Bally's E-831-4 error

[motogizmo]

First time user.  I have had this 1982 Bally's E-831-4 for several years now.  Picked it up at a garages sale.  Its a 3 line 25 cent 777. It has never worked.  It was taken out of service in 2004. I had a slots "expert" from the local casino take a look at it a few years back. She told me that it needed a key chip to re-flash the prom. If I could find one it would work perfect.  After reading a lot of posts on this sight and reading the manual for the E1000 and E2000 I don't know that she had any idea what she was talking about.  The lithium battery was replaced in 2004. That is all the background I have on the unit.

When you apply power to the unit most of the lights come on. The LCD flashed a 2 in position two, and then a 3 stays lit in position 6.  Hitting the reset button or the test button does nothing.  It does not register coin fall.

The handle is locked.  If you manually override the handle and pull the reels spin and spin, but never lock. If I remove the reels I can manual lock them buy pushing in on one of the reel lock solenoids. This may be a case of old cold lubrication causing the reels not to lock. I will clean them and try again.

I know there are some lighting wires that need to be fixed.  There is some corrosion issues, and there was a mouse in the machine at some point......

The game never successfully starting up is the first big problem. Any ideas about the error code.  It is not covered in the manual that I downloaded.  Unless it is a memory chip failure on chip 3. I will test the lithium battery tomorrow to see if it holding any charge.

[proten]

Welcome to NLG.

You have a Bally E1000 slot that looks to be in good condition.
The first thing is the battery, the battery is a Lithium cell and it needs
to be a 3.6 volt NIMH rechargeable cell. Next the E series machines
don't use key chips, so I don't know what your slot tech is talking about.
Next the big problem with the E1000 is the small ram board that the battery
is mounted to, the pins loose there connection or the pins have bad solder
joints which give you the ram errors.
Here is a link to a good manual here on this site that may have more info.

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?action=downloads;cat=98
 

[motogizmo]

Thank you for the fast response!  I guess I am posting in the wrong area then???

I will pick up a new battery today.  Thank you for the link for the manual.  I downloaded that yesterday and have read through it twice.  I must admit it is not all that clear on some points, but Ill keep reading it a few more times and hope that I understand more if it.

It is good to know that I am not needing any key chips.  I will pull all the chips on the the boards and clean them up one by one.  The entire machine needs a good cleaning, and verifying. I will go after it little bit at a time until everything works!

[proten]

Yes one of the moderators will move this post to the right 
place but I would try cleaning the pins on the small ram board
first as that should fix your problem.
Be carful pulling the chips as the legs can break off and those
old chips are getting hard to find.

[motogizmo]

I fixed some wiring bugs so all the lights work now.  I had the MPU all apart and all the connections looked good.  The lithium battery has 3.6 volts when the board is removed from power.  It keeps its charge for hours, no problem.  I hesitate to make any change to it when it is doing what it needs to do.

The error did not change.  It will not reset or start any self tests. I have added a set of punctures of the sequence the coded come up. This set of codes is not covered in the manual.

javascript:void(0);

[proten]

Here is the start up error codes, Looks like you have ram chip failure.
But it is most likely that the small ram board is not making a good connection
and causing the error.
Pull the MPU and check the pins for the ram board on the back side, the pins will break the solder
joints on the back and you get a bad connection. Look the small ram board over for acid damage, look for
bad trace lines.

The battery need to be a rechargeable battery as the board has a charging circuit
built in and can cause the lithium battery to pop.

[motogizmo]

I re-soldered all the Pins.  There is a little acid damage on the pathways under the battery, but they all test good for voltage and continuity. No change in the operation.  I purchased a new board from the web "guaranteed".....?  We will see if that fixes it.  The wife moved the machine into the house, and gave it a budget. I noticed that one of the ROM's had been installed backwards.  It was hot to the touch.  I flipped it around the right way, and it cooled down fast.  It may be toast. Who only knows how long it was like that?

It will be good to have another board to eliminate that as a problem.  That is the first thing that is recommended in the manual for suspected  MPU problems. I have solved several shorts, and have all the lights working now, so that is a positive.

[proten]

If it was in backwards then its toast.
Which one was in backwards?

[motogizmo]

U26 (from the book) or U5 (off my board)  (DV74Ls27N AGV9437DDi),  Changing the direction of the chip did nothing for correcting the error code.

[motogizmo]

So i point to point repaired the piggy back board were it had acid damage just to be sure that was not the issue. NO change.

I re soldered ever connection on the board.....No Change.

I found a broken connection at connector J5 pin 1.  When I fixed it.... No change.

I find that if I move the board around on its pins I can get a change in the error code to a 2, 0 or it will clear all together.

If I hold connector J4 pin 2 just right I can get the error to  change to 2, but it is very hard to get it to do it.  I can not reproduce it every time no matter what I do. I think I am just breaking the connection from that pin to the board. I pulled the boards out and soldered that pin a second time just to make sure.  It checks out with continuity.

 javascript:void(0);

[proten]

 Have you checked the output of the power supply.
I'm thinking you may have a power issue.

[Amachanic]

How do the connector on the small ram board look? The battery acid likes to eat them. They are one of the weak links on these boards.

Gary

[motogizmo]

It looks good.  The acid damage is small and located to an area smaller than a dime right around the positive end of the battery. I have checked to continuity of all the pathways on the board. 

If I remove the small board and turn on power I get the 3 same error that I get with the small board in.  I checked to make sure I had 4.8 volts every were on the main MPU board and it seems to be getting enough power.  I am tempted to start pulling game proms out to see if the error changes.

[motogizmo]

Making some headway. On first powering up it flashes _ _ _ _ 2_ for one second. Then error code 0_8._0_ is lit.  Then the coin lock out solenoid is powered.  I look in the book and I don't see anything like even close to this. The buzzer goes off about once every 5 minutes for 3 seconds. I can get the machine to go into test modes.  It shows some lighting issues, but the manual tests don't follow the book at all. The hopper test works just fine. Any ideas.... Please!

[OldReno]

I'm not very good on Bally electronic machines, but do all your input tests read? can you test your outputs??  Can you read your reels in reel test?  Again, not good on the Bally E's, but figure out which of your tests are working, and perhaps someone can give suggestions based on that...?

[proten]

We need to get this moved to the  Bally E series posts.
Then there will be mor help.

[motogizmo]

That would be great!!! I am sure this is a typical new user mistake.

[motogizmo]

So got all my boards and real reader back from Dan (dhellis).  The machine works!  For the first time you can put quarters in and the reels go around.  Dan is a wizard with these old slots.  I wish I had hooked up with him much earlier. in the project. 

The PROM board had bad chips on it.  The OI board almost all the buffer chips were bad.  The power supply had no 5 volts on it.  The reel readers had bad photo transistors on them. I would never have gotten this fixed on my own.  There are a few little bugs left to work out, but this is a going to be a great little machine for home use.

Dan was great to help me though finding what needed to be fixed.  His price was very good.  His customer service is some of the best I have experienced recently.  I am very impressed. If you are having any issues with your old slot drop him and IM.

[OldReno]

Very impressed also.  Good to know there are folks who can help with these old electronic machines.

[motogizmo]

He saved this one from the scrap yard or parting out on Ebay.  This site in general is great. Thank you to everyone that helped out with my problem. Now to hit a jackpot!!!!!!!! All the quarters will go into my daughters collage fund. I think she has cleaned the old man out for 50$ or more at this point! LOL all good fun.