IGT Fortune 1 not outputting signal to monitor

[Chief_B33f]

Hi all, I recently inherited an (I believe) IGT Fortune 1 Draw Poker machine from my late grandfather. Before me, he had owned the machine for the past 20+ years. Some years ago it quit working, and he never got around to having it serviced before he passed. Now that the machine is in my care, I would really like to get it working right again. I consider myself quite handy when it comes to repairing things, and have a fairy strong understanding of electrical circuits, but I am new to servicing slot machines or anything of the sort. So, onto the problem at hand:

The machine seems to be working except for I am not getting any display on the monitor. The machine starts up, if you put coins in the coin slot the system will make sounds indicating the coin was accepted, you can choose to draw and use the hold buttons and the buttons will light at the correct time when you would expect them to, but the monitor just shows nothing. I know that my grandfather had the monitor replaced at some point in the past, and I figured the CRT had gone bad again. So I used the model number of the monitor to find a modern LCD replacement made by the same manufacturer of the old CRT. I installed the new LCD monitor and the monitor powers up, but shows "no input signal" on the screen. So it appears that maybe the old CRT wasn't actually bad and maybe the video output of the game itself is not working. Unfortunately, that's about as far as my troubleshooting knowledge can take me. Does anyone have any suggestions for what to check next? Also, assuming the old CRT is good would it be worth it to return the LCD and keep the old monitor, or is it only a matter of time before the CRT dies and I will need the LCD anyways? I have attached pictures of the machine as well as the data tags of the old and new monitors. Thanks in advance!

[rogue]

How does the new monitor connect to the old connector?

[Chief_B33f]

There was an adapter provided with the new monitor. The adapter carries power for the monitor as well as the video signal

[rogue]

Any chance you could post a pic of the adapter? I have the same problem, working machine, but no video, but I suspect my crt monitor is faulty.

[Badbaud]

If the 5101 safe ram chip is bad you will get no game video to the monitor but you will usually get a blue screen so it sounds like it is a monitor problem.
Check the "monitor" ribbon cable on the backplane board and make sure it is plugged in all ofthe way.

[Chris-socal]

Your original monitor is a Ceronix 1492, the board is likely repairable and/or has some value to someone in your local area.
You already got an LCD so you won’t be interested in repairing it but if you can PM me with your location and I might be able to find it a good home. If you are interested.

Badbaud knows these games very well so follow his lead on test procedure. These games are well worth saving and once up and running they never seem to stop. LOL

Chris

[Chief_B33f]

Sorry for the long response time, I have been emailing back and forth with the monitor manufacturer's tech support but so far have not gotten the problem fixed. I confirmed the ribbon cable for the monitor was plugged in properly at both ends, and used my multimeter to check resistance through the cable and everything seems fine with the cable and pins.

However I did just notice that the game board has a spot in the upper left corner where it appears a battery should be connected to the board. I attached a picture of the empty battery holder. I may be grasping at straws here but any chance the game is not working because there is no battery in the slot? The contacts on the battery holder are not corroded so I'm guessing there has not been a battery in place for a very long time, so my gut is telling me that there was not a battery in that spot even when the game was working, but just a hunch.

I'm beginning to this the 5101 chip may be the culprit like you mentioned... anything else I should look into?

[Badbaud]

The battery is only needed if the game software has a credit feature.
If the button panel has a bet one and a bet max button then the battery is needed to remember the credit amount.

[Chris-socal]

But not having the battery will not prevent the game from booting, right?

[rogue]

From what I read in the first post, he mentioned accepting coins and making the sounds, pretty sure the game is already booted. I have the same problem,  game boots plays and even pays out from hopper but nothing on monitor.  I do have a confirmed bad monitor.

[Badbaud]

But not having the battery will not prevent the game from booting, right?

Correct.

[Chief_B33f]

Good to know, my game does not have the buttons, so it seems I may be right in that this machine has probably never had a battery installed. Anyways, I found the RAM chip you were talking about and added a picture of it. I'm assuming there is only one of these chips on the game board, the one i found says S5101L-1. It seems 5101 chips are fairly cheap and easy to get, but I haven't found the exact same one with the L and 1 at the end. I'd imagine this chip is obsolete and has been superseded by something with a slightly different model number. I've found a couple different ones on various websites that could potentially replace this one, anything specific I should look for when picking a replacement?

[Badbaud]

The 5101 is also used in the Bally E-Series E1000 and E2000 MPU boards. That is a good source for 5101 RAM chips (they are in sockets) if you have spare E-series MPU boards laying around.
Due to the fragility of the PC traces I always remove (cut off)  the F1 5101 chip at it's body then heat and remove the pins then clean the holes and install a 22 pin .4 lead space socket for the replacement.

[Chief_B33f]

Well, I tried installing https://www.arcadeshop.com/i/1738/5101-ram.htm this RAM chip, but I did not replace the socket that is soldered to the board. I took a good look at the connections to the board and everything looks fine as far as I can tell. Fired up the game and still nothing. Same symptoms as before, everything powers up just no display on the screen. I'm fairly certain the new RAM chip is compatible in this situation, the numbers aren't the exact same but website lists the S5101L-1 as an "equivalent" chip. I also plugged the monitor into my computer to confirm it works, so I'm sure we aren't dealing with a dead monitor.

[Badbaud]

Time to send the board to our shop so I can test and repair it with our Fortune 1 board tester.

[Chief_B33f]

So, after a lot of back and forth with Ceronix tech support it has been determined that the LCD monitor i purchased from them is not compatible with this machine, only IGT players edge machines. They do not make a LCD replacement for this monitor. So, my only option now is to repair my CRT or replace it with another of the same model. They put me in contact with someone who is quite knowledgeable with repairing this model CRT so that is the avenue I am currently pursuing.

[Chris-socal]

Easy, send the board to KLar or me, we can get it working. If you need instructions on how to remove the board let us know. You said its a Ceronix 1492, right?

Chris