IGT PE+ issues after storage

[DarrenF]

New user here.  New to NLG, but been messing around with coin-op stuff for a long time (rgvac, KLOV, etc.)

So I bought an IGT PE+ slant top like... 15 years ago.  It worked great.  Played it a lot.  Even got a royal once.

For reasons that aren't relevant, it got put into a storage unit (when it working just fine) for about 10 years.  Storage unit was here in Florida and not climate controlled. Let's say the humidity was not very kind to the machine...

So it's now out of storage and in my garage.  It shows some "signs of life" when I turn it on, but is far from working.  I never had to work on it back when, because it worked fine.  So now I'm trying to get started troubleshooting this thing.  (I'm not new to this general sort of work, I've got several pinball machines, arcade video games, and a jukebox, and all required various levels of repair... this is my only Vegas-style machine, though.)

I've managed to get most everything "open".  Main top is up, marquee box is open, and DB validator door is open, monitor is out (that's slick what IGT did, making it fully modular to just pull out after removing that locking tab), and coin comparator assembly out.
What I *can't* figure out is:

1) How to get the hopper assembly out.  I'm guessing that the front panel of the cabinet opens up, but damn if I can get the thing to move.  I see what appears to be a spring-loading locking bar on the right, but even when I push it down, the front panel doesn't budge.  Is the front panel supposed to open?  Is there a trick to it?  Is there any other way to remove the hopper assembly?

2) How to get the PCB assembly ("tray") out.  There's a fair amount of rust on the track at the bottom.  Even after scraping, chiseling, and even lightly hammering... that tray won't pull out.  There's no lock assembly in it (empty hole on the front).  Is it just supposed to pull straight toward the front of the cabinet?  Or is there some other trick, or release, or different direction to pull (up and out?)?  Anyone have any tips to removing a stuck PCB tray?

Thanks!
DarrenF

[DarrenF]

...and here are some pictures.  Everybody likes pictures, right?

[DarrenF]

And finally, here are photos of the current problems.One shows the rusty bottom of the tray that won't budge.The other shows the inside of the front; I thought that pushing down the spring-loaded bar would release the front door; is the latch with the "?" also involved somehow? 

[Badbaud]

Simply pull the tray straight out after using an ample amount of Rustoleum and CLR to un-weld the metal pieces.
Hope some of that damage is not caused by an exploded battery.

[Trisail]

To get the front panel open - this unit needs to swing over to expose a pull know. Do that and pull up, that should release the panel. Be ready it is heavy and will bruise your shins. May need to push down on the latch on the left in the pic too. Might even have to force it open, they usually fall forward and smack you.
Tony

[DarrenF]

OK.  Thank you both, Badbaud & Trisail!

I managed to get the front panel opened.  I found the knurled knob thing under that latch, and pulled it up.  Actually required a claw hammer and a wooden block for leverage, but it eventually came up and then the front panel was released.   Hopper came out easily, then, and gave me MUCH more space, access, and light to do the next part.

As suggested I put some CLR down on it and let it soak a bit.  Then I used a hacksaw blade pushed under the bottom of the tray.  Much pushing and jiggling and rusty gunk, and it was budging but still not coming out.  I had to rig up a pipe clamp and a 2x4 across the front to put some serious pull-out force on it before it began actually pulling out.  But it did come out, with minimal damage to the connectors.

Pictures to follow.  Thanks again, guys.
Now that I have the PCB out, I'm more in my element...

[DarrenF]

Photos attached.
Showing:
1) the rusty mess under the PCB tray, including two components (battery and capacitor) that had fallen off.
2) another view of the rusty mess under the tray.
3) the bottom of the PCB tray, also rusty but less of a mess.
4) the damaged connector on the back-plane (or "motherboard" as IGT appears to call it).
5) the hacksaw blades and pipe clamp I had to use to get it loose.

[DarrenF]

And now, the obligatory PCB pics.

Yes, the battery took a dump all over things.  Looks like it mostly took out the audio section of the PCB, but perhaps killed the battery-backed RAM IC, too.  Perhaps that's why it wouldn't boot (seems to me like all the damaged sound circuitry would kill the audio, but not the whole game). 

Looks a little nasty, but I think I've seen worse on Gottleib System 80 pinball MPU boards...

[jay]

Unlike Pinball PCBs you can get replacements fairly inexpensively.
A couple of our members do PCB repairs as well but I would suspect the replacement cost is less.

[DarrenF]

Unlike Pinball PCBs you can get replacements fairly inexpensively.
A couple of our members do PCB repairs as well but I would suspect the replacement cost is less.

Really?  I know lots of pinball and video game sources, but not for gaming stuff.  What are some sources of inexpensive IGT PE+ superboard MPUs?  I did a little googling, and only found one on ebay for $200.

[jay]

Check with the vendors on our home page. Make sure they know your an NLG member.
You can mention that your board has had battery leakage and they may even offer to give you a discount if you send in your old board.


If your giving up your old board you will want to keep the chips that make up your game set.
If you have a super board you will have a program chip and a game chip otherwise just a game chip.
If you run a non-superboard game on a superboard you will still only have a game chip and the program chip is empty.
There are 4 graphics chips MXO, MRO, MGO, MBO and then a CapX chip (superboard) or a Cap chip (non superboard).

[DarrenF]

Check with the vendors on our home page. Make sure they know your an NLG member.
You can mention that your board has had battery leakage and they may even offer to give you a discount if you send in your old board.

Thank you, Jay.
I'll keep that in mind if I'm unable to repair this board myself.

[DarrenF]

OK, tonight's update:
1) Got most of the bad components removed from the processor board
2) Did some clean-up of the damaged area.

Still need to remove the socket for the CMOS RAM IC (it's pretty badly corroded).  On the fence about leaving the Y2 crystal (20MHz, main CPU xtal) and a few other components.

My question of the day:  I'm trying to remove the "motherboard" (interconnect board) from the cabinet.  I removed the 3 screws, but it's still held in by some sort of fasteners in the corners.  The manual just said to pull it off of them.  Like everything else on this machine, mine doesn't want to budge.  Any tips or tricks to getting that board off of those things?

[Badbaud]

I use the handle of a wooden spoon. Slip it underneath and twist it to release a board corner.

[DarrenF]

I use the handle of a wooden spoon. Slip it underneath and twist it to release a board corner.

Thanks.  The wife wouldn't let me have the wooden spoon, but i managed to get the board out without (any further) damage.

[DarrenF]

So today I did something I should have done days ago:  remove the lower module.  It was pretty easy to get out, just unplug a bunch of stuff, remove the monitor signal ground wire, and remove 3 nuts... slide & lift right out.

This will make cleaning up the rusty mess in the bottom of the LM much easier.  Will also make re-installing the motherboard easier.

I started a thread in the monitor section for the Ceronix 1492 out of this thing.  It'll be a project of its own (once I get the cap kit I ordered).

MPU progress is also nearing a stopping point.  I've got a few more things to clean up, then it'll be waiting on the parts I ordered (I had all the resistors and electrolytic caps on-hand; but had to order some little axial caps, an LM388, and a CMOS 32k x 8 RAM).

[DarrenF]

Today was EPROM time.  I pulled out all of the EPROMs, read them, and identified them.

Good thing I did, I found some more battery damage.  A couple of legs of the "DATA" EPROM were corroded through, and they stayed in the socket when I pulled the chip out.  I soldered on a couple of "donor legs" from my jar of bad ICs, and was able to read it just fine.  I'll burn a new 27512 with the data when I re-assemble.  Some photos of the bad legs, and the replacements, are attached.  Doesn't look very good, but it only needed to work long enough to dump the data.

So, I've got the "PEXM002P" set (using MAME nomenclature).  This consists of the XMP00006 program, the XM00002 data and the CG2174 graphics data (MR0, MG0, MB0, MX0).  This confirms what I remember from playing it over a dozen years ago: it's a multi-game with five different minor variations of poker.  Well, hopefully it will be, if I can get it working again.

The corrosion on the DATA EPROM meant that there was another 28-pin socket that needed pulling, along with the CMOS RAM's 28-pin socket.  Luckily those both came out very nicely, and allow better access to all the traces and vias I'll need to check for continuity before I start soldering stuff back on. 

I've also been slowly cleaning up the rusty PCB tray and lower module with Evaporust (for the tray, as it's a good size and shape for partial immersion) and naval jelly (for the lower module, as it's way to big to immerse).  No pictures of that stuff today, though.

[jay]

Very nice work.

[knagl]

For what it's worth, the naming actually came from IGT.

You can see a list of many of the PE+ video poker games available here: http://newlifegames.net/igtbible/IGT%20Poker/Game%20Library%20-%20PE-Plus.htm

Your game is found under the "Multi Poker" link on that page.

[DarrenF]

Very nice work.

Thanks, Jay.  I'll withhold judgement until I power it back up to see if it lives again...

So I'm still cleaning up the PCB and identifying traces and vias that will need a jumper.  Found about 10 so far... I hope there aren't many more.

As I begin to think about re-assembly, I'm thinking about how to prevent this from happening again.  On many arcade video and pinball PCBs that had/have batteries, people tend to do one of two things to prevent battery damage:  (1) replace the battery with a 1F (or greater) "super capacitor" instead of a battery, or (2) mount the battery off of the PCB so that if it leaks it won't damage the board.

Is there an established or common "battery mod" for these PE+ boards??  The super-cap trick works best when the battery was a rechargeable, so the charging circuit can be used to charge up the cap whenever the power is on.  As that's not the case with these boards, I'm leaning toward an off-PCB mount for the new battery.  But I'd love to hear what other people do.