Williams Jackpot Stampede deluxe dot fail

[eubie01]

I am new to this board and slot repairs. I am getting a Tilt dot fail message on the front. Can anyone help with that error? Also all the LED lights on the CPU board are on.
Thanks.

[tollguy316]

Need a bit more info... When you say all the lights are lit ; is that all 5 to the right of the board   What about the one on the left side of the board ?  When you turn the machine on; do you get any bongs ?  When turning on; what happens ?  does anything light up ?  What does the dot display do ?   etc...    Bill

[knagl]

Dot Fail is ususally because of a fried upper (Dotmation) power supply.  Pretty common on these machines.  Does your Dotmation screen come on at all when you turn the machine on?  If not, it's VERY likely that power supply needs to be replaced.  See this thread for more information:

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=90.0

[tollguy316]

Kevin is correct... Only other possibility is to make sure both boards are seated firmly and it's also possible that one of the chips in the dotmation box went bad.... Bill

[eubie01]

Hi,
Thanks for the help efforts. Yes all 6 lights are on and when I turn the unit on it bongs and initializes and then bongs again with another initialization. It will work for a while (maybe 1/2 hour then will have the dot fail message. I should mention that I replaced the voltage regulator (inside the power supply) about 1 1/2 months ago. My Mom has played this machine a lot since then. We always leave it on since the guy that sold it to her said its better for the power supply. Thanks again.

[eubie01]

Forgot to mention the Dotmation screen is working.

[knagl]

Forgot to mention the Dotmation screen is working.

That's interesting.  The screen is working and still on even when the DOT FAIL message appears?

If so, it's possible that there's an intermittent data connection between the base of the machine and the Dotmation box.  Go ahead and turn the power off, and then carefully remove the top glass from the machine.  Now, loosen the small bolts on the top of the Dotmation box just enough that you can slide the display off, and slide the Dotmation display to the side to remove it from its enclosure.  You may want to have a second person with you to help with this since you're going to be juggling fragile stuff.  Now, carefully unplug the ribbon cable that connects the circuit board in the Dotmation box to the bottom of the machine, and then re-connect it right back where it was (we're simply re-seating the connection in case it's not connecting well).  Put the Dotmation display back in its place and tighten the bolts.  Now, follow that cable out of the back of the Dotmation box and find where it connects to the fixed motherboard/backplane in the back of the machine.  Carefully remove and re-seat that connection as well.  Now, try the machine again and see if that made a difference.

[eubie01]

Hi, OK just did as you suggested. Same thing happened after about 5-10 minutes of play.

[dale]

Might be a lower power supply with an intermittent problem.......

[eubie01]

Is there anyway to diagnose the power supply issue? I know its not the voltage regulator since I replaced that with a brand new one.
So a few more questions......
 1 Are the two initializations normal?
2 Is it normal to have the left Led lit on the cpu board
3 I see reference to an upper and lower Power supply. Could you tell me where the upper supply is located?
Thanks again for everyone's help.

[dale]

Dot Fail usually is a power supply issue along with the left light on. That light should be off if its running normal. The Upper power supply is inside the Dot Box. If the Dot screen is working I might be leaning towards the lower supply. This is why you need another 40x to swap out parts to help diagnose, lol.

[eubie01]

Hello again, so I finally had time to pull out the upper power supply and sure enough its burnt. So any ideas where I can get another one?
Thanks

[knagl]

It being discolored doesn't mean that it's shot.  If your Dotmation screen is working even when you get the Dot Fail message, I wouldn't immediately suspect that power supply.  If the Dotmation screen is going out and the error appears, then yes, it could be that power supply.

According to the information you've given us, the screen is working at all times, correct?

[eubie01]

Yes, it is strange that the Dotmation screen is still on but look at the pictures. Not sure what the white block things are but they appear burned at the bottom and the capacitor looks like its bulging?

[tollguy316]

The white towers always look like that....

[knagl]

I agree that the capacitor appears to be bulging a little, and the number one cause of those power supplies dying is the fact that they get too hot in the enclosure and fry, but as I stated before, if the Dotmation screen is on and working, it's getting power.

[Buzz]

This has nothing to do with the problem at hand, but I've been moving the upper power supply out of the inside of the Dot box and mounting it on the back side of the Dot box to get it out of that little oven. Use the same screw holes but put a spacer between the power supply and the Dot box to keep it from shorting out. Both the ribbon and regular wire harness are long enough. This is also one of the few machines that I believe needs a exhaust fan.

[eubie01]

Thanks for the idea of placing the power supply out the enclosure, seems like that would keep it cooler.
I put the upper supply back in the machine and powered it back up. It lasted about 3 minutes and the error happened this time the dotmation screen finally failed. It will not turn on at all anymore. I think I may attempt the ATX power supply fix.
Thanks again for everyone's help!

[dale]

nevermind

[eubie01]

Oh, just to clarify, the machine turns on but the dotmation screen is black.

[knagl]

Sounds like the upper then. You can do the ATX fix without damaging any of the factory wiring. Worst case is that you'll be out about $20 if it doesn't fix the problem.

[paul]

that is good advice

[eubie01]

Hello again, I am actually just getting around to working on the upper and lower power supply fix. I had everything ready to go, but when I opened the lower power supply up I realized its not exactly like the one in the referenced in cfh's fix. So I don't know which "two .156" molex connectors" to disconnect inside the original lower power supply. I believe the original power supply must have been replaced with a Piggy bank one so it looks different, please see the photos. I am not quite sure how to proceed, can anyone help?
Thanks.

[knagl]

Well, that's interesting.

It actually looks like someone has already replaced the original lower power supply with a new one.  I don't believe that box with the yellow sticker on it is a factory WMS job.

Based on your previous posts, your lower power supply is working properly (and likely will for a while since the original crap power supply has already been refurbished by someone else).  As such, I wouldn't touch that at all and I would just go for the quick and dirty ATX fix for your upper power supply (explained in this post).  As I mentioned previously, you can do that fix without having to modify any of the wiring in the machine, and you should then be good to go!


(If you're hell-bent on replacing the lower power supply, look closely at the picture below from CFH's post -- you can see where the key wires from his fix match up with the wires in your modified power supply.  The green with yellow tracer, black with purple tracer, and white with purple tracer wires shown at the bottom of the power supply in your picture match up with the small harness in his picture.  The remaining wires (red, black, yellow, blue) all appear to match up with the wires shown in the larger harness in his picture.  I really urge you, though, to not waste your time with the lower power supply in your machine, as it looks like it has already been repaired with new components.)

[eubie01]

Hi, So actually the " box with the yellow sticker", the voltage regulator was replaced by me, it  had a melt down. I replaced that and was good to go for a while, then the upper power supply failed. I then did the ATX fix for the upper supply and it worked for about 20 minutes and I got the dot fail again. I figured that since I had the ATX ps, I would go ahead and use that for both the upper and lower power supply fix. I had everything ready to go and when I opened the lower supply that's when I realized its from a Piggy Bank machine (which was written on the box case, that was replaced by the previous owner). So I circled the wires in yellow that I think you are referring to remove? Please let me know if its correct.
Thank you again for your help.