Machine shows "Call Attendant" and no other info - bad backplane?

[knagl]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever run into this.  A friend of mine has a machine that he put a questionable 3902 simm-based board into.  The machine just shows "Call Attendant" on the screen with no other information.  Pressing the self test button and/or turning the jackpot reset key has no effect -- just "Call Attendant" with no other infomration.

He's tried a KEY 22 clear with a known good board, and the machine gives the appearance of clearing, but all he can get with any known good board or software is "Call Attendant."  He's tried replacing the EEPROM on the motherboard (backplane) and still the same results.

Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks in advance.

[Yoeddy1]

For grins has he thrown a different key/clear chip in?  Maybe a 40?

Jason

[Buzz]

Kevin  One time On a 3902 board all I could get was a touch screen error. I exchanged the mother board with a different machine and got the same error. Turned out I had two mother boards from two different machines that had the very same trace burned. Soldered a jumper wire onto the boards and no more problems.

When your friend sees "Call Attendant" is he opening the door and then turning the jackpot key ?  Is he sure the door optics are good ?

I have to set up a Game King and my Son is delivering it tonight so I will give your problem some more thought.


Jason  I'm pretty sure if it's a I Game a key 040 will not work.

[MrBellMan]

Key 22 and Key 40 will work for 3902 I-Games. I have and use both with no issues.

[Yoeddy1]

I use a 40 with GK 4.3, 5.0, and 5.3.  No problems.  In fact I thought I saw a tech bulletin that said that the 40 replaced the 22.

Jason

[blueridgeslots]

Open the door, or basically push the cherry switches to neutral position

[knagl]

I'll get more info and answers to the questions asked and I'll report back. Thanks for the help, gents.

[knagl]

Okay, so here's an update.

To keep everything clear, let's establish that my friend has a "problem machine" and "good machines".

My friend had a machine that was good on the bench and was using it to test 3902 boards, installing them and configuring games on them and then swapping them out.

When he got to one 3902 MPU board (the "problem MPU board"), the machine would appear to clear with the KEY 22 (just as it had with the other boards), but then resulted in a "CALL ATTENDANT" message on the screen with no other information, despite pressing the self test button and/or turning the jackpot reset key.  Additional boards tried in this now-problem machine would result in the same error after what appeared to be a successful clear and key.  We believe the problem to be in the backplane/motherboard on the machine, but even after switching EEPROMs on the backplane, the issue remains.

My friend discovered that if he used a known good MPU board in a different machine and did a KEY 22 clear/key and configured the game, he could then take that MPU and the EEPROM from that machine and put it into the problem machine and the thing would work!  HOWEVER, the problem machine still exhibits the same behavior after a clear (indicating that a problem remains in the backplane).

He has not yet tried a KEY 40 (that's next on his list of things to try) to see if that might do something that the KEY 22 didn't do.  He's (understandably) apprehensive about putting the problem MPU board into another machine as he believes that the MPU in question created the problem in the now problem machine (remember, the problem machine had been working fine up until that specific MPU board was put in it).  Essentially, with the problem machine, the only way to configure a different game on it is to first configure it in a different machine, then move the MPU and EEPROM over to the problem machine -- obviously not an ideal situation.

Any other ideas?  Does the backplane/motherboard hold any other info in memory on the other chips on it aside from the EEPROM, and is there any way to clear that info?

[stayouttadabunker]

I would definitely inspect the bench backplane board for burned traces or other anomalies.
If anything looks bad, then install a known good backplane into the bench machine along with a known good MPU.
That problem 3902 MPU would have been in the trash long ago.

The Clear chip should have cleared both CMOS memory chips on the MPU and backplane boards right?
Keychips just try to look up the certain series of game chip and open up options if their checksums' matches.
I could be wrong on this.

[Buzz]

Bunker If you were shopping for a 3902 board expect to pay around $150 for one. Makes you think before you mark one " NFG " doesn't it. 

[stayouttadabunker]

Bunker If you were shopping for a 3902 board expect to pay around $150 for one. Makes you think before you mark one " NFG " doesn't it. 

Whew! Expensive machine platform!

[knagl]

If there is a bad trace on the backplane then it's possible that it was just a fluke that it broke when the suspected bad MPU was put in.  We'll explore that angle and I'll get back to y'all.

[stayouttadabunker]

Check really good at and around the ground pin areas -
that's what usually burns up on S+ motherboards.

Since IGT has the same Japanese guys making these ones too,
I'm sure they're of the same high-quality...
I think that if these were built in the USA, they would have been better. JMHO

[cowboygames]

Bunker, don't you mean Chinese? Japanese would be a huge step up, but yes, US is best:)

[knagl]

A (final?) update from my friend:

I tried the KEY 40 chip and that did not work either. I removed the backplane board and could not visibly find anything
wrong with it, I put in another one and I am back to normal.

I marked both the trouble-making backplane and 3902 boards NO GOOD. I am only guessing that something in one of the
other 3 chips mounted on the backplane board went south when I plugged in that bad MPU board. At least backplane boards
for these are not hard to come by.

I suggested to him that if he has a bunch of spare backplane boards and if they're cheap enough that it might be worth running the risk of ruining another one to confirm if the MPU in question is in fact the culprit, or if it was just a fluke and the bad backplane board randomly decided to crap out on him (in which case the MPU is likely good).

Anyway, thanks everyone for your suggestions.