Game Plan: New Chips Will Arrive Today

[850mph]

I’m anxious to at least get the display LEDs to work, so I can confirm all boards are working and diagnose other potential problems with the help of the built in software….

I know the battery is dead…..

1) Any harm in swapping out SP and SS chips BEFORE I replace battery?
— I’d have to learn subtle PCB soldering techniques first

2) Should I swap chips ONE at a time or replace BOTH all at once with known functioning chips?
— it seems to be consensus I won’t get LEDs if ONE or BOTH chips are damaged

I guess what I’m most concerned about is:

If the main board is damaged somewhere outside of the SP and SS chip set, can I blow up the new chips simply by inserting them and firing-up the machine?

Maybe someone could comment on replacing chips Willy-Nilly?

Any other advice?

Thnx!

[Tilt]

1. No, no harm in replacing the chips before the battery. 

2. Personally I would just swap the reel PROM first since it was the one installed backwards. 

Yes, it's possible if something else is wrong on the board that it could damage the new chips.  Possible, but not probable.

Replace the battery and the reel PROM first.  Pay attention to the orientation and be careful not to bend pins while installing it.  Watch the battery polarity when installing it too.  Double check your work before installing the MPU back in the machine and turning it on.  It takes 20 - 30 seconds or so for the machine to boot to the point that it will turn the LED display on, so don't panic if you don't see them on when you turn the machine on. 

If the machine still doesn't show any signs of life, then replace the SP chip and try it again. 

[850mph]

THNX!

Here’s just a random observation after spending 5 or 6 hours going over forum threads on how to fix software problems on an S+ vs mechanical problems:

Looks like when game boards were cheap- $25 or so— people just kept a spare board around and routinely bought new inexpensive chip sets when game problems occurred….

It was simply cheaper to just swap out an inexpensive board or chip set vs trying to diagnose a problem within a particular chip or board.

I think those days might be gone.

It might be interesting if anyone has experience diagnosing chips and boards…??

I did NOT see any thread in the past forum archive which directly approached this subject.

I know it takes a strong heart (or simply punishment glutton) to try and fix PC boards.. It’s a dying art form….

But never the less.. just for kixx…

I’m gonna test the voltage drop on the new chip set vs the installed (broken) chip set to see if I can glean anything useful……

But this may be overkill, as chipsets are still cheap.

Just an observation….

[850mph]

But then again… as I think about it….

It’s still probably less expensive to just swap a full board — even at $150– if it saves three or four hours of diagnosis on the bench.

Time will come though when the boards will be as precious as gold.

Thats how they are in the pinball world, well maybe not gold, but certainly silver.

[Tilt]

There are a few people here that do component level troubleshooting/repair. 

Yes, it's a supply/demand thing.  There aren't any more boards being made so the supply side won't get any better.  Leaking batteries have destroyed many boards and continues to do so.  Many of those will be beyond economical repair, so the demand goes higher and the supply lower.  We all know what prices do when the demand is greater than the supply.  You can see it first hand with some of these slot machine parts.

[850mph]

Yeah.. I got too much time on my hands.

There must have been, literally, millions of S+ boards made considering number of casinos out there and years actively produced….

Any idea what the production run of various flavor boards was over the years?

[Tilt]

I have no idea.  The S+ machines were made from roughly 1988 or 1989 till around 1999, so about a decade of production.  They were very popular and IGT made a lot of them, but I don't know the number. 

[Badbaud]

Me and my trusty O-scope have been doing board level testing and repairs for over 20 years now.
To much battery damage results in replacing the board with a repaired and tested good one with no battery damage.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Without any SP or SS chips installed, this is all that should happen...>>>

The reels should be "stiff"or energized.
The fluorescent lights should turn on.
The denomination lamp will turn on.
The DBV will cycle up (The bill stacker will go thru one cycle).


With only an SS reel chip installed...>>>

The reels should be "stiff"or energized.
The fluorescent lighting will come on.
The denomination lamp will come on.
The DBV will cycle up (The bill stacker will go thru one cycle).
In other words ...same as above.

With only an SP chip installed...>>>

All of the above plus a [62-1] in the Winner Paid window of the reel glass display.
The bottom lamp on the candle will flash twice as fast as the top lamp.
You can enter and cycle thru the internal accounting, but the door optics will not work.

[850mph]

Thanks for GREAT list of start up scenarios!
Will put your list to good use as I move forward with my machines!