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Does shutting off the power switch cause the battery to be drained, or is there still power being used by having it plugged in? I ask this because some devices still draw power even though their power switch is off. My machine is an S+. Thanks

My understanding, but I'd wait until the others chime in, is that the battery is only used when the machine is OFF.  In other words, if you left your machine on 24/7 it'd never drain the battery (although, as with all batteries, it will eventually die over time).

That said, I only turn my S+ machine on when I'm using it, and I've yet to have the battery die on me.

FWIW that's my understanding too.

That's what I figured. I didn't know though if it was plugged in with the switch turned off, if some small amount of power still fed the memory from the wall outlet, bypassing the battery. I could see the battery being helpful during a power failure but it would be nice if you could turn off the machine with the switch but still have it using your home power instead of the battery. Just a curosity that I was wondering about. Thanks for your help!!


UPDATE: Now I know for sure. I hooked up a power monitor to it and no dice. When the switch is off but still plugged into an outlet, it's showing 0 for power consumption. The battery must kick in regardless of switch turn off or unplugging it. Not the case with my desktop though. I thought it may act in the same manner.

I was working on my power supply last week.
I installed a couple of 115V plugs for the various stuff I have running in my S+.
I can tell you for sure that there's no way the machine could draw any household current when the power switch off.

The power switch on a S+ is basically similiar to the light switch on a wall of your kitchen lights...once it's off - it's OFF.

That's when the little battery on the MPU springs into action, like a little superhero with a tiny red cape, supplying a little juice to retain certain data in your machine for the next time you turn it back on.

That little 3.6V battery lasted for over 8 years on a machine I found...when I turned the machine on, there was 464 credits on it.
The machine remembered how many credits were on it for 8 friggin' years!!!
I'm surprised the machine didn't yell at me when I turned it back on saying "Well, it's about time you came back!" :96-

My slot collection was out of commission for just about 20months - I had all the boards pulled when I moved from PA to calgary.
When I popped them back in. I didn't even get a 61. They just came back on happy as can be. I expected at least one bad battery.

That's good to hear...also, for people who are not familiar with the S+'s power supply, there's a DIRECT connection from the power cord to the front panel of the power supply box that serves as a "Service Outlet".

There's constant 110V juice running to that regardless of the the position of the power switch.

Whenever you work on a S+, ALWAYS be aware of that...it's always best to remove the plug from the wall first!

The backup battery supplies power to the RAM only when the regular power supply is OFF. it's a VERY small amount of power (thanks to CMOS design). The drain is on the order of 1 Ma or even less. Some boards  have a Lithium battery for retention and a Ni-Cad for time keeping.
You might notice that the timekeeping is off, but the credits stay..this is why.
The "always on" your describing is referred to as a "Phantom load". A lot of stuff "sleeps" when it's off, the power switch is a "soft" off, that is the supply is still running (your desktop computer).TV's do this so the remote still works,Cable and satellite RCVRS do also. This "Phantom Load" does indeed add up!.
"GE" makes a power strip with power control in it. When you turn on the item in slot one, the rest of the strip goes live.They do help save some money.
There is a device called a Kill-A-Watt. They show you voltage,current and calculate usage. They can help you figure out your total power usage.

Kirk in Las Vegas (where power is still cheap)

That's what I was wondering! I have the "Kill-A-Watt" and hooked it to my slot machine. I see all of the above posts are correct in that the slot machine does not draw power when it's power switch is off. It uses around 100 watts when it's idle, over 200 when the hopper is spitting out coins. In the end, I decided to just leave the machine on 24/7. Thanks for all of your advice! Now we know!! :-)

Hello all!

For those who don't know what a Kill-A-Watt is, here is a link to one on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1235862234&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1235862234&sr=8-1)

I use one of these all the time in my other hobbies - being in a live cover band (Keyboard player/singer)(http://unioncadillac.com (http://unioncadillac.com/)) and being a Wedding DJ (http://flipsidedjservice.com (http://flipsidedjservice.com)).  But they come in handy for all kinds of things.  Easiest way to see how much power something is drawing.

Dan #2