Williams Dot Matrix Stampede Deluxe

[randy6]

Hello,
I am new to your site and need some advise on my Williams Dot Matrix Stampede Deluxe Machine.  The machine had been working beautifully until I caused it to stop after feeding quarter thru it with the door open and depressing the white door release button.  Now only the upper section lights up (no wheels spinning, etc...).  I changed the power supply and had the circuit board which slides out checked, without any success.  Do you have any suggestions?  Also, is there a site that I could get a owners manual and perhaps do some trouble shooting?  I am only a layperson with this and would appreciate any help!  Thank you, Keith.

[StatFreak]

Hello,
I am new to your site and need some advise on my Williams Dot Matrix Stampede Deluxe Machine.  The machine had been working beautifully until I caused it to stop after feeding quarter thru it with the door open and depressing the white door release button.  
...

Keith  

Dropping coins into the door while open wouldn't break the machine. I'm also not sure which white door release button you're referring to, but any open door tilt(s) should have cleared once all of the doors were closed (might have included the main door, the card cage door, the cash box door on the side of the machine, and/or the stacker box itself.)

...
Now only the upper section lights up (no wheels spinning, etc...).  I changed the power supply and had the circuit board which slides out checked, without any success.  Do you have any suggestions?  Also, is there a site that I could get a owners manual and perhaps do some trouble shooting?  I am only a layperson with this and would appreciate any help!  Thank you, Keith.

How did you get from the initial failure to to the point of swapping out the PS? Had someone been helping you? Was it the same person who checked out the boards?

  and more details as to what has happened, what you've done, etc. The more you tell us, the more we'll be able to help you.

StatFreak
 Global Moderator


P.S. Moved this thread to the Wms Reel slot board.

[dale]

Did you change the lower PS or the Dotmation PS?

[randy6]

Hi Dale,
Thank you for the reply.  I will upload pictures of the slot machine.  I had been working with the original seller whom I had sent the two circuit boards and then purchased a new power supply from.  He had first checked the circuit boards and he reported that they were okay - so then he suggested a power supply.  I had my neighbor (an electrician) change the power supply.  This was about a year ago and the machine has remained unused. About the pictures - one picture shows the two circuit boards in place with two red lights on (the first and the last).  I have tried to reinsert them several times without any success.  Another picture shows the white rubber lever on the right with I had pushed in while the door was open to allow quarters be easily retrieved.  Also, you'll notice the one picture that shows that only the top and the bottom of the machine stay lite - the middle goes out.  The dotmation screen at first shows the Willams logo, but it eventually goes blank.  Finally, when it was working - when I turned on the machine the reels would spin, now it doesn't do anything except stay lite.  I will post more pictures of the machine,Keith.

[randy6]

I changed the lower PS.

[randy6]

More pictures of machine.

[StatFreak]

I merged the two threads. Please do not start multiple topics for the same problem.


Randy6, the first and last power LEDs are lit and the center LEDs aren't. That means that it's the inner regulated part of the [<ADD> lower] power supply that has failed.

Most members who have this problem replace the regulated portion of the PS with a computer ATX PS.

Here is link to a post detailing that mod:  wms lower power supply fix  It's not as difficult as it may first appear.
Actually, I just stickied it. That should have been done a long time ago.



Stat  

[randy6]

Hi,
Thank you for your advice - do you offer for sale the computer piece and could my neighbor who is an electician be able to compete this change?

[dale]

I thought the DS1 ( the light on the very left by itself) was a bad Power Supply if it is on. Are you sure that the IO and CPU boards are securely pushed in? Sometimes they have a slight bow in them and do not fit tight.

I also had an IO board that went bad on me that acted similar to a bad Power Supply.

There is an original lower power supply on ebay right now.

[StatFreak]

Yes, the LED on the far left is the Fail light. It's certainly possible that the boards aren't pushed in completely, or that some of the pins that interface with the backplane board are bent. It's also possible that the power harness from the PS to the backplane is damaged.

However, when one looks at the five voltage LEDs on the right side of the board, one can see that the outer two are lit and the inner three aren't. The left LED is +5vi and the right is +18v, and both of those come from the unregulated "outer" portion of the power supply. The inner three LEDs represent the power coming from the regulated PS, which is what usually goes bad.

It doesn't seem likely that another problem would cause the same symptom, aside from the PS harness being bad or disconnected.

Of course, I could be wrong.


Stat

[StatFreak]

...
Here is link to a post detailing that mod:  wms lower power supply fix  It's not as difficult as it may first appear.
Actually, I just stickied it. That should have been done a long time ago.
...

Oops. It turns out that that thread was a repost of a repost. 

I unstickied it. Here is the link to the original repost, which was already stickied:  Model 40x Wms: Lower PS replacement - repost


SF

[randy6]

So, would you recommend as a starting point changing that power supply?  And if so, maybe purchase the one on EBAY?  Also, what is the PS harnass - its function and should I consider its change?

[knagl]

Thank you for your advice - do you offer for sale the computer piece and could my neighbor who is an electician be able to compete this change?

So, would you recommend as a starting point changing that power supply?  And if so, maybe purchase the one on EBAY?  Also, what is the PS harnass - its function and should I consider its change?

Randy-

Welcome to the site -- you've found the best resource for home ownership of slot machines.

The computer power supply talked about in the threads linked earlier in this thread is a standard computer "ATX" power supply -- it should be available at any local computer parts store (Micro Center, Fry's, etc.) for a cost of about $15 to $30, depending on the store and the available products.

Keep in mind that this is an after-market solution that was created by one of our members as the original power supplies were not reliable (as you've found out), and weren't always easy to find, either.  The computer power supply solution requires the creation of some custom wiring harnesses as described in this post.  Your electrician friend should look at that thread and then you can determine if that route is something you two wish to go down.  It will be cheaper and more reliable than replacing the power supply with another factory one, but it is more labor intensive.


The other option would be the one listed on eBay right now -- it's $134 with shipping.  (I do not know the seller.)  This appears to be the correct factory power supply for your machine, however it is not the entire power supply case, just one of the components that is inside the box.  This would be more of a plug-and-play replacement solution as you (or your electrician friend) would just have to disassemble the power supply box, remove the old supply, and plug in the replacement in its place.


Keep in mind that we strongly suspect your power supply is at fault because it's a fairly common problem with this model of machine.  At the same time, it's possible that the power supply isn't at fault and there is another problem with the machine masking as a power supply problem.  That said, the fact that some of the voltage LEDs on the processor board are working while some aren't lighting up is typically an indication that the power supply is bad.


(Finally, if you do decide to go down the ATX computer power supply road, may I suggest that you also look at this post?  The difference between this post and the one previously linked is that this one shows you how to replace the lower power supply and the upper (Dotmation box) power supply with one computer ATX power supply.  The original upper Dotmation power supply will eventually fail, too, and if you do this conversion it will eliminate that from being an issue in the future.)