New Life Games Tech Forums

Hi, my friend has an IGT Sizzling Sevens that will not work properly.  Its a slightly older model, and my guess is late 90s or 2000 or so.  I have zero slot experience and deal with only Pinballs (I am a pinball collector).  The game will turn on and all lights power up, except there is nothing on the displays.  I was told that when the game was powered on, it would give an error code with no lights.  I printed off a sheet with the error codes and likely suspects, but the game didn't even do this anyway.  No problem as I have them for future reference. 

Could someone help me out by walking me though some steps and things to look at on this game?  Like I said, I don't have any slot knowledge at all, only knowledge about Pins :).



Thanks for your time and help,
Brandon

Hi Brandon

I am correct there should be an I/O card on the door just below the display theres a capacitor that goes bad on them  replace the capacitor or just swap the board out with one from a working machine if it does not work send a picture of the door so i can see with model it is

best of luck
mehen

Try checking fuses on power supply bottom right hand side, also check the wiring harness going from power supply to mother board. Some times the connection at the mother board fails, you will see a brown spot on the molex connector at the mother board if this is the problem !

Hope this helps

Here is a picture of the connector. You have to slide out the hopper after you turn off the power. The picture shows the molex connector pulled and turned around to see the burn spot. Sometimes you can replug it and it works. Sometimes you have to replace the short harness.

And welcome to NLG, you may find a new hobby here.

Ron

Wow, you guys are quick!  Thanks very much for the replies.  It will be next week before I can get back to the game as it is not here at my house on hand. 

You may very well be right, as I've been wanting to pick up a slot or two for something different.



Thanks for the welcome,
Brandon

Hello!

Also - frist, with the machine off, spin one of the reels with your hand.  Then, turn the machine on and do the same thing.  Do the reels feel stiff now with the power on?  Or do they spin just like when it was off?

Dan #2

Hiya BJones,
First of...Welcome to New Life Games!
We will be able to help you more if you can post a picture of both the award glass
and the reel glass that shows what is or is not being displayed.
Also, behind the reel glass is a pc board up against the glass.
Are there wires going into it?

Well I went over there on my lunch break to take a gander at it, and forgot my camera.

The serial number is as follows:
Model # B5027CFW
Seial # 494372

I'll swing back by tomorrow and get some pictures.

I checked the fuses (all good), the connector behind the hopper wasn't burned either.

I am assuming the I/O board is sandwiched between a metal plate and the door?  Also, how do you get the protector plate out off in front of the control board?  It has a black handle but won't come up or straight out. 

The reels move freely with power as well.  The board behind the reel glass is there and all connectors are on it.

How do I get behind the award glass at the top of the machine?

Thanks,
Brandon

I forgot to add, I believe on the serial sticker, there was a Refurb date of 03/96.


Brandon

Serial number indicates it is about a 94 model .. S+. Check the back side of the white connector for burn marks.

Hello Brandon,

I agree - if the reels move freely with the power on just like when the power is off, that means the MPU board is not getting power.  That's the board in the silver tray with the black knob behind the hopper.  It comes out by pulling that black knob straight up towards the top of the machine.

Dan #2

Power, for sure.  Was this game ever working for your customer?  If you've already replaced the fuses, I'd check and try replacing that cable, even if you don't see really obvious burn marks.  At a minimum, check both ends of the cable (both where it plugs into the motherboard and the end that plugs into the power supply, which is the rectangular silver box in the lower right corner of the machine).  Try plugging and unplugging each end a few times to somewhat clean any oxidation off of the connections.

Indeed, the MPU board is behind the hopper as Dan said.  That "protector plate" with the handle is actually the tray that the board is mounted in.  With the power off, lift firmly straight up on the handle.  It'll jerk loose (if it's really wedged in there, try shifting to the left and right as you apply upward pressure), at which point you can then pull towards you and remove the MPU board tray.  Look for any obvious burns on there, too, as that could be the problem.  My money is still on that stupid cable, though.  Don't remove or insert the MPU board tray when the power switch is on.

With the reels spinning freely with the power on it's more than likely the power connector mentioned above. If you need a connector send me your address and I'll send you one at no charge as a welcome gift to NLG. Hope this will fix your machine.

Ah thanks very much for the help.  If the problem is indeed the connector, are there cheap replacements available or am I better off cutting the burnt one off and putting a new connector on?

Wow, thanks idylewild!

I'll swing by and take a look today or tomorrow during my lunch break. 


Brandon

K+ to idylewild for his nice offer.   :3-

Well it looks like i owe some people a beer if I ever see them.  I'll be damned if the backside of the connector was burned (2nd or 3rd pin on the right if I remember correctly).  I'll take you up on your offer for that cable, but in the future if I need to get another one, where do I go to get one?   I didn't see them on Happ.


Thanks very much, 
Brandon

Hi Brandon
If you want to play the machine while you wait for the connector here is something you can try
With the machine off open the door and remove the bottom coin tray and pull out the hopper
With the machine open power it up and jiggle the burnt connector slowly up and down until you see the reels energize (they wont spin)
Then put everything back and close the door and you should be good to go. I did this for years on one of my machines until
I broke down and replaced the cable. If you are afraid of electricity have your wife do it. Mine does it and she has a full head of very curly hair
Ron

Hehe, as far as electricity is concerned, I can't tell you how many times I've been shocked inside pinball machines.  I'll see if I can give that shot.

Bunny,
I don't think it matters if your hair is straight or curly...
my guess is that if you'd get a good electrical jolt,
all the hairs on a human head would turn straight! :96-

My wife now thinks you're a very bad man.... :97-

Brandon    since you worked on pinball machines, then you must have come across these type plugs, especially on Bally and Williams machines.They never engineer their power supply for the proper amount of current and always seem to do this to general illumination plugs. Anyway you can fix this yourself, have done it for years and never had one that didn't work.  remove the harness from machine,involves cutting a few tywraps,   on the opposite side of the connector that is pictured,there are slots that correspond to each wire, at the top of the slot there is a raised tab that pushes against the plug housing, (Use a exacto knife ) with the knife gently press that tab down so it is flat and no longer pushing against the housing. then remove the contact  by placing the knife at the end of the contact and push it out,  or by pulling on the wire itself.  you will see the contact is almost at a forty five degree pitch, it should be at least sixty or greater. take a needle nose and reshape the back curved part to achieve this.Also clean the contact and remove any film or residue ( I use alcohol and a pink eraser ) then take a single edged razor blade and lift that tab that you flattened to remove  and push connector back into housing until it snaps back in place. After it is assembled you can hold the plug up to a light and look at the spacing between the contact and the top of the housing, and you will see the contact is almost up against the housing. On bad ones there is a big space between the top of housing and the contact ( usually 1/16")

This may seem  like a lot of work, but after you do one, and understand what I am saying, you could perform the repair faster then it took me to type this!!
Should only take ten minutes.
Jim

You too, huh?  My old EM has zapped me more than once.

Yeah whenever I pickup a new game, I always check and see if the General Illumination plugs are cooked in the backbox. 

I wouldn't of thought anything similar would happen in a slot machine though.

Your cable is in the mail as of this A.M. Hope this helps.

Thanks!  I'll post back what happens once the MPU gets power with it.

Brandon

Alright idyle, I swung in on my lunch break today and swapped out the cord.  I had to bent the pins on the board a tad bit to make good contact.  It powered right up with a bad battery error.  I just happened to have one of those batteries on me so I installed it on the board.  Once that was done, the game fired right up and booted after I cleared out the CMOS error code. 

I do have one more issue however.  I attempted to put in coins to start a game, but they went right trough the coin comparitor and did not add any credits.  I noticed a green LED on the back of the comparitor, which was off.  I am assuming this a power indicator for the comparitor?

If so, I am guessing its either a power problem to the comparitor or the comparitor is dead. 


Once again, thank you for the replacement cord and the help,
Brandon

Did the coins end up in the hopper or in the tray?  If they ended up in the hopper, then you have an optics issue.  The comparitor in these machines do not signal the system to credit a coin, the optics do.  If the coin passes the optics in the correct fashion.  If your coins end up in the tray, then you may have a comparitor issue.  If they end up in the coin hopper, then you probably have a coin optic issue.

Also, FYI - the LED on the comparitor will not light up while the door is open - so it maybe ok if you didn't see the LED on.  We just had a thread that talked all about testing the comparitor - check this out http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=3027.0 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=3027.0).

Dan #2

Alright thanks, I'll give it a look.  The coin did end up in the tray.


Brandon

Just a quick one, is there a coin in the comparitor?

The coin in the coin comparitor must be the same type you're trying to pass through...
I'm thinking the coin in the comparitor might be slightly larger than the one you're trying to pass... :103-

Also, if you're using mixed tokens, they might all be the same size but the metallic makeup may be different and some may not be recognized. Make sure to minimize comparitor sensitivity.

 Dan (tacman)

ding ding! tacman had the correct answer!  All of the tokens were the same size, but I found a few tokens that matched and only tried those.  Worked like a charm! 

I played the game for about 30-45 minutes and everything worked great.  I'm definately going to have to get my own slot.  I hit a couple of nice jackpots and made me wish I was in a real casino though.  The game was acting a bit flaky so I polished the pins on the board(where the power harness plugs in to) with mothers mag polish and that cleared up the power problems.

Once again, thank you all for the help.  I guess I'm going to go ahead and start looking for my own slot.  I'm not sure which brand I should get.  I know I definately like the reel slots better than video slots.

Brandon

Brandon,
It's kinda neat when you get help like this from guys like us huh? :72-
It's even better when the machine really works too!
Ask your friend if they'd consider a little donation to our website to help us keep it going so we can help others, okay?
Nice to see you got it up and running!

Oh NO!! Another slot addict is born. :97- :97- :97-  Don't forget our two axioms:

1. Slots are like potato chips: you can't own just one.
2. Never leave your slot machines alone in the dark. They multiply. :96-


I would look at an IGT S2000 or a Williams Dotmation. Just my opinion.

I'll gladly make a donation.  I need to get my credit card reactivated first as i don't have a paypal account. 

Can someone show me a picture of where and how to get to this capacitor? I think this maybe the problem with a machine that I'm working on.