Williams BB2 Shuts down after only a few seconds

[MarkHart]

I just bought a Williams Bluebird 2 and moved it a few hundred miles.  When I got it home it almost finished booting up and then shut down.  I turned it off and back on again and the machine will shut down after maybe 3 seconds or so.  I am getting the service lamp by the validator so it is getting power. I did not see the machine operating when I picked it up, so it may. have been a pre-existing condition.  Any places to check first? Thanks

[Stayouttadabunker]

Turn on the power again, watch the voltage LEDs on the backplane  and report back.

My guess is that it's possible the heatsink came ajar on the CPU or the fan's clogged with cigarette butts.

[MarkHart]

All of the green leds come on for just a second or two an then go off. The fan blades jerk for a second but it is not on long enough for it to take off.

[MarkHart]

I just tried it again and it started booting for about 15-20 seconds then shut down.

[Stayouttadabunker]

I'd have that power supply checked out..can you swap it with another one?
A bad ground / short would knock it out too.
Gotta start unhooking stuff to see what's causing it then turn on the power to see if it stays on.
Never plug/unplug peripherals with power switch on.

[MarkHart]

I do have a donor that I can swap power supplies with. I will give that a try.!

[MarkHart]

I swapped power supplies with a known good one and had the same result. I then swapped the NXT2 CPU with a known good one and still does the same thing.  I have reseated the power plug on the motherboard and checked other connections and all seem good. I also disconnected the two LCD monitors one at a time and unplugged both large molex connectors on the inner front door.  Still shuts down right away.  Am I missing anything? Thank you.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Since you cannot get it booted up long enough to see any faults such as CPU temperature, the only thing I can think of is to open the CPU door, and see physically if that fan for the CPU box is turning or not.
But then again, the machine isn't on long enough to even heat up! Soooooo......

The one thing I know is this...>>>>

Sometimes with my BB2 bench tester, I'm handling stuff like splash button boards or toppers hooked up with power running.
I accidentally touch the power supply or something metal and the machine immediately shuts down forcing me to circulate the power switch to get it running again.
Of course, it goes thru the long arduous booting up process and takes forever to load back up but no damage is done other than a power down event.

What this tells us is that whenever two separate peripherals are touching each other (grounding out), then machine will sense an additional grounding point and shut down.

This is why I suspect that you may have a bad or loose ground somewhere in the machine.
Check all green and or black wires and see if anything is loose or wire coverings that has a sliced bare spot against a sharp corner touching metal in the cabinet.

I think your power supplies, CPU, etc are okay but the wiring is suspect now.
The only other thing that's suspect in that cabinet is the bulkhead board, and other smaller boards.

When you think about it, something as small as a screw could of possible fell in behind any of them and is grounding it out to the cabinet where it's not supposed to.

Does that make sense?

[MarkHart]

Thanks so much for your through response. After reading your reply I went out and looked at everything very closely.  I found a thin wire going to the candle that was damaged and touching the back of the top box.  I taped it up and the machine is now trying  to boot up!   I am getting a SYSTEM HALTED error, but I will address that tomorrow.


Thanks again for your help!

[Stayouttadabunker]

What you want to do now is take a photo of the entire screen when it halts...on that screen, we can usually figure out what to do next.

[MarkHart]

When I first power the machine up,  I get a “no signal” message on the top screen for a few seconds and then it goes blank.  The attached photo is a screen shot of where the machine freezes in the boot process. Thank you!

[rickhunter]

You have nvram issues.  You may need to replace the batteries on the mpu.  You will need to run a clear to fix the nvram issue, just make sure you have good batteries before you do so.

[Stayouttadabunker]

When I first power the machine up,  I get a “no signal” message on the top screen for a few seconds and then it goes blank. 

That's nothing...most monitors take a few seconds to display anything else...that's just to show you the LCD is ready for a signal.

The attached photo is a screen shot of where the machine freezes in the boot process. Thank you!

See ricks reply above! haha

[MarkHart]

Thanks for all your help.  The machine did not come with a clear card but I have one on the way and it should be here in few days.  That bare wire definitely had me scratching my head for a few days!

[Stayouttadabunker]

I hate the way they zip tie up all the wiring in machines but that for neatness really.
It's amazing how some companies sell these machines to casinos for thousands of dollars (if not leasing) and the wires are so vulnerable....doesn't take much to slice thru a vinyl cover.