New owner of an IGT I-Game with Questions

[ItsaSlotMachine]

Hello everyone, I have an IGT I-Game and I am wondering if there is a green Varta Battery that I need to remove like the s2000? Also, what else should I know to keep my machine working? Thank you

[sirius7]

Hello everyone, I have an IGT I-Game and I am wondering if there is a green Varta Battery that I need to remove like the s2000? Also, what else should I know to keep my machine working? Thank you

The answer is "maybe".  Power down the machine and pull out the MPU tray.  If there is a Green Varta Battery then you should remove it, along with one other component.  Here is a video showing the easiest way to do that:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U6oaT9XwuI


If there is no varta battery on the board then of course you don't need to remove anything.


No a lot of other maintenance to do other than occasionally dusting things out.  You'll also need to replace the coin battery on the MPU every 2-3 years -- this will necessitate reconfiguring your game so you'll need a key chip or a dev boot chip to do that if you don't have it already.

[sirius7]

I should also add, my advice above assumes you have an 044 board (the one that uses a single flash board for the game software rather than multiple chips/simms).  Also removing the battery requires removing the flash board and they are extremely sensitive to static electricity so make sure you are well grounded and handle the board on the edges only if possible.

[rickhunter]

Something else to consider.  If you are running international software (let's you select currency type), you need a board with the Varta battery on it, or you will get a Telltale battery low tilt that you can't bypass.  If you are using USA software, then the varta battery is not not needed.  On most machines I've seen there's no Varta battery installed on the cpu.

Also:

044 boards can come with and without the battery.  If they have a battery and you DON"T need to run international software, you can remove the varta and the component at U24.  If you ever need to run international software, then do not remove battery and U24.  But you may want to replace the battery so you know how old it is.

3902 boards do not typically come with varta batteries, 3903 boards do.  Again it is the international software issue.  Keep the battery if you need to run international software.

[ItsaSlotMachine]

Thank you so much for your responses. I am running USA software from the looks of it since the game screen shows English.

[rickhunter]

International software defaults to english, but the real tell is if you have the ability to change currency type in the keychip menus.

[ItsaSlotMachine]

Thank you and I will look in the ketchup menus

[Stayouttadabunker]

It'll be under Heinz... lol

[RB]

HJ Heinz Co
PO Box 57
Pittsburgh, PA

Was a Jeopardy question once. Stuck in my mind ever since.

[ItsaSlotMachine]

Looool I can’t stop laughing! I meant to say “Key-chip” menus


I am also wondering if a IGame shuts down or sends out a warning if the MPU gets too hot?

[sixcardmark]

Looool I can’t stop laughing! I meant to say “Key-chip” menus


I am also wondering if a IGame shuts down or sends out a warning if the MPU gets too hot?

Make sure the little MPU fan is working and clear of dirt/dust just to the right of the mpu tray.  You will have to pull the mpu tray out (with machine off) to see the fan.  They are hard to get to to replace, so I hope it is working.  You can turn on the machine for a few with the MPU tray out of machine to see if it is spinning, but turn it off before sliding tray back in.

[ItsaSlotMachine]

Thank you and I do hear it spinning I am still wondering if an IGame sends out an error message if the MPU goes over temp?

[rickhunter]

I don't believe it does, it would just reboot typically. But I've never seen mine doing it.  The cpu on these things doesn't even have a heat sink on it, it probably doesn't get hot enough to cause any issues.  As long as your fan is in good condition, you shouldn't have any heat issues.  The heat issues are more prevalent in the newer machines that drive the cpu harder, thus requiring some sort of thermal heat sink solution.

[ItsaSlotMachine]

Thank you and that’s good to know I suprised how hard some newer machines work the MPU

[rickhunter]

The game complexity and just overhead of the many more functions that are now included in the newer generation machines.  All newer platforms require active cooling to the cpu.  The cpu's that are not actively cooled are typically not fast enough to handle the workload.  I suppose if manufacturers move to ARM mobile processors that we might see a day when slots become more passively cooled in certain areas thus reducing power requirements and fan noise.  Time will tell...