Now 2 Dead Machines

[Danger53AZ]

I think I have killed 2 of my 3 slot machines.


The story... I had a BV stop (on the only working machine now) and thought I would swap it our with our triple diamond machine. The DV's were the same and had swapped out before while testing. The triple diamond machines goes dead!


I pull the main board and use the clear memory chip to reset the game. I get the beep but no other activity.


So here comes the stupid part. I take the main board out of my strike slot machine and swap over the reel chip and game chip thinking the main board may have died.
Still dead.


Then sick feeling and strike machine has same symptoms. Turn on, lights up but reels dont spin and no other activity... dead.


So the question is what did I do wrong with swapping around the game and reel chips?

[jay]

I don't want this to come off as insulting ... but are the chips pointing in the right direction ? The chips have a small hole or notch on one end. The socket also as a notch at one end. These need to match up.


Secondly I would pull the chips and make sure you didn't accidentally bend any legs underneath. I have done this, looks like the leg is nicely in the socket..... it happens.


Thirdly have you checked your fuses ?


Finally check the center molex on the built in main board - These have commonly burned spots - tell tale sign is the denomination light in the middle of the door is off and the reels are loose.


Did you try the board back in the known working machine ?

[Danger53AZ]

I don't want this to come off as insulting ... but are the chips pointing in the right direction ? The chips have a small hole or notch on one end. The socket also as a notch at one end. These need to match up. ** Yes all match up.Secondly I would pull the chips and make sure you didn't accidentally bend any legs underneath. I have done this, looks like the leg is nicely in the socket..... it happens. ** Pins are all good, double checked thisThirdly have you checked your fuses ? ** Yes they seem good.Finally check the center molex on the built in main board - These have commonly burned spots - tell tale sign is the denomination light in the middle of the door is off and the reels are loose. ** not sure what this is... the 25c is lit and the reels seem locked. (this is with the clear chip still in).

I am wondering if you can mess things up by moving the game & rell chip without resetting the main board some how.

[jay]

When you do a game change - aka moving the reel and game chip you get a 61 error displayed on the display.
Press and hold the white button in and you will get a 61-1 and a ding.
See Ricks Faqs on the bottom right of the NLG home page for a game change.


There is a CMOS chip on the mother board (the small built in board) and one on the MPU (the removable board).
These two chips need to be in sync - otherwise you are into the 61 space.
This is how the gaming regulators know that the machine has not been tampered with.




1. Machine A - MPU A (was working).
2. Machine B - MPU B (not working).
3. You took MPU B's chips and put on MPU A and put back into Machine B. Not working....
--- Did you try MPU B in Machine A ??
--- Did you put MPU A back in Machine A ??

[Danger53AZ]

So you can take the removable board with chips still installed and the game should still work? The reels will be wrong - but in theory you can quickly change them over too.


I stopped moving chips and boards when I had 2 machines not working until I understood more about what I was doing. It seemed easy enough to change things over with all the "game kits" for sale on the net.


I built many computers during the 90's in Australia (more than 500) so was not afraid of "playing" with the machines. But I hit snag very quickly!!

[jay]

That is correct you can change a 2coin 3 line game into a 3 coin 1 line game just by changing out the chips.
You of course want to change the reel strips and glass to match. I have collected over 60 game kits for my machines.
Any one works on any machine. The MPU boards are generic.


There are however two different kinds of boards - they look different so you should see the difference right away.
The standard 10mhz has a small wheel that controls the volume and sticks out of the board tray.


The 16mhz board doesn't have the wheel. Volume is poorly controlled through software.
The game/reel chips have to be faster to work on the board, and when your not playing the game you get a buzzing sound out of the speaker which do not make them ideal for home use.

[Danger53AZ]

So to have 2 machines die on the same night showing the same symptoms - this is very unusual.
All 4 eproms look fine (game and reel). Can they be corrupted?


Do I need to be looking elsewhere on the machine to see what has stopped them .


I have wild cherry working - so I should be able to take the strike MPU with chips in and put it in to fire it up? As a test!

[jay]

Do you have 3 machines or two ?


If you have 3 leave the working one alone and try both MPU boards on both machines and see what works.
If you get the 61 error in the display then that is progress.

[Danger53AZ]

Great news! got 1 machine running! Triple Diamond board with game and reel chips in the strike machine. Swapped the reels while at it. Seems to run fine.


The strike board will not work in either triple Diamond machine nor it's own. It wont run with the clear or game chip in.


The Triple Diamond machine has no light on the 25c part and wont run either MPU. I cant see anything that suggests burn parts - what should I be looking for that causes the light to die and machine to stop dead?


Thank you for your help so far - making lots of progress!

[jay]

Are the reels stiff ?


No denomination light and loose wheels are the symptom.
On the small built in board. There is a large moles connector in the Center.
This supplies power to the majority of the game parts.
Take a look at the molex, lift it off, put it back on.


Sometimes there is a burn mark on the plastic, sometimes it’s just the pins that have ark residue.
You can take a white eraser and/or the edge of a pen knife to clean up the pins for better contact.

[Danger53AZ]

Reels are loose and no denomination light.
I will look at the connectors in the morning see if there is burnt connection.

[knagl]

Please see this FAQ for more details on what Jay has been referring to: http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=28443.0

[Jim]

Reels not stiff , no denom lamp (provided the bulb is good)  means no power to the mpu, either the connection to the motherboard or one of  the top fuses is bad or its fuse cap. the bottom fuse is for the 120vac (fluorescent lamps on, fuse is good).  remove the coin tray, hopper,  now turn on the machine, reach in and wiggle that connector to the mother board, you will see when the reels will lock in place. if they do, then you have to refurbish the connector.

Jim

[Danger53AZ]

OK real progress tonight. Pulled the power loom out and swapped with one from the working machine. Still dead. Cleaned the terminals as best as I could see and then left the hoper out and gave the plug a wriggle while turned on.... and we got life!


So one machine working!


Then swapped the Triple Diamond MPU and reels into the strike machine and that came to life too!


2nd machine working! - Awesome.


However the strike MPU or chips are still a fail in any machine. I've not swapped them over to a different MPU - yet! I suspect 1 of the 3 parts will be dead!

[jay]

You could have a bad eprom
Swap the chips for your triple diamond set on the suspect MPU and put it in a Known working machine.

[Danger53AZ]

Swapped out the 2 eproms and the Strike came back to life. So looks like the MPU has died.
Looking at a 4th machine to rob some parts!


Found the wild cherry top glass - so it's worth getting a replacement MPU for it.

[jay]

I think BadBaud repairs boards - might be cheaper to send it to him than getting a whole new one.
I have 3 machines and 5 boards (with Trays).

[Danger53AZ]

Update: Had a chance to look over the problem MPU on Monday night and got the bright light and glasses out (at that age now LOL) and looked over the board for any cracked solder joints and got to thinking there are only a few removable eproms... What if I swapped them 1 by 1 with the working machine.


I found no signs of any bad joints or burn marks. So swap a chip was the idea.


I started with the longest on and bugga me if it has a bent leg in the middle! How on earth did I do that and when! And why?
I had obviously removed it and put it back and bent the leg.


So got it all straight again - very carefully and bam! the machine runs.
I now have all 3 back working with 2 things that have changed.


1. The TD machine cash out now flashes - did not before.
2. Strike has no music play on the spin - all other sounds work.
3. BV on wild cherry is having problems.
4. All 3 pull handles behave differently.


So thank you to all the help and advise.

[jay]

Most cash out lights are not wired to light or flash.
Check the wiring compared to your other slots.
Alternatively do you have credits on the machine ? The light should go off if they are paid out.
Do the other slots have credits - make sure like to like conditions ?


Reel music - you ran the clear. You need to reset this option. See the simplified setup XLS file in the download section. You could also post asking for the PSR document that matches your game chip for all specific game chip settings.


DBV If you ran the clear your going to need to run the set chip to reenable the bill validator. See ricks faqs for this. Otherwise describe the issue....


Handle - that’s mechanical. Start a new thread and describe the behaviour you want to fix.

[Danger53AZ]

So after looking around for a while - where might i find the "download" section?