Wonka acting Wonky

[AceHollywood]

Hi!  I have a problem and I hope you can help.  I have a transmissive reel Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory machine.  The problem began with the machine randomly restarting.  It most frequently occurred during the three golden ticket bonus round, but later became more frequent and random.  During play it would just restart – almost like you unplugged it and plugged it right back in.  It would go through the boot cycle and replay the game you were in at the time of the reboot.  This became more frequent and eventually the machine would not boot up.  It had power, beeped, cycled the bill validator motor and ticket printer, and then displayed a ‘No Signal’ message on the screen.

I began my trouble shooting.  I noticed that the MPU was not latched correctly to the backplane board, so I reseated those two and latched it correctly.  I also reseated the bios and jurisdiction chip as well as the OS and game card.  I suspected that the power supply may be the culprit, so I swapped it with a known working/tested unit from Patriot Gaming.

The machine will occasionally go through POST (I think that’s the right term) and then stop at the message, “[drm] GMBUS timed out, falling back to bit banging on pin 0 [i915 gmbus ssc].  This message appears about 11 times in super rapid succession and then the screen goes black.  I videotaped the boot up cycle and was able to grab a screen shot just before the monitor blacks out and I get a ‘No Signal’ message.  Photos attached.

The cabinet is a BB2, the MPU has a sticker that says CPU-NXT3.2 and the video card is P/N 102G020304 000001

What do you think my next step should be?

Thanks!

[rickhunter]

Replace the video card.  For whatever reason these cards gets stressed to bits when running any wonka theme.  Chocolate factory killed a card for me already.  When you get a replacement, try to get one that is newer than the "04" card you had, I have heard that the 04 cards were crap.

[Stayouttadabunker]

What is the "GMBUS"?..."Game Manager XXX" ?
Is that like a Game data communication system?

Anyways, it's "banging on pin 0"...whatever the hell that is? 

However, it does say on Line: [76.78483] that "Graphics performance may suffer"

[rickhunter]

GMBUS Graphics Management Bus. It's what the graphics subsystem uses to poll the attached displays for their capability through EDID (Extended Display Identification Data).

In his particular case the GMBUS issue is probably just a symptom of a general video card failure and not the underlying cause of what is happening. The reference to the i915 bus is the built-in graphics in the core i 5 processor, which is an indicator that the discrete graphics card that is installed is not working properly.

[Stayouttadabunker]

That's so cool...thanks for the explanation rick.
I think we all learned something new this morning. Be safe and be well.


I wonder if the cheap fan they put on top of that dedicated graphics card is causing the GPU to fail on the WW's and other graphic extensive games?
I do notice the temp sensors loaded up in the beginning when booting up a game.
I'm guessing that it's the sensors for the main CPU and cabinet though.

Looking at the temp sensor in the processor diagnostics, I see that it stays somewhat steady around 83 degrees in my environment.
I don't know if the WMS programmers threw in an alert to pop up should it go up above operating specs.

Nevertheless, a great explanation about the GMBUS
As I come from stepper reel beginnings, the S+ platform,  I'm somewhat late in the video game architecture.

[AceHollywood]

Rick - thanks for the advice and explanation!  I've ordered a new video card, hopefully I'll have it tomorrow.  Once installed, I'll report back.


Thanks again!

[rickhunter]

It's why they use mobile cpu and parts on all these machines, they generate less heat, and the cooling does not need to be so involved, since having top notch cpu performance is not necessary to run these slots games.  The first thing I do when I get a new machine is clean and re-apply thermal paste to the cpu and if possible the video card.

[AceHollywood]

Do you think I should apply thermal paste to the GPU?  It's brand new.

[rickhunter]

If it's brand new, it's probably ok.  I do it on machines that come off the casino floor that have been on 24x7 for who knows how long.  Most of the time, the paste is so dried up, it just flakes off.

[Stayouttadabunker]

I've seen cooling fan heat-sinks practically welded to the top of processor chips on video surveillance DVR's 

When the paste is THAT dry, the processor is usually way way beyond it's lifetime expectancy and
really should be in the Smithsonian Institution....

[AceHollywood]

Progress! But not success.  The new video card was installed.  The machine booted up and appeared to go through its normal process and then stopped on a blue screen giving various messages and directions.


What I believe to be to most relevant message is: NVRAM fault NVQueue: ValidateElement (/nvram/agk/gameHistory) element[15] checksum error.  I’ve attached a picture of the screen.
 
It told me to: Press Test Switch to Select Restart. Turn attendant Key to Perform.

Well, I did both of those things, but nothing happened.  I tried it with the door open, closed, turning the key while pressing the button, and pressing the button then turning the key.  I’ve attached a picture of the button I’m pressing…as well as it’s wiring.
 
At the bottom of the screen there appears to be three touch screen buttons – Prev Page, Next Page, and Show Boot Log.  They’re non-responsive.
 
What’s my next move?

[rickhunter]

NVRAM errors can only be fixed with a clear.  So clear the game and setup again.

[AceHollywood]

Ok, will do.  Just...um....I've never done that before and don't have the Clear card.  My understanding of the procedure is limited and is basically: 1) remove the OS card & game card, 2) insert appropriate RAM Clear card into the OS slot, 3) Turn on system, 4) Let it do it's thing, 5) power down, 6) remove Clear card and insert OS & game card, 7) power back up.  Can I leave the USB drive in there or does it need to come our during clear as well?


At that point, the game settings will have to be re-entered.

Two questions:  1) Where is the best place to get the Clear card for this machine - which one do I need (CPU-NXT3.2)? and
                        2) Is there anything I need to know about the settings for the game/machine once the NVRAM is cleared?


Thanks!

[AceHollywood]

Success!  It works!

Ultimately here’s what happened and what fixed it:

The game would intermittently and inexplicably restart itself.  Often times it would get caught in a loop and restart several times in a row.  Then it would go weeks without doing that.

After posting some pictures and info on the foums, @rickhunter recommended a new video card.  I replaced that and then got a NVRAM error.  That required a clear card (which I didn’t have) but thanks to Joe at JLB Games, I was able to secure one.

I cleared it and, voila – it works!

Game works beautifully now in all its Wonka glory.

Thanks for the advice, info, and support everyone!

[Stayouttadabunker]

Cool!   

Now you can marked this topic as "SOLVED"!!!


How much was the little card? lol

[yngjedi]

Can I ask how your got your Wonka topper working?  I am working on a Lord of the Rings Fellowship machine which I believe uses the same kind of controller board.. any pictures of your LED board and how it is hooked up would really help!  Thank you!!!

[AceHollywood]

Happy to post a pic - but it came that way.  I purchased the machine as a complete unit.  Shipped with the topper on - glad it didn't break!!!

[rickhunter]

The LED controllers are game specific so they all have different firmware.  So the leds may not act the way they should once connected.

[yngjedi]

That's fine... as long as I can see what the LED boards look like and how they are plugged in and where.... I should be able to get them working.