New Life Games Tech Forums

Hallo everybody.
I am new here and have a couple of I-Game and Game kings. Now my Ghost Island starts giving me that problem:

Out of the blue while machine was switched on and in order (not being
played at the time though), the monitor went grey ( not off, but no
image, only some light), and machine can't be played, but all lights
are on. I changed the transformer, monitor, power supply 1 and 2,
board on top of main board, rear board, cleaned etc. I tried to reset
with base chip. Nothing helped.
After I switch on machine, the monitor does not go into normal cycle
of the different colours, but stays lighted but sort of grey. It can
be the machine was not earthed properly cos it did give some electric
shocks sometimes. Any ideas there?

any hint or help is appreciated.
I sit here in Angola and nobody competent is within reach !
Thanx

What are the status lights on your 3902 board?

Hallo Flexpipe,
thanx for the prompt reply.
If you refer to the 1 red and 4 green LEDs on the lower board, then the answer is the greens are all on, the red off, after a brief signal immediately after power up.
Hope it is what you mean?

Yes, that is what I meant. The 3902 sounds like it is fine. Do you get bet button lights, and does the BV come up after boot up? Even if the video display is "bad", you should still be able to bet, and spin reels, and hear game sounds, without actually seeing what is going on the monitor. As far a grounding problem, could be a many of things, but, if you are getting shocked, would track down and see what is going on before you or someone else gets a good jolt.

Hi again.
No I don't get button lights and I can't play machine, BV dead as well. After having taken out and back everything again, the screen s now different:
shows a checkered pattern of small spots in all different colours, purple as background. But d can't get it right with the monitor adjusters, only I can shift left, right, up down etc and alter brightness.
Also the 3902 does only light 4 of the 5 green LEDs, the 2nd green from the left stays off.
Maybe there is a problem.
I have pics of all boards and stuff if helpful.

OK, it does sound like you have bad software. Possibly the base or game chips. Make sure they are positioned correctly in their sockets, and orientated correctlly by observing the notch on the socket as well as the chip.

I agree with the corrupt software. Usually the multi-colored small dots are indicative of bad CFG or PXL SIMMs. Hae you tried switching an MPU board from another machine to see if it boots up with another board? This of course would isolate your problem to the board and then you could try a softawre change with that board to see if it then boots up. If it does boot with another game, it will be a problem with the software.

 Dan (tacman)

thank you tacman.
Since the machine was working and on at the time she lost it, of course all eproms were inserted the right way, and I checked and took them out and in again after cleaning.
I have another set of eproms for the Igame which is the Frog King. If I change all the eproms and its working I know it was that, but I have 2 concerns:
1. What if the problem is somewhere else ? Then my 2nd set of eproms is down also.
2 How can I get a set of eproms here to Angola if they are down? who could provide or send ? Of course I would pay for it.

Can it be only one of the eproms is bad? Could I figure out somehow which one?
I observed if I pull out the board while machine on, then the BV starts booting up.


Thanx again for your help.

busch,
Get a programmer on fleabay and make copies before you ruin the originals...
You can make copies of the chips and keep 'em on your hard drive....
later on, if something goes wrong, you have back-ups to replace the bad ones...


OhMy god, Never pull out a board while its powered up....arghhh!!!!!!

You'll definetly fry something...always, ALWAYS turn off the power....PLEASE!!!

 :98- :98- :98- :98- :118-

About the board taken out powered up: U know you reach a stage you get desperate and try things you normally would not.
I did not understand what is CFG and PXL SIMMs, and where are they located and can I change them?
Looks like can be the board or the game eproms?? (there are 9 of them, inc base chip)
I submit a picof that 3902.

Thank you everybody for the input, constructive or not, here at this lonely outpost one appreciates every mail!
I conducted the following test and found the following:
I removed one eprom at a time of that board (after I switched off every time!), then the smaller board sitting on top of the bigger one,
there was no change in the picture until I removed that tiny eprom (see pic). With that one removed, all 5 green LEDs light up, and the monitor shows no pattern, just is lit up grey.
So perhaps that thing is bad?
But: if I remove the board (with power off) and switch on machine, the BV starts working which it doesn't with board inserted, even with the tiny eprom out.
I hope somebody can make something out of my explanation, aeh, really.
many thanx

Wow,
You have ARMY chips on that board!!! :91-
That game was on a base somewhere.... :71-

looks like it may have been wet at one time.

W

Hi,
yes maybe was on a base, at least the base chip ! Ha! Unfortunately it did not make it more reliable...
I bought from LA SLOTS last year, but they hae not been so helpful after the "fire and forget" sale to distant Africa, sadly so.
I think the board never got wet, is perhaps some dust on it. But any ideas how I can proceed in order to get the thing working again?

Hello

Good to see another member from Africa on the site - I am in Tanzania. Are you a private user or in the casino industry ?
The small chips is not likely to be the problem although it does control video. I agree with TACMAN that the most likely suspect is the CFG or PXL SIMMs.
These are not EPROMS - They are the devices that look like computer RAM chips. You can remove them and clean the edge connectors and replace them in the socket you removed them from. Also check the small dipswitch on the PXL simms when you have removed it. Sometimes they break off and this could cause the problem you are having.
There can be up to 3 PXL simms. These are located next to the EPROM that starts with an Ixxxxxx. You need to remove the piggyback board to see the CFG SIM. You can leave this board off while testing as its only function is to provide game sound and will not prevent your game from booting up if removed.

Regards
Ian

Hallo TZtech,
yes, likewise good to know.
I am in between private and industry, cos here are no real casinos, I struggle alog with a couple of machines here...
Thanx also to pu me in the picture about the terms used.
What I did now: I did take out the piggyback board, all CFG and the 2 PXL simms, (all look in order), took out all eproms (base, 2 x game, 2 x don't know, )
the monitor still shows the colour particals with 1 difference.
all green LEDs light up and the pic on the monitor alters every 2 seconds to a slightly different colour.
Only if I put back the 2 gme eproms together, the pic does not alter and the second green LED from the left stays off!
It is quite confusing!
The idea of having a eprom burner to make my backups is good and I had before and I ordered that stuff with DHL, but it never arrives here (usually get stolen along the line in Luanda or so), so I gave up that rather expensive and useless exercise.
If there was a way to determine whether the problem is the board or the simms/eproms I would be a step further, like this I am afraid of burning my 2nd set of chips.
Is there maybe a place I can courier all that stuff (to and fro Namibia) to get it fixed and sent back?
So long,
thanks everybody

Hi

There is a company in JHB that is able to do board repairs but i  still think most likely its your software. At this stage i would try another software set on your board to isolate the problem. Not saying it cant happen but its very unlikely that a problem board (If it is the board) will damage your second set of software. If it is SW your best bet is probably one of the vendors at the top of the page.

PM me your details and i can send you contact details.

Regards
Ian

Hallo,
I changed the game software chips ( 3x simms, 1x CNG, 1x base eprom, 2x game eprom.
The machine does exactly the same inc. the 2nd green LED from left stays off.
So probably is sth. wrong with the board?!

That sounds like bad news to me.

I have a similar problem with my I Dream of Jeannie software.  When the machine is powered on after a week or so, the screen is multicolored with a blinking red light on the CPU board.  I then remove and reinsert the Simm cards and everything is fine.  I don't know why, but it works.

Hallo Midas,
yes it is strange but really looks like bad contact in your case. In my machine, when I tried to isolate the problem and the simms were out, the red LED lihts up.
But in my case, with either of my 2 software sets inserted, and nicely inserted, the red LED stays off but the second green from left stays off.
So I guess I must change board or get the board repaired.
Easy talking here in Angola with no working courier service, I must wait til I travel again...
Thanks for all yr help and ideas anyway.
so long