Game King 3902 Won't boot in cabinet

[scottf11961]

Hi everyone.  Need some advice here. Picked up a Game King, and can't get it going. I took out the mpu, cleaned it up a bit..looked for burn marks, replaced the battery, and threw key 22 in it. It booted up to the clear screen, said yes to the 3 ..rebooted...and powered down. I put the base back in, and it goes to the rainbow confetti screen. I do have a known working lobster Larry cabinet, and tried the game king board there, and it worked fine. I put the board back in the original cabinet, and it goes right to the rainbow screen.  So, I figure I don't have an mpu or software issue since it did work in another cabinet.  Then whats my issue?  One thing I did notice was that my "insert tickets" lights on ON, ( right side of monitor ). Game king is not. If I remember correctly, I had that issue with my lobster Larry due to a bad I/O, But I don't think that would be a boot problem

Any advice is appreciated!

[Tilt]

My first thought is the power supply.  Check the output voltages or just swap the supplies and see what you get.

[scottf11961]

You called it. .and mad at myself for not knowing that. I had some S2000 power supplies laying around, and booted up first try. Wish I had more games for it. Mostly all poker.
As always,  thank you again!

[Tilt]

I've seen that one a time or two and now you'll remember it too  .  Glad you got it working 

[scottf11961]

I have one last question for you. What would cause the red color on the cards to fade away? It was working with no issues, then I went out for an hour and purposely left it on, when I came back, all the red cards were no longer red. I'll add a before and after picture,  and a link to a video for better understanding.  I pulled out the mpu and checked the pins, and all looked good there

https://youtu.be/IoN-CIxfcjc?si=4k4xvVv9yXCCjI5A

[scottf11961]

More pics

[Tilt]

CGF card.  You can try pulling it out and cleaning the contacts.  That sometimes helps, but a lot of times it's just bad. 

[sftechgeek]

What is the definition of CGF is it a programmable simm? What’s its function and where is that located?

[Tilt]

You having a similar problem?

[sftechgeek]

Nope, not at all. Just interested to know the components and where they reside. I have an enhanced 044 board but don’t know all the internal parts. But no issue here.

[Tilt]

Oh ok.  You can read about the 044 components here:

https://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=880.0

The CGF card I was referring to in the post here is a SIMM card used on the 3902 MPU for the color graphics files.  It's programmable with a special programmer and is located under the multimedia lite 2 (MML2) sound board.

[scottf11961]

So, I removed the card, cleaned the contacts, and put it back in. No change.  I have a spare 3902, and transferred everything on to it. All the color came back to normal. ...BUT the spare board won't let me set up TITO.  I've set up tito dozens of times, and I know I'm doing it right. Since it's coinless and doesn't have a bill validator..I need the tito. I put the original board back in, set up tito with no issues, and have no red color on the red poker cards. All other red works everywhere else. I'm stumped by this.

[scottf11961]

Just to update..I'm convinced the board was bad. Not only did I lose all the red color in the cards, after a few minutes I lost printer communication and touch screen communication.  My lobster Larry has the same board and tito works good. I took the board out of there and set it up in the game king with the tito, and it's working perfectly.  Good color and tito is working. The board that I can't get tito to work on ..I put in lobster Larry since Larry has a good mei in it. The original game king board is now in my large growing dead board stack.

 

[Stayouttadabunker]

There's white labels with the dates printed on them...how old are they? 
Are you killing them or buying machines with old dead MPU's?

[scottf11961]

I go to auctions or private sales and buy the dead machines that no one wants. Some of them have open door errors or netplex errors (usually s2000). Depending on machine, I usually pay $100-200. I get new boards (or refurbished) from Jim, and I have a perfectly working machine. I don't do it for profit.  It's a hobby. I have over 30 machines in my gameroom. I sell only if I need room for another that I like better then my least favorite.  My new one stays in the garage until my least favorite sells.

[Tilt]

Usually when you see distorted graphics and colors it's a CGF card, but not always as you've found out. 

The other one sounds like it has a comm issue. 

Luckily for you 3902 boards are plentiful and cheap, at least for now.

[Tbone_josh]

The door and glass look like there in great shape.  Nice machine!