Bally Alpha S9000 Wild 7's

[tom1976]

Hey fellas, I have a bally alpha s9000 that has a monitor problem, it started 2 days ago when we had a power outage in our area for about 10 seconds. when power came back on, the machine booted up normally except for the black and white screen. I had it plugged into a surge protector and it stays on 24-7. I've had a problem similar to this once before so I plugged the mpu to a pc screen and it showed the game screen, so I went and plugged it back into the bally alpha monitor and the dang thang worked. So has anyone had a problem like this or know whats going on with it. Could it be a bad lcd screen or loose connection somewhere. the green led light is blinking behind the monitor. I've included a picture of what its doing. Thanks gentlemen for any info on this finicky thing.

[rickhunter]

So is it still happening or not?  If it happens after power up and then the machine has had a chance to "warm up" it is most likely caps in the A/D board inside the monitor that is causing the issue.  Recapping the A/D board on the monitor might fix it.

[tom1976]

Thanks, for responding, Rick. Yes, that's when it does it. the A/D board is that the little board that has the dvi-vga  connections on it or is it directly behind the LCD monitor. I'm pretty good with soldering iron and work on electronics and computers on occasion. Thanks again.

[rickhunter]

Yes, that would be the A/D board, where the VGA/DVI plugs are at.  I usually replace all the caps whenever the monitor acts funky like that.  You could also have a power supply issue, check the 5/12v power supply and look for bulging caps (although you would usually have other issues along with that if it was the main cabinet power supply, but it never hurts to check).

[tom1976]

Thanks, rick. i'm a look at her today. Thanks a bunch for the info. Tom

[tom1976]

Well, looks like i'll be hooking up a monitor to the mpu video outlet tomorrow, to see if I have a graphics on it.  I replaced a blowed cap on the a/d board and its still doing the same thing. Thanks for the  help or advise.

[rickhunter]

You should replace all of them. If you had a bulging one, chances are others are bad as well.

[tom1976]

hi rick. thanks. have replaced all the caps now and no joy. i'm about to start trouble-shooting some of the components. do not really see anything burnt. at least I know now that the video out is good at the motherboard (mpu). I also checked the video out at the top of the machine where it plugs into the A/D board at the monitor. so I know for a fact its in the A/D board like you said or either behind the monitor. I believe its a wells gardner 15" lcd. i'm gonna try to post a picture of it. thanks fella for the help so far.

[tom1976]

Does anyone know if one of those 15" point of sale monitors with touch screen like they use on cash registers work on a bally alpha s9000 with the small 15" monitor on top. I bought one off ebay really cheap and trying to get to get it going on my wild 7s machine, the monitor only shows the graphics for about a minute and also it shows touch screen error message before it shuts down. the p.o.s. monitor fits perfect in there but I think I might have wasted a few dollars. hope someone might have a few ideas. the p.o.s. monitor has vga input, dvi input, usb touch screen input and 9 pin serial touch screen input. thanks gentlemen for any help.

[rickhunter]

The touchscreen needs to be the one that bally uses for their monitors, which is a capacitative screen with a3M Microtouch controller with serial interface with the correct firmware.  Anything else will not work because there's no driver for it in the OS that bally provides.

[tom1976]

hi rick, my touch screen is still good, haven't got into it yet. is it possible to use the touch screen on top of the other monitor that I bought? the monitor fits perfect its just a matter of the touch screen that i'm getting the touch screen com error on. Thanks a bunch for the info.

[rickhunter]

You would have to move the touchscreen and the controller and associated harnesses.  Usually on the bally monitors, the touchscreen controller is powered by a wire that is attached to the power on the AD board (at least it is that way on the 20 inch monitors, I've never toyed around with the older 15 inch ones).  Inside the 15" monitor that doesn't work, you should be able to see where the touchscreen controller is and how it is powered up so you can power it from another source.  I believe it uses 5v to power the controller, but you should meter it just to make sure.

[tom1976]

Big Thanks, Rick. really appreciate the heads up. I was wondering about how I would power up the touch screen, because like you said there is like a tiny orange wire and white wire coming off the touch screen controller. I don't know if I'll try it or not. will have to see if I can find 5 volts somewhere on the other monitor. I guess I could run a mile of wire down through the machine and get 5 volts. i'm so up in the air on this thing right now. i'm probably gonna try to look around and see if I can just find the whole bally 15" monitor. Thanks a million for the help.

[tom1976]

got it going a few weeks ago, too lazy to post update. anyways wound up using the p.o.s. (point of sale) lcd monitor, a little mounting modifying, and  using my bally touch screen on top of the lcd screen. works perfect. total cost 27.00 Thanks for all the help.