. Nothing too obvious, but on underside- bam- huge burned spot, damaged fuses etc. Looking at top again maybe acid leakage from battery as well. Have posted pics. Assume I need a new board, but not sure whats salvagable from old one- program, sound chip etc.

Thanks for guidance.

[rickhunter]

You just need a new mpu board.  All other things like software, etc should be good.  I'm surprised it even booted and played.  I also noticed these white "circles" all over the undersides.  I'm thinking this board was wet at some point or another?

[smileman83]

Thanks Rick- so school me a bit. The thing I am calling a mainboard is an MPU board correct? The smaller top mounted board- what is that called? and do I simply reinstall that on the replacement mpu board?

Second- the MPU board doesnt appear to have any software on it ( i.e Eproms), but the smaller board has a chip called 044 boot chip- is this the programming?

Is there a sound board or does the MPU board handle all of this?

Do you think the battery leaked and caused this or should I be looking for something elsewhere that blew the MPU board circuit?

Where is the best place to buy a new MPU board?

As for the circles anything is possible. The person I bought this from ( wont even mention) was so incompetent- this isnt even the original game I asked for but have come to like.

[rickhunter]

The MPU is the bigger board that was burned.  It is basically the brains of the machine.  Ram, cpu, nvram, etc are all on that board.  That should be the only part you need to replace.

The board with the eprom on it is called the flashboard on this particular platform. They are basically a flash memory chips with support circuitry on it.  The eprom is the boot rom, similar to a bios on a PC.  All the game programming is contained within the flash chips. The Eprom only has boot code on it and that chip will work on other flashboards.  To change the game, you change flashboards and move over your boot chip if the other flashboard did not come with one.  If you have superstars poker, you must likely have a boot 36.  That chip will work with any flashboard.

The sound circuitry is in the MPU board.

You should always remove that stupid green battery from your board.  It is really used to hold memory for casino back end stuff, not used at all in a home setting.  If you get another board with the large green battery (we call it the varta battery as it is the manufacturer of the battery used by IGT), there's a mod thread that explains how to remove it. You need to remove the battery and a couple of components, it is a 1 to 2 minute job even taking your time.

Superstars Poker is, in my opinion, the BEST flashboard available for the 044 platform.  A good variety of games, you can still see that same gameset used in casinos today in the AVP platform (which follows the 044 platform).

[smileman83]

Sounds good- I posted in the classifieds for a new board and will definitely remove the battery- I removed one on my S2000 Vision several years back due to leakage. There are some posted on Ebay but I thought the group my be a better direction

So you think the battery leak caused the problem? OR could something else have burned up the MPU?

Thanks for the help

[Badbaud]

The MPU is the bigger board that was burned.  It is basically the brains of the machine.  Ram, cpu, nvram, etc are all on that board.  That should be the only part you need to replace.

The board with the eprom on it is called the flashboard on this particular platform. They are basically a flash memory chips with support circuitry on it.  The eprom is the boot rom, similar to a bios on a PC.  All the game programming is contained within the flash chips. The Eprom only has boot code on it and that chip will work on other flashboards.  To change the game, you change flashboards and move over your boot chip if the other flashboard did not come with one.  If you have superstars poker, you must likely have a boot 36.  That chip will work with any flashboard.

The sound circuitry is in the MPU board.

You should always remove that stupid green battery from your board.  It is really used to hold memory for casino back end stuff, not used at all in a home setting.  If you get another board with the large green battery (we call it the varta battery as it is the manufacturer of the battery used by IGT), there's a mod thread that explains how to remove it. You need to remove the battery and a couple of components, it is a 1 to 2 minute job even taking your time.

Superstars Poker is, in my opinion, the BEST flashboard available for the 044 platform.  A good variety of games, you can still see that same gameset used in casinos today in the AVP platform (which follows the 044 platform).

Please provide a link to the battery removal mod.

[63mini]

Badbaud,


 I believe this is the one.


 http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=4092.0

[Badbaud]

Thank you.