Help with slot machine identification

[Pyromike.au]

I have no idea where to put this post, so maybe a moderator can assist:

I need some help with identifying a slot machine I recently 'acquired' and also getting it up and running.

The slot machine was acquired in New South Wales, Australia. The machine was made by a company called "Star Games" in Australia, probably in the early 2000's. Star Games was acquired by Shuffle Master in 2006 (which, i notice is not listed under Manufacturers on this forum).

The name of the machine is "Genie", pictures attached, and from my inspection on the inside of the machine, its PC controlled with both touch screen and buttons. The expansion cards plugged into the motherboard are "Vidco" cards. The machine has both coin and note input.

When I turn the machine on, after all the lights come on and note-acceptor does a "status check", I get a "CMOS Checksum Error" and that's as far as it goes. Because the motherboard is so old I have had to order a DIN6-PS/2 adaptor from eBay so I can plug a (still old) Ps2 keyboard to try and get into the BIOS (I have replaced the motherboard battery).

Any help with identifying the machine in regards to a website that has manuals/schematics/etc and any assistance with clearing the CMOS error is greatly appreciated.

Slot machines are *heavily* regulated in Australia (more regulated than firearms), so getting this one working is worth a tidy penny. Any help is very much appreciated.

[madmanzippy]

This is a pc3 by stargames or sometimes called starwilliams at the time. I have attached a couple excerts from the manual i had kicking arround, and will look for the complete file. I should be able to get you a whole logic cage if you need. Postage from New Zealand could be a bit, so it may pay to isolate the problem. These were a pig of a machine when ever you touched them, however after sorting out the niggly bits after install, would normally settle down to be trouble free. Re seat everything and I mean everything in the logic cage. Then re seat it again. They were terrible for poor contacts and the amount of technicians who have wasted a large part of their lives finding out that it just needed reseating 57 times before it would work. 

[Pyromike.au]

Hi Madman,

Thank you kindly for the reply, and the attachments.

I have made some progress from the original problem, and I can now get the machine to 'boot', well, technically anyways....

The next 'snag' I have hit is I am getting a decompressing binaries failure' message during startup.  To me, it sounds like its the Vidco game card.  Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts? 

Any help, and I do mean *any* help, would be greatly appreciated....  im more than happy to pay for spare parts/postage/anything really...

Cheers,
Mike

[madmanzippy]

could be the flash rider board, memory board or possibly i/o board. Any one of these can cause that fault. Check the sticks of ram are clean and inserted properly too. The flash rider rarely goes wrong but can. I will see what i can dig up over the next couple of weeks in the way of spares. It all depends on where I am working and who has what.

[Pyromike.au]

Thanks mate.  I really do appreciate your help.

I had a quick flick through the pdf's you sent...  I have taken the cards out and will reseat them, including the RAM sticks.

Pics attached.

How much is a new logic cage ?

Cheers,
Mike

[Pyromike.au]

Pics of the cards, if it helps at all.....

[Pyromike.au]

Also, just as a 'heads up', my enclosure looks a little different to the images in the pdf's you sent.

My enclosure does not have a 'back plane pcb'.  It is more like a motherboard (which has the memory, cpu [and fan]) and expansion slots where all the cards plug in....  it basically looks like an PC.

Sorry Madmanzippy, I know it sounds like I am excited, which is probably because I am.  I didn't think there was anybody out there that knew of these machines, or could help me....

[Gaming1]

Remember having to change three 8 pin ics near battery around and shorting battery to do ram clear

[madmanzippy]

Hey mate, sorry I haven't found anything that could help you with this model. I don't even think the logic cage from the next model would fit, without a lot of rewiring. As for ram clear, i have never had to do it on this board as our ones were next generation i guess. Have you tried just powering up with the logic cage open? It is common (at least in NZ) for stargames to offer the opportunity to clear the ram if you do this. Otherwise i would say that those 3 ic's you refer to are to store each set of meters (most countries require that you have more than one set of softmeters to reference against, normaly 3). You could just swap them around which should work. The easier method that should work or at least worth a try, would be to turn the board over and short the pins between capacitors C9, C11, C12. You don't have to do them all at once, i suggest a pair of needle nose pliers on C9 then C11 then C12. Give it a go