Need help, no touchscreen detected

[kamorela]

I have an IGT G20 AVP 3.0M slot machine. It arrived with a few issues, one of which was the cabinet light blinking on and off really fast, like a strobe. I described discovering the cause as a leaking capacitor in the AC Power Distribution Box, and after putting everything back together the machine wouldn’t boot. You can read everything here: https://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=46659.0

But there was more to the story. When my machine arrived it worked just fine, but the game display screen had a noticeable yellow tint. I found the cause was a bad video card, so I bought a new video card and replaced it. To do that I had to remove and open the brainbox where I discovered the SATA connector on the MB was broken. It was brittle and looked like half of it had crumbled and the SATA connection from the HD looked rather tentative due to the broken connector not holding the HD connector very solidly. Nonetheless it was working, so I put it back together with the new video card.

Fast forward to the blinking light issue. Since one capacitor was bad I decided to replace all 6 of them. A couple were a little hard to find and a wrong one was sent in error, so there was a delay in the repair. During this delay I found a brainbox like mine with the SAME EXACT MB. It also had a HD and PCI card. I was only interested in the MB with a good SATA connector.

I should mention that I knew absolutely nothing about this slot machine or how its system worked. This is where the plot thickens.

I replaced the capacitors in the AC Power Distribution Box and put it all back together and ran into the issue I described in my earlier post, linked above.

I received a lot of help from another NLG member sccarlso (THANK YOU!), and learned about show BIOS chips and non-show chips, and that there are always 2 mated-pair BIOS chips, one on the MB and one on the PCI card, and you can’t mix-n-match them which is exactly what I had done when I reassembled my brainbox with the new MB. I had used my original PCI card with a show BIOS chip in a MB with a non-show BIOS chip, i.e. they weren’t a mated pair. In so doing I had inadvertently doomed myself to failure. My jedi knight NLG friend sccarlso provided much needed information. It was amazing, like IGT University training. So I’ve now purchased a chip puller and exchanged the BIOS chip from my original MB into my ‘new’ MB. I re-mated my BIOS chips, in other words.

But now, after reassembly everything, I’m getting a ‘No touchscreen detected’ message and nothing I’ve tried has helped. I’ve done a lot of troubleshooting and found that the USB port on the upper left of the backplane board where the touchscreen sensor plugs into has no power, no voltage at all, it’s dead. Worse, NONE of the USB connectors in the USB farm on the backplane board have power either.

I’ve since learned about the USB inter-relationship between the ATX Power Supply mounted on top of my brainbox, the USB output cable on the lower front of the brainbox, and the USB ‘farm’ on the backplane. Somewhere in there, the touchscreen USB connector must be involved too.

Here’s what I’ve confirmed regarding the USB system:
•   5vDC (actually 4.97vDC) exists at the ATX top connector, and confirmed where those wires plug into the USB Power connector on the backplane. In other words the ATX is giving 5vDC to the backplane’s USB Power connector. There is no damage in any of the components or wiring, and a continuity check shows the wiring is not obstructed or diminished.
•   5vDC (actually 4.97vDC) exists at the brainbox front lower USB port, and where its cable plugs into the top center USB-B connector on the backplane board.

Although I'm still fairly ignorant of the workings of the backplane board, I'm pretty sure there should be 5vDC at the multiple USB connectors at the USB farm, where the validator, TITO card, and printer all plug in (which they are also affected and don’t have USB power). Is there a fuse or fusible link or jumper or something I’ve overlooked or don’t yet know about? Why would there be USB power to the backplane board but no power to its USB farm?

I should mention I do have eKey and Diagnostic keys. More info on request. Any and all help greatly appreciated. I just want to play my Davinci Diamonds game again!

Thank you!

[sccarlso]

Just a few added notes, the description and details outline the issue quite well.

This is the first time I've hit a wall on an issue like this!  I've had this occur on one of my first AVP machines long ago.  But it was simply because I had forgotten to connect the USB power cable from the top external power supply on the 3.0M brainbox to the backplane so the backplane didn't get 5V power.  Once connected all was ok again.  All my machines now have 660 brainboxes without the external USB power supply on top of them as it's internal on the 660 brainboxes.  But none of the usual suspects has made a difference here.  The only hiderance is not being right there and looking at it myself.  But she has covered all the bases I can think of.

She also has the older model Kortek touchscreen that has the 3M MicroTouch controller and touchscreen as in the attached pic.  Not knowing the lower display must be VGA, she did switch it to DVI input when the pic was taken, which of course confuses the brainbox and causes the lower video for the actual touchscreen to display on top if both displays are connected to their DVI inputs with DVI cables from the add on PCIE video card.  But she then reconnected the lower touchscreen using it's VGA input so it displayed properly again on the lower screen as it should.  No harm done.

Also, for some reason, the seller she got the machine from installed the same exact touchscreens in both the upper and lower displays.  The top screens 3M MicroTouch controller is present, just not connected to USB.  And the top display is connected via DVI and not VGA.  So an identical touchscreen is apparently fine acting as the top display, and it did work fine before the cap replacements and the brainbox hardware replacements.   She also did swap the touch controllers to see if the identical touch controller not used from the top screen would be detected when installed on the lower touchscreen.  But still the same no touchscreen detected error, and she switched the controllers back.   It's a guess, but I suspect the seller had an extra touchscreen where the touch controller didn't work, but since the top screen isn't used as a touchscreen, and the display still works fine.  They put it in as the the top display, connected it with DVI, and just left the touch controller disconnected.  A bit unusual, but it worked.

None of my machines have the white 3M MicroTouch box on the back of the touchscreen where it's easily removable.  The touchscreen controller is more embedded in my touchscreens behind a metal shield.  Not even sure if it's a 3M MicroTouch controller on my touchscreens or a different controller model since it's not visible.

Something else which I thought was really odd, was I had her connect the 3M MicroTouch USB cable directly to the one USB port that's open below the ethernet port instead of the backplane, to bypass the backplane USB ports and go direct.  So the main USB cable to the backplane remains connected.  But the MicroTouch is bypassing the backplane USB ports and going direct to the brainbox USB port.  Still fails to be detected...    I would think if the backplane USB cable remained connected, and the touch controller had a direct connection to the brainbox USB that it should detect it if there was an issue with the backplane USB ports. 

She does have a printer and BV connected by USB to the backplane as well.  But they are disabled in the machine settings so they wouldn't cause an error if not detected.  But she does note that on boot, the BV does that initial spin up as the OS boots.  She also mentioned the printer makes a noise, but I've never had my printer make any noise as the OS boots, just the BV.  The Tito card was there, so they aren't used.  It just add credits from the Legacy Bonusing option on the Tito, and on cashout it just handpays and you clear it with the jackpot key. 

Another oddity is I had her connect a USB keyboard to the one open USB port on the brainbox below the ethernet port, as in many cases, you can navigate the ekey options on a normal boot, or when booting with the diag using the keyboard if the touchscreen doesn't work.  This also didn't work.  Which made me suspect an issue with the USB ports on the brainbox itself.  But they do have power, and connecting to the brainbox USB ports will charge a USB device that gets power only from the USB port.   Also, as you can enter the bios settings of the brainbox with a keyboard connected and pressing delete as the machine boots.   That wouldn't come up either.  On all my brainboxes I can always get into the bios settings with a plain USB keyboard connected like that.

The machine also has static buttons, so the button deck doesn't have a USB connection and works fine.  Not having an OLED button deck does simplify things.  But if it did have an OLED button deck, would be helpful here to know, as I think it would also display an error about the OLED button deck not being detected, and the touchscreen not being detected as well.  That would really point to the backplane being the fault.

Tough one here!  Hoping one of the AVP veterans wants a challenge, or someone who has experienced this before might have an idea for anything to check which hasn't been, or have some way to determine if it really is the backplane at fault.  If it was my machine, I have a spare, known good 3.0M brainbox, and I'd also swap that in to see if there was any change in behavior just to rule out something in the brainbox itself being an issue.

As far as I know, there are no on board fuses to blow on this machine.  But I only have a G20 v2 where the backplane is a blade with the yellow handle that slides right out.  So I have no direct comparision to her machine other than a G23 v1 machine which "might" have the same backplane in it, but I'm not certain.

All ideas for what else could cause this, or anything else that could be tested to help isolate the cause are welcome.   It's possible, but I think it's unlikely that the touch controller itself has failed.  Simply because it was working just fine before.  And I'm not aware of a way to actually test the touch controller all by itself.  Not sure it connecting the touch controllers USB cable to a PC, just see if it's detected would help to determine if it's ok.  But that touch controller is also used in other Windows based non gaming touchscreen systems, so I suspect if it was good, it would show up if connected to a PC even if no driver was available.

[rickhunter]

I would replace the brainbox.  You probably have bad USB ports since you can't get the keyboard to show.  You should have at least 1 spare per machine as these parts will eventually dry out and you won't be able to replace them easily.  Right now, these are relatively easy to find.

[kamorela]

FWIW, with power to the machine but the machine not turned on I did plug each of the 3M MicroTouch screen sensors into a Windows 7 laptop and they were both recognized.

[kamorela]

I would replace the brainbox.  You probably have bad USB ports since you can't get the keyboard to show.  You should have at least 1 spare per machine as these parts will eventually dry out and you won't be able to replace them easily.  Right now, these are relatively easy to find.

I haven't discovered the differences between brainboxes yet. Users here talk about them by number, i.e. 620, 660, etc. How can I know which brainbox I have? And if others are compatible with my machine? And what do you mean when you say these parts 'dry out'?

Attached are photos of my brainbox.

Thanks for your advice!

[rickhunter]

620 has mpu power supply on top outside like yours.  There are 2 variants.  One is labeled AVP 3.0 P/N 50062001 (single core turion CPU) and the other one is AVP 3.0M P/N 50062100 (Dual core turion CPU).  These are typically not specifically labeled as a 620 mpu

625 has the same internal parts as a 620, but it has the power supply inside under the top cover.  These were widely used on the G2 cabinets, the ones that have the yellow handle for cabinet controller.  They do not require the 5v added to the usb hubs as the cabinet controller provides that.

660 lacks the DVI port on the mainboard.  Essentially a 625 with the DVI port removed and it includes the discrete video card (e4690). 

You want to match the mpu type with the cabinet type you have.  You would need a 620 mpu (I recommend the 3.0M variant).

If you install the e4690 video card in any of the dual core mpu's, they are essentially functionally identical to each other.

The term parts "drying out" means that they become scarce and more difficult to get.  Right now pretty much all casinos have nearly dumped all their AVP 3.x platforms with the exception of the machines running the video poker themes, these tend to stay in the casinos longer and are the last to be replaced.  So right now the parts are easy to get as the machines are parted out and cabinets are sent to metal recyclers for cash.

[sccarlso]

One correction, the only video card you can use is the E4690 model.   The one you listed won't work on an AVP 3.0 box, which is a drag!

I wish it did!  That would be nice!

[kamorela]

One correction, the only video card you can use is the E4690 model.   The one you listed won't work on an AVP 3.0 box, which is a drag!

I wish it did!  That would be nice!

Again FWIW, I've confirmed that my video card IS an E4690.

[rickhunter]

you are correct.  I was confused with the amd generations used for these things.  E4690 is the avp 3.x video card.

[LifeTilt]

You guys put an incredible amount of detail into this topic.

These USB farm cards (and the backplane ports) are annoying.  IGT did not design them correctly.  The ports do not shutdown on an overload, they blow permanently.

Occasionally, when a peripheral is overloading . . . that blows one of the ports - a person troubleshooting might innocently start trying other ports. Sadly, this . . . one-by-one kills more ports.

You might need a new farm card ( just can't do anything about blown on-board backplane ports)

It is important to figure out if a device (or a damaged cable) is blowing USB ports. We don't want to potentially kill another card.

Since a game dongle will light up when it is plugged in, this might be a good test method for determining which ports work and which don't.

Have you tried plugging the touch screen directly into the computer USB port?

The keyboard thing is a little puzzling.  Maybe try a different brand keyboard (I have definitely had one that did not work) and see if you can at least get to the BIOS with the delete key?

Again (You guys put so much detail in, I may have suggested something you have already done)

[kamorela]

UPDATE: the issues in this thread have all been resolved and my IGT G20 AVP 3.0M Davinci Diamonds is now working perfectly. As I mentioned previously, NLG Jedi Master sccarlso was instrumental in providing his  help to this novice. I'm now much smarter, at least as far as my machine goes. Saying 'Thanks!' just isn't enough, but 'Thanks sccarlso' just the same. 

This has been a real head scratcher from the start  . What should have been easy to resolve was anything but, it was like playing whack-a-mole. After weeks of disappointment I decided to put all the hardware back to where it was when it was fresh from the seller and the game was working. So I pulled out the brainbox and exchanged my newer MB with the original one that came with the machine. To do that I had to exchange the MB BIOS chip so that it remained matched with the PCI card BIOS chip. Although the SATA connector on the MB was broken it nonetheless had been working when I got it, so I carefully plugged the HD cable connector into it and crossed my fingers. When I put it back in the slot machine...the USB ports now had power! Eureka! And so did the touchscreen USB port. At this point thinks started to come together.

During a few reboots there were some minor issues, like upper and lower screens were reversed (I never did figure out why that happened) but it resolved on its own. Weird.

Finally I got my game back! But I couldn't play it because I had no credits. I ordered my machine with hand pay for credits, and no printed tickets. When I need credits, I just push the Service button and when I need to make any game or machine setting changes, I need to cash out by pushing the Cash Out button. Now I had to figure out how to set up the machine to replicate the settings to receive credits. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get the right combo. Finally sccarlso sent me some detailed instructions which I followed. But it didn't work. I still couldn't get any credits. After 6 or 7 attempts I gave up for awhile. But I was determined to figure this out.

When I returned to continue resolving the setup issue, it finally dawned on me that the red light was flashing on top of the machine, commonly called the candle light. Mine has 2 stacked segments, white on top, red on bottom. With all the doors closed, it shouldn't be flashing. It was telling me something and I had the document to find out what. In my research I ran across an IGT document called 'IGT AVP System Software User Guide' and in it there's a table that lists the blink codes (i.e. how fast the light is blinking) of each light. I'll attach it to this post. The blink rates are given in milliseconds, so I had to guess how fast mine was blinking as I don't have the means to measure light blink rates in milliseconds.

The code I felt was the right blink rate said, 'Bill Door Open'. I do have a bill validator but it's not configured to work, so I was curious about the code. I didn't know it had a door. I removed it just the same to look at it more closely. Now, I've had everything in my machine out at one or more times since I got it a couple of months ago, including the validator. I've never detected anything wrong with it, but then again what do I know?

I'll attach a photo of the validator to identify latches.

Anyway, I removed it (by lifting up on the spring-loaded silver latch #1) and took it to my workbench and was pondering, when I noticed that the blue faceplate had what I thought was a latch (latch #2). When I touched the latch it simply fell off onto my bench. Huh? Then I realized that the blue faceplate, which could be considered a door I guess, had no working latch. "How long has it been like that?" I wondered. Regardless, it was broken and the faceplate was not secured. So I taped it closed. I returned it to the machine, closed all the machine doors and booted it up. Lo and behold, the candle light was off! I pressed the Service button and was rewarded with credits, and all of a sudden everything worked perfectly.

If any of that makes sense to anyone, please feel free to enlighten us all, because I'm baffled.

I'm happy to have everything resolved, of course, I have my machine working again. But I'm left with a deep curiosity and respect for IGT and how they were able to intricately design so many hardware/software inter-relationships to work together. And how difficult it can be to troubleshoot anything without documentation.

Thank you to everyone who offered advice, I'm amazed at the level of expertise in this group and am very appreciative. Glad I joined!! 

[sccarlso]

Just a hunch.

But after all that, if anything else comes up.  I'd bet that it will be something that's much easier to diagnose and fix!