Need help with this machine

[Dirtguy]

Manufactured: J & T Inc.
For: Thomas trading co. Las Vegas.
Year unknown.
Problems:
Wants to reset after every play.
Goes into unexpected hopper payout.
I have cycled 700 plus coins on these payouts and the max pay on the glass is 300.
Reel 3 malfunction.
I have:
Replaced battery.
Cleaned board connections.
Replaced Reel 3 trigger switch.
Oil and free reel mechanism.
It takes coins and wants to play but malfunction.
Beginning to suspect the board may be bad.
Machine is similar to an old Bally, I think.
HELP!

[shortrackskater]

Please post  larger photos of the machine: one of the inside door, and one inside machine.

[Dirtguy]

Here are some pics.

[shortrackskater]

Sorry for the 6 month delay here!!! Did you ever resolve the problem? You've done what I would have, other than maybe double checking all the contacts and connections. I would also try CAREFULLY lifting and re-seating any IC's (if any) on the MPU or any other boards.

[Dirtguy]

Don't know if it ever got fixed. I put that post on for a friend that was working on that machine and haven't talked to him in a while.

[ThirdGenAmusement]

I came across a similar machine I believe to be from the same manufacturer.  Is there any further info for these machines?  I've looked in the file system but don't see anything related.

[BigWick]

I have a similar machine with an identical Hill Tool Co. CPU board. It required the optocouplers replaced and the ROM to be dumped and reburned because it was starting to develop weak bits.

[ThirdGenAmusement]

Thanks for the reply!  I sent the board to a guy to check it out.  I'll mention the eprom though that worries me!  It's great you were able to dump it.  I have a eprom burner but sounds like they are finicky to get to read if the eprom is having issues.  Attached is a pic of my payable.  If by chance yours is the same let me know.  Thank you!

[BigWick]

Mine was "sleepy". In the cabinet it might take a few minutes after being turned on before it began beeping or glitching and then after a few resets just started working fine.
When I dumped it, for the first few minutes I had bits that kept changing each time I read the chip in no matter how much I cleaned the legs. Eventually I bumped the Vcc to 5.6v and it would consistently read in with an identical checksum and that became my master copy.
Wiping the EPROM and burning the bin file back fixed it, so it was absolutely the contents of the chip becoming weak with age.
My paytable seems to be the same however my software allows for two additional coins.

[Chris-socal]

I never considered that an aging eeprom could lead to faulty reading.
Is your experience that a stand alone reader will be able to copy the bits of data so when you burn a new one the data is complete?
Chris

[BigWick]

I'm using a Willem V.5 which by tool standards is very old and the software isn't great but lets you "persuade" a chip that's being cranky.
Because the checksum wasn't written on the old EPROM I could only guess that after I got multiple identical reads that I got all the data. If bitrot has fully set in, it's gone. I didn't actually know if I had a good dump until it was burned back and tested.