61 code mystery

[aklarry]

  Got a call today lady with a IGT black widow said every once in  a while ( several times a day ) the machine will go into a 61 code and she has to turn the machine off and back on again then will play for a while. When I got there it was setting in a 61. tried holding the reset but nothing happened. turned it off and on came up and worked fine, didn't do it again. any idea what its doing
AkLarry

[jay]

We have had several threads over the past few years where a 61 has occured after a Battery Change and will not clear or respond to the self test button.
Typically you get a Battery Low (error 12) and the game locks up, you change the battery and then the 61 just sticks.
The solution has been to run a clear chip through it.

I can't say that your problem is exactly like this one, but a 61 that won't clear seems to have the same ring about it.

I am curious that after you recover from this locked up state (via vi) turning the power off/on if the self test button also works again or if it is still dead.

My approach to the problem would be to run a clear chip through it. If the problem comes back after this I would change the battery.

There are two CMOS chips - one on the MPU and on on the Motherboard. These chips do have a life-span (its like into the multi-multi-millions of read/write cycles) and it is possible that one of these chips is starting to go.
After about every 100spins the S+ platform pauses and updates its CMOS. It could be that this is the cycle that your machine develops its 61 error on...

So If it is still mis behaving after the clear & battery change I would first do a MPU board swap and if it is still persisting then I would do a mother board swap as well.
Once it stabalizes we can then go back and start swapping chips and such to see if we can re-create the problem and isolate the component.

[aklarry]

  haven't tried a clear yet but the test button works fine after restart
AkLarry

[jay]

61 basically is telling you that you have mismatched information to what the CMOS has. Its not corruption but its close.
Holding the selftest for 3 seconds changes to a 61-1 and then the game is initalized and so on.....

So by receiving the re-occuring 61's it seems that the game is being forgotten about and the CMOS needs re-initilizing.

The clear is designed to wipe the CMOS and bring it back to factory normal ....

If it still persists after this I am thinking battery, and then cmos chips......