IGT Crystal Dual

[sheeptek]

Helloe Nerdss!

Have you come across on a IGT Crystal Dual running a UGP platform?
One of our machine is running a Bubble Blast game, and the drive got corrupted.
Could you please guide me on how to do a full software install? What are the sticks required?

Thank you.

[shortrackskater]

MOVED FROM WELCOME WAGON TO APPROPRIATE CATEGORY: IGT AVP.
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[sccarlso]

Helloe Nerdss!

Have you come across on a IGT Crystal Dual running a UGP platform?
One of our machine is running a Bubble Blast game, and the drive got corrupted.
Could you please guide me on how to do a full software install? What are the sticks required?

Thank you.

Not sure what a "UGP" platform is, I've not heard of that one.  If you have a Crystal Core Dual machine it should be an AVP 4.0 platform.   

But as it's AVP, it's close to the same process to completely restore/reconfigure the machine as the AVP 3.0 platform.

You need to have the following to be able to do this.  Which allows you to do anything on the machine as long as you have the USB keys and a USB flash drive with the required files. 

If the machine isn't flashed with show bios, you'll need to either flash it with the special show bios.  Or have a USB license dongle plugged into a USB port on the backplane for each game you load on the machine for it to run. Without show bios or the USB license dongle, everything will still load, but it won't run.  So you should have show bios flashed to the brainbox so license dongles are no longer required for anything to run.  If your machine isn't already flashed with show bios (any home use AVP 3.0 or 4.0 should be flashed with show bios).  If it isn't, someone should be able to flash it for you at a reasonable cost.  It's a one time thing, and then it's done forever.  And you won't have to touch the bios or keep track of license dongles again.

1.  Ekey7, which is a one time investment for the ekey7 if you don't have one as they cost about $400.  But once you have one, they work on all AVP 3.0 and 4.0 machines just the same.  So if you have numerous machines that are AVP 3.0/4.0 you only need one Ekey7.

2.  A Fam20 diagnostic key.  (required to clear the machines NVRAM, clear and prepare the hard drive, and load the OS files and game file)

3.  A USB flash drive formatted as NTFS that contains the OS loader file, and Ascent Framework file to load the OS which are those two parts.  A 256GB flash drive is recommended for reasons below.

4.  The specific game loader file or many game loader files, these can be copied to the same flash drive which you have the the OS loader file, and Ascent Framework file on already.   As you can load many games at one time if your brainbox is flashed with show bios.  Then you can load one game, but also load many games to be able to select and play them all, up to around 25 or so games.  They just need to be loaded, and enabled/configured when normal setup ste[s are completed on the machine.

If you have these, it's pretty simple to restore any AVP 4.0 machine even if you replace the SSD drive with a blank one.  Pretty much any 2.5" 256GB SSD will work just fine and have plenty of space.

To load an AVP 4.0 machine (all Crystal machines) from scratch:

Replace the existing SSD with a new 256GB 2.5 SSD drive.  If your current one is going bad, replace the SSD, they're only about $25.

Once the new SSD is in the machine:  Install and configure


Plug in the fam20 diag key and also the USB flash drive with the the OS loader file, Ascent Framework file, and game loader file on it. 

When it boots to the diagnostic utility application, you clear and prepare (format) the SSD drive as the system drive, and do an ultimate master reset of the machine NVRAM which is all in the clear utility menu. 

Once complete, you click the Deployment Utility tab, and on the OS tab, the OS loader file, and Ascent Framework file will be listed as available to install.  You install both.

Once they complete loading, you switch to the Games tab, and the game will be listed there.  Select it and install the game as well.

Once it completes, exit and shut down the machine.

Remove the fam20 diag key and flash drive, they're no longer needed.  If you don't have show bios, any license dongles must be plugged into USB ports on the backplane of the machine.  Then power on the machine with the doors open.

The OS will complete installing, and initialize until you're prompted to plug in the ekey7 into the brainbox to proceed.

Now you can complete populating general machine settings, as well as configure and enable the game you loaded earlier.  You're guided through completing these steps.

Once complete, you exit, remove the ekey7, and close all security doors on the machine.   

Assuming you configured the machine basic settings properly and configured/enabled the game.  The machine will now play normally, and can be powered off/on anytime and will always boot up to the normal game playing state.

If you don't have the ekey7, diagnostic key, and OS/Ascent Framework loader files, or the game loader file.  There should be a few NLG members who can sell any of these required things to you if you don't have them already so you would be able to fully reset and reload your machine now, and any time in the future.   Anyone with an AVP should always have an ekey7, diagnostic key, and a USB flash drive with the OS/Ascent Framework loader files, as well as any game files you want to load on the machine.  Then you can always reconfigure your machine, load different games, or be able to clear and load it from scratch if necessary.

[sheeptek]

Hi sccarlso,

Thank you for taking time to response.

The Crystal Dual we have has a UGP framework. Here are the usb sticks i have on hand.

-Diagunv 124
-Diagunv 127
-USB Game Install - Bubble Blast
-Game usb license

Unfortunately, i dont have an OS Stick, as per IGT, UGP platform only needs a game software and game key license to run.

However, ssd is corrupted, i know its not a standard practice to clone the drives, however, i have no choice just for the sake of having the machine an OS again, and will load a different game since i have the game usb stick. however, everytime i boot up the diagstick, go to deployment>game/bundle tab, no game to load. nothing appears. tried using the usb ports on the backplane, tried reaseating everything thats need to be reseated and still no success.

tried using a working machine.. still gets me the same result. and the working machine in used to test, is now not initialising. and stuck at this error : “ Boot Halt: TPM Manager cant initialise “ now additional issue to work on.

[sccarlso]

No idea what this UGP framework is.  Never seen or heard of it.  Perhaps someone else knows about it.  But if all that's needed to run is to load games, if the game loader is on an NTFS formatted flash drive, it should display for install on the Game tab in the deployment utility.  Never had it not display on my machine.

On my Fam20 machine.  If you can boot with the diag.  In the Deployment Utility, for the OS, you should see an OS version listed, and also an Ascent Framework version listed that indicates they are installed already.  If they aren't and nothing is displayed, the machine obviously can't boot by itself from the SSD as it has no OS/Ascent Framework loaded so it has nothing to boot.  If you remember the versions for the OS and AI (Ascent Framework) files, they can be put on the same USB flash drive with the game loader, and they will display in the OS tab so they can be installed just like a game is installed on the Game tab.

If you go to the Game tab, and nothing displays.   Take any USB flash drive, format it as NTFS, not FAT32, and copy the USB Game Install - Bubble Blast file to it.  And it can be plugged into any USB port on the brainbox, I wouldn't plug it into any other USB port except one on the brainbox.  Then the game title should display in the list when you go to the Game tab if it's on the flash drive so it can be installed.

Can't remember if it always auto refreshes when you plug in a USB flash drive with OS files and game files on it or not.  But if it doesn't, there should be a refresh button on the OS and Game loading pages to force a re-read of any attached NTFS formatted flash drive with valid OS/AI and game loaders on it and list them in the appropriate tabs.

On my Fam20 machine, the minimum required is the OS/AI files showing loaded in the OS section.  And at least one game showing loaded in the game section.  If those are loaded, and a Master Reset is done for NVRAM, when shutdown, and the diag key removed.  The machine should boot into initial configuration required.   But if you don't have an ekey7, you can't setup or alter settings on a machine without one.  If you have an exact clone of a drive that worked in this machine before and can restore it, it "might" work if the NVRAM on this machine was never cleared. 

But if NVRAM was cleared at anytime, setup with an ekey7 would be required.  But with the NVRAM cleared, the machine would at least boot until it prompts to plug in the ekey for configuration. 

In general, you can't just clone a drive in one machine and put it in another without clearing the NVRAM of the machine you're putting the cloned drive into.  And if you clear the NVRAM on the target machine.  It should boot, but you'll need the ekey to complete initial configuration on the target machine.  If you have any AVP machine, unless you know someone nearby who can loan you an ekey7, it's something everyone should have.  As well as the OS/AI loader files, and any game loaders on a NTFS formatted flash drive so you can always restore a machine from a totally wiped state, and don't need to clone drives.

[shimabuku]

Just a FYI. Not any SSD will work in these Crystal duals. I tried several variants of Micron 5100 and 5300 Pros that have power-loss protection.  All didn't work. I get the error "The hard drive doesn't support power hit tolerance feature required by writing safe storage to disk, please use an IGT approved SSD drive."

I also tried several consumer SSD's like samsung and crucial. Both did not work either. I've read that Intel DC SSD's are compatible. There's something in the S.M.A.R.T attributes that IGT is looking for.