Bally E2000 error 71, above my head, tough one

[joenewbie]

Hello,

Im looking for a bit of help, Rodger Knutson was kind enough to point me to this forum.  I hear your the experts, well I got a doozy for you, ha.  I purchased an e2000 from craigslist.  This is my very first slot machine.  I got a great deal on it b/c the person had gotten an error 71 he could not get rid of.  He told me the machine ran perfectly until this error popped up, so it was in working order at one point.  Also he tried to give me a hundred dollars to fix it for him since he did not want to give it up, so I believe it was working.  Anyhow here is my issue, when i turn the slot machine on i get an error 71 code.  The machine chatters, lights flicker, bells ding, and solenoids fire on/off.  I cannot use reset to clear it.  I do have the manual, so i ran the tests.  Everything seems to work fine except i get all zeros in test #5 for the reel readers.  I have tried moving the reels and there is no change.  I have set all 777's and then started the test, no change all zeros.  I did find some burns in my hopper board which i have replaced, no fix.  I have all my ps voltages, and my mpu battery is at 4volts.  I have read that 71 can be door open error, which my book says first reel one out of alignment.  But my switches are ohmed good and jumpered out anyway for the door.  I can make the machine stops chattering and the 71 go away by removing the ribbon cable from the i/o board (from the mpu) then an error 50 comes on.  I have read previously of a gentleman having the same issue, error 71, all zeros in test 5 in this forum and he had a bad i/o board.  Though i checked all the triacs on the board w/ meter keeping a lead on the left and touching the middle then the right i get: open, closed (for one sec) then open.  They all respond this way so im sure the triacs are good on the i/o board.  plus I can run all the tests perfectly so i think the mpu is good as well.  Here are my thoughts, bad ribbon cable from mpu to io, bad io board???  im not sure.  i can say that i am completely out of ideas.  i don't have another machine to swap parts out of so i want to make my diagnosis as accurate as possible (since I will more than likely have to pay for more parts).  I would love, love to hear from you guys, please help me get this thing up and running.  Please help me avoid the "i told you not to buy it" looks from my wifey, ha.

Sincerely thanks,

Joe

[MarkInAz]

Hi Joe and welcome to NLG.  I hope we can help you with your project.  I must say you are a braver man than I seeing as how my 1st machine was from a retailer since I new nothing at the time about slots other than where the money went in.

So you have an E-2000 with a reel fault.  You have the manual & you've done your homework, so you are way ahead of many folks.  I assume during test #2 you do hear all the reel indexing coils engage (buzz or chatter).  I agree with you that the mainboard is probably not your problem since you can run all the test routines.   I also would tend to agree with you that the I/O board is probably good too.  Seeing as you can not get ANY reel positional information during Test 5 I'm gonna bet your Reel Reader Control Board is the problem.  The reel reader board is under the reel assembly.  Take a look at that guy. 



Good luck,
Mark

[crowdaddy]

Hello Everyone,

I have since bought this machine. It is a E2270. I am a rookie at slot machine repair but I have a strong desire to restore old machines. I need to know where I can get a working Reel Reader Control  board , a working I/O board and whatever parts I may need in the future.

I am starting to troubleshoot this machine and I would like these boards for future use.

Thanks,
Larry

[MarkInAz]

Hi Larry & welcome to the NLG forum.  Try Foxslots, he has a lot of the old bally stuff.  You can email him from NLG or look for him on EBAY.  Another option is to keep an eye open for another Bally E-series machine.  I see them come up frequently on my local Craigslist & for ~$200 you might get a non working machine with may good parts.  Did you get any manuals with your machine?

Cheers,
Mark