New Life Games Tech Forums

Hi, my first question on this site. I sure hope someone can assist me.  I pressed the cash out button on my machine to see if it worked. The machine locked up. I have the " see attendent " and "hopper empty " I put 160 quarters in the machine but that might not have been enough. I just bought the machine a week ago and the guy had the cash out button unplugged, I plugged it in to make sure it worked and it didn't. Can anyone walk me through the steps on resetting the machine ? I do have the jack pot reset key.  thanks pat.    p.s if anyone wants to call me, my number is 928-255-8071   flagstaff, az

Hi Pat-

Welcome to the :nlg- site -- we'll get you up and running.

The machine is trying to pay out credits, and won't do anything else until it has paid all of the credits still listed on the credit meter.

160 quarters in the hopper is more than enough. 

Do you hear the hopper turning (ie. do you hear coins clanking around) when it's trying to pay out?  The hopper should turn and it should attempt to pay every time you close the door after the "Call Attendant/Hopper Empty" message is on the screen.

Does the "Door Open" message go away after you close the door?

Are you sure it's a quarter hopper installed in the machine?  Some pictures of the inside and outside of the machine (especially the hopper and the escalator that brings the coins up from the hopper to the coin tray) may be helpful for us to figure out what the situation is.

Again, welcome to the site.

KEVIN, THANK YOU FOR THE QUICK RESPONSE, I WILL GET SOME PICTURES OF THE INSIDE. THE HOPPER DOES NOT SPIN, ALL I HEAR IS A SLIGHT CLICK NOISE. I DO NOT KNOW FOR SURE IF IT IS A QUARTER HOPPER OR NOT. IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME IF THE PAY OUT WORKS OR NOT, I JUST WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THE MACHINE WORKING. THIS WAS SUPPOSE TO BE A GIFT FOR MY DAD HOWEVER, RIGHT NOW IT IS JUST A PIECE OF NON-WORKING JUNK.  THANKS

If you would when you're taking pictures, snap at least one or two of the outside as well as it can give some clues about the machine.  Thanks.   :71-

To make your machine work we'll have to get it to pay out, so we should be able to kill two birds with one stone for you.

Hi, here are some pictures of my igt pe-plus video poker. I have " call attendent " Hopper Empty " I have 0 credits on the screen when I open the top. I have 5 credits showing when I close the lid. I manualy put some quarters in the long shoot that shoots out the quarters.The quarters fit fine so I assume it is a quarter hopper. I pressed the self test a couple of times and I get HOPPER TEST  " to start test, activate jack pot reset " i turn the key and I get the response " use jackpot reset to clear tilt and return to hopper test " I turn the key again and I get the same response as the first time I turned the key. It is like a loop. I think I included all pertinent information. I'm  thinking as you said, I need to get rid of those 5 credits showing on the screen. If you can help, I would be very very thankful.   p.s. I am not an idiot,I know alot about alot of things, but I know less than nothing about slot machines. THANK YOU  FOR YOUR  PATIENCE.                                                        PAT

Pat in the pic of your hopper, am I seeing a mix of all kinds of different coins? If I am you can't do that and have a properly working machine. ( hopper ) Oh I'll call the number it's easier

WOHOOO....
Whats all that odd change in the hopper?

When we said we use our slot machines as big piggie banks, that doesn't mean that you can dump anything into the hopper and it will magically sort out only the quarters  :194- :194-

You need to remove that hopper, dump out all the loose change. Then ONLY INSTALL QUARTERS.


(Buzz beat me to the reply by 3 min 35 sec. :88-)

I talked to Pat on the phone he has the hopper bowl off looking for jamed coins. I had a hard time trying to tell him where the hopper brake was, I'm looking at a S+ hopper and to lazy to pull one out of a PE +  told him if no jams to post back and find someone smarter than me !!

Wow, no wonder the hopper wouldn't pay out. It was a good choice getting on the phone, Buzz!  :3-

Buzz, I really enjoyed our conversation, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to give me advice. After removing the coin validator, and the hopper, I emptied out all the change and replaced it with all American quarters. The hopper turns smoothly and the escalator allows the quarters move smoothly. Unfortunately I still have the same symptoms. { call attendant } { hopper empty } The door does close correctly. I think I need to get rid of those 5 credits that appear on the screen. How the heck do I get rid of those credits ?  thank you newlifegames community

Pat The lower door must be in place ( closed ) for the machine to operate. Do you recall the pin you had to pull up to get the lower door open? make sure that pin goes down and the metal bracket swings back into place,if the bracket does not turn back in place it will block the door optics and even though you think the doors are closed the machine will think the door is open. The error ( hopper empty ) should clear itself with coins in the hopper and door closed, no need to press any other buttons. MAKE sure the hopper is plugged in all the way !!  Now question is, is the hopper any good !  Stat if he pulls the cmos chip and shorts it out will that get rid of empty hopper error ??  Some one else needs to help I'm out of ideas. :99- :99- :99-   PRESS THE TEST BUTTON AND TURN THE KEY AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS

Now that you have only quarters in the hopper, try the hopper test again in the menu (with the door open, press the white self-test button a few times until you get to the hopper test screen, then turn the jackpot reset key to start the test).  Does the hopper spin, and do coins go up the escalator and shoot out the top of the escalator?

Good morning Kevin, when I go to scroll to the " SELF TEST INPUT SXREEN ' I have a screen of 1's and o's preceding different options, can this have an effect on the hopper ? Here is a small example of what I see.
1   coin detector  a
1   coin detcor     b            do these number determing if certain functions are active ?i
1   coing detector c                   thank  yoiu  pat
0   hopper full
1   door open
0   low battery
0   jackpot reset
0   self test
0   drop door open

Those are the binary states of your input devices and they indicate the electrical state of each input switch. The coin optics read 1 because that is their nominal state. They open (0) as a coin passes by each optic and occludes the LEDs. You can test these by dropping a coin past the optics. Each optic state should change to 0 as the coin blocks it, and then back to 1 as the coin passes (it will happen very fast). The door switch also reads 1 because the door is open. Everything appears to read as it should.

Pat-

Go past the self test input and self test output screens to the "hopper test" screen (each time you press the white test button you should advance a screen).  Once you're on the hopper test screen you should see the message, "Turn Jackpot Reset Key To Activate Test" (or something like that).  Do so, and please report back as to what happens.  Ideally, the hopper should turn and push coins up the escalator, and ten coins should come flying out of the top of the escalator.

(I'm wondering if the hopper knife may have gotten broken from the mixed coins in there causing coins to just go around in a circle in the hopper and not make it up the escalator.)

Hi Kevin, as you stated, when pressing the white button on the 3rd screen I  get ( to start test, activate jackpot reset )I then turn the key, there is a slight pause then the screen says { use jackpot reset to clear tilt and return to hopper test } I then turn the key again and I get the 1st respone again { to start test, activate jackpot reset } it is a never ending cycle. The mixed coins have no bearing on the hopper or knife, I just had the coins  sitting in there, the hopper has never turned since I have owned the machine. Is there only 1 way to reset the  jackpot ? by using the key in the front of the machine ?

Yep, you're using the correct jackpot reset key (a small brass key with "2341" stamped on it).

Is there no other information on the screen other than "turn key to reset tilt"?  Does it say "Hopper Tilt" or anything?

Let's try something else.

Go to the "Self Test Output" screen (I think it's the second screen, before the hopper test) and move the arrow down to "Hopper 1" (I believe you press the deal/draw button to move the arrow -- look on the screen for directions).  Then turn and hold the jackpot reset key for a few seconds (or whatever it says on the screen to do to activate the output -- I'm not in front of my machine at the moment) and please report back if there's any action from the hopper.


(If the hopper doesn't do anything, the next step it to take a look at the hopper connection to the machine.  Power off, lift out the coin-in mechanism, open the bottom door, and slide the hopper out of the machine.  Take a look at the "S" shaped connector on the back of the hopper and the one that it plugs into in the machine.  Are any pins bent or broken?  (Note, not every hole in the connector is used -- there won't be pins in all of them.)  If all looks to be okay, slide the hopper back in, firmly (but not forcing) seating it into the connector in the machine, coin-in stuff back in, power on, and then try the hopper or hopper output test again.)

Hi Kevin, I am out of state right now but I will be home on Saturday to try what you said. If my hopper is bad, can I still get the credits removed in order to free up the machine to play, and then dissconnect the wire to the cash out button so this doesn't happen again ? Also, are you a techniction in Bullhead where I can have the machine fixed ?

Pat-

We might be able to fool the optics so that the machine thinks it has paid out those five coins and will be ready to accept coins/bills again.  Let's cross that bridge when we get there, though, as it will be a minor pain to do so.

I am not in Bullhead, however Joey who runs this site is the owner of New Life Games in Bullhead, AZ.  I don't want to speak for him, but I imagine he could fix whatever is wrong with your machine if we're unable to get it working.

Joey's shop is located at 1114 Highway 95 Bullhead City AZ 86429-5400, directly across the Colorado River from the Laughlin Nevada Casinos.

http://www.newlifegames.net/MAP/MAP.html

Or you can clear the ram with less hassle.  Although the eeprom may restore the error.  Hard to say.

I think a ram clear would do it, but I'm going on the assumption that he doesn't have a clear chip.   :71-

Time to throw in the towell, I want to thank all  those that helped me try to fix my video poker machine. But now it is time to take it to the shop, hopefully I will be able to go to bullhead and visit the guys at nlg. But this machine is a heavey mother-father, probably 500lbs. Any way, thank you to
knaql, buzz, neonkiss, statfreak, stolistic. You have been great help but I still haven't been able to rid the screen of " call attendent " " hopper empty"
For the record, I hate those 4 words !!!!! Thanks to all, this is a great web site               pat

One last attempt, I would like to manually  push quarters through the escalator and out the coin slot to see if this will remove the 5 credits I have on the machine. I must keep the lid open to do this. Is there a way to fool the machine thinking that the lid is in the shut position ? I did see what appeared to be light sensors. One on the lid and one on the machine, so when you close the door these 2 sensors line up. I will take any advice.         thank you   pat 

Pat-

Those "light sensors" are the door optics, and you are correct that they need to be aimed at each other in order to fool the machine into thinking the door is closed.  If you can unfasten one of the optics and have someone else hold them together (so the machine thinks the door is closed), you should be able to manually feed coins up the escalator and past the coin-out optics (built on to the top of the escalator).  You'll only have a short window of time to feed coins through between the time the door is "closed" and the time that the machine will sense that no coins are coming out and that the hopper is empty.  (If you miss, just "open" and "close" the door again and try again.)

Does your machine show a screen that says something like, "Verifying memory, please wait." after you close the door?  If so, the time to feed quarters through would be immediately AFTER that screen goes away and the game returns to displaying cards.

Buzz to the rescue, After talking to buzz on the phone he gave me some insturctions on how to feed quarters through the escalator and trick the optics and believe it or not it worked. Good ol Yankee know how. Thank you Buzz and thank you Kevin. Time to invite the neighborhood kids over on allowance day and make some real cash!!!  thanks again

You might want to pull the connectors off the back off your "Cash Out" button, to save you in the future.

Yes, and/or change the hopper limit to zero so that all cash-outs are handpays (which just requires a turn of the jackpot reset key to clear).  To do that, (with zero credits on the machine), press the self test button a few times until you get to the hopper limit screen, and follow the directions on the screen to change the existing number to zero, then press the self test button again and close the lid.