Bally E-1000 not working

[Mr. Dinoman]

I have a client that want me to fix his Bally E-1000 3 reel slot...It had a blown fuse and I replace it...All it does now is when you power on, the lights light, the machine makes a few clicks and the display starts with a 7 (only) on the far left of the display, then goes to 5 (only) in the far left of the display...Nothing else...Anyone have any ideas?...I did replace the ram battery...
Jimmy

[dhellis]

A code 7 on the far left of the display is usually a failure on the MPU board. Some times it can be just memory
but not always. I do repair these boards and if you want to send it to me I don't charge for checking it out
other than return postage. You can send me the MPU boards, reel readers, IO boards and the power supply
and I will check all of those for you and I will let you know what I find so that you can give your customer an
estimate.

If you decide to send them, I prefer that you send it with the eproms, ram board and chips so that I can test
everything as a unit.

[br549autosales]

I would take dhellis' advice, he helped me tremendously on a similar machine recently, he's a top notch guy and know his stuff.

[Mr. Dinoman]

That would be great...I am supposed to hear back from my client tomorrow...If they want to continue, can you pm me your information and I will let you know ASAP...Thanks for getting back to me...
Jimmy

[Badbaud]

You could also try removing every chip that is in a socket and cleaning their legs with a pink eraser then re-inserting.

That or sending the boards may take care of the electronic problem but if the machine has not been lubed in quite a while you may have more issues.

[dhellis]

You could also try removing every chip that is in a socket and cleaning their legs with a pink eraser then re-inserting.

That or sending the boards may take care of the electronic problem but if the machine has not been lubed in quite a while you may have more issues.

Good point, but lubrication is unlikely to cause an error code such as this. I have seen bad connections under the
IC's that generate the most heat. Those would be the CPU chip, the bipolar proms (U21, U25 and U29) and
the 2 8T28 chips (U7 and U8)

[Badbaud]

Ya, I have had to rebuild at least 6 RAM boards in the past year due to corrosion.

Those pins on the edge that plug into the main board headers get so much corrosion they break in half, the MPU board headers they plug into also get corroded so I replace them with gold plated headers, and the RAM chip sockets get so corroded the RAM appears bad until the sockets are replaced and the RAM pins are cleaned.

This appears to be the main problem with the older 1000 machines.

Also the power supply pins get burned and cause MPU board problems.

There is a board mod if you replace the rechargeable NiCd battery with a 3.6V lithium so the 5V charge voltage doesn't get to the non-rechargeable lithium that most people don't follow. Seen that cause problems.

I was told long ago that you could count the sockets starting with M1 as "one" and continue on to the RAM as 7 and 8. So a 7 means you "may" have a RAM problem.

[dhellis]

That counting from M1 is somewhat true. When the machine is first turned on and you could see thing slow down
you would see 6 -5,6,7,8 and then the machine is ready. The 5-6-7-8 is part of a ram test but most often it goes
by to fast to see, or to fast for the display to show, it is very easy to see if you use a ram test/clear chip, yes there
is a chip for this.

The modification to use a 3.6 volt lithium battery is fairly easy, remove resistor R1 (100 ohm) on the ram board
and insert a 1N4000 diode with the band point towards the connector. On an E2000 board this would be R62.
This will prevent the 5 volts from attempting to recharge the battery. Lithium batteries will explode when hot. I don't really think this is much of a problem for home users unless they leave their machines powered up 24 x 7, but why take the chance.

What I have seen that destroys ram boards the most is battery acid leakage, it turns the connectors green and the
pins inside of the edge connector will turn green and then break. That leakage makes it near impossible to unsolder
things but a good option is to make a paste with water and baking soda, then grab the mother in-laws tooth brush
to scrub it clean, rinse and dry real good and if you have a compressor blow it dry. If the wife will allow you put it
in the oven for half an hour @300 degrees.

[Badbaud]

Ya that paste does work, that and a brass brush on the pads before desoldering.

A blob of solder flux on a corroded pad then heating with fresh solder before desoldering also helps.

 

[Mr. Dinoman]

I have pretty much check all that...the chips all look shinny...I replace the battery for testing with a battery pack of re-chargeable bats and tried a clear chip...When I tried the clear, nothing happened except the seem thing- 5 then 7...The power supply check out OK...The connector going out of it was burned so I was able to bypass to get it to its current state...At this point, I will probably send the boars out for inspection...
Thank all for the information...Maybe that will help others also...When I get the boards back and the machine running, I will update...
Jimmy

[ramegoom]

+2 for Dhellis checking your boards out. Just had one done, works great.