Firmware (BIOS) CRC checking failed!!

[kamorela]

As I reported in an earlier post the cabinet light in my G20 was blinking on and off really fast. I traced it down to (at least one) bad capacitor in the AC Power Distribution Box (#1 in the attached photo). I replaced all the capacitors on the board and it did fix the light issue, it's now solid 'on' when the door is opened, like it's supposed to. To get to the mounting screws on the Box I had to remove the Power Supply Assembly (#2). I also had the Brain Box (#3) out to get more elbow room to work. Now that I have it back together, I get the following message:

"Firmware (BIOS) CRC checking failed!! System will retry in 10 seconds." The BIOS chip is on the MB in the Brain Box. Pretty sure I didn't do anything to cause it damage. (?)

After 10 seconds it then tries to reboot in an endless loop with the same failure message each time. I do get a single POST beep though, so at least something's working. I have an eKey and Diagnostic key but they don't help because I can't get past boot.

Any thoughts as to what's going on?

[sccarlso]

There are two bios chips in the brainbox.  The machine is a "secure" gaming device.  So if either bios chip fails the CRC check, it halts.

I don't think that would be the CRC check of the diag key itself...   I can't recall the exact message when the diag key fails a CRC check so it may be irrelvant.  But it's easy to mess up a diag key.  If you boot with no ekey or diag plugged in and get the same CRC error, it's not the diag key.  If you don't get the CRC error when booting with no ekey or diag key plugged in, then your diag key got some junk data written to it (usually from it being plugged into a PC), and it won't boot the diag key.  But it's simple and quick to do this test anyway.

To remove the brainbox you had to remove the ribbon cable, which is critical.   Make sure the ribbon cable is connected securely on both the PCI card and the backplane, and all other cables on the brainbox are securely connected.  And that you didn't miss connecting any other cable connected to the brainbox when you put it back in.  Since you removed the brainbox, if it worked before that, seems logical that something may not be securely connected which was before.  And the ribbon cable is the one that can be tricky.
 
If everything is connected securely and no cables were missed and not reconnected when putting the brainbox back in.   All I can think of is to replace the two bios chips, the boot1 chip in the motherboard, and boot2 chip in the PCI card, with a fresh set of show bios chips, should fix the problem.

But before doing that, I'd try removing the CMOS battery on the motherboard.  Also remove the two batteries in the PCI system card (the one with the ribbon cable).  The 2nd bios chip is in that card.
And if you're doing that, it's always a good idea to replace them with fresh ones unless you know they were replaced recently.  One CR2032 battery for the motherboard, and two CR2450 batteries go in the PCI card.  But you can try this without replacing them with new ones as well.

With the batteries removed, the bios is defaulted, and the existing NVRAM data on the PCI system card is gone.   Put the batteries back in, put the brainbox back in.  Plug in your ekey and diag into the secure USB ports and boot.   If it boots to the diag screen with the diag key, well the CRC check would have to have passed.  Clear the NVRAM and Safe Storage only, not the disk...    Once it's cleared, shut down, remove the ekey and diag key and power back on.  Then you'll get to the configuration required screen and just need to do initial machine setup again and enable the games. 

They are eeproms, but it's pretty unusual for either to fail a CRC check if they were fine before, which makes me think something might just not be connected securely to the brainbox as it was when you removed it.

But if you get the same error after that, and it still won't boot with the diag key.  Something isn't right with the bios.  Ony byte out of place and it would fail a CRC check.

Replacing the two bios chips with a known good set of fam14 show bios chips should fix it if you continue to get a CRC error.

[kamorela]

I should know better, but I made several changes and now I get this message when booting normally:

Starting IGT BIOS extension!
IGT PCI FPGA Version = 02; Revision = 08
AHCI detected.
[00]        SIM="" HBA="AHCI (generic)"                 
[00,0,01] type=00 ver=01 resp=00                   Hitachi HDT72101ST10
Unable to access "/proc" (79)

That message is displayed briefly then goes away and the following message appears:

No system launcher is found or determined, system boot fails.

(Note that I do first get the AVP splash screen and a POST beep.)

When I insert the eKey7 and Diagnostic keys I then get a slightly different message, all on one screen:

Starting IGT BIOS extension!
IGT PCI FPGA Version = 02; Revision = 08
AHCI detected.
[00]        SIM="" HBA="AHCI (generic)"                 
[00,0,01] type=00 ver=01 resp=00                   Hitachi HDT72101ST10
Unable to access "/proc" (79)
Searching USB mass storage...

Authenticating USB flash drive...
Authentication successful
Could not find library SystemEx.so

Here's a list of what I changed:
1. The original brain box that came with my machine (I'll refer to is as BB#1) had a MB with a broken SATA connector (see photo). There are 2 SATA connectors on the board so I tried plugging the HD into the other good connector, but then it wouldn't boot. (?) So I switched back. Before switching back I was able to superglue part of the connector that was salvageable but the 7-pin portion that connects directly to the HD still has no support. So...

2. I have on hand another brain box I bought from ebay which they declared 'Tested good', whatever that means. I'll refer to that ebay BB as BB#2. It came with HD, PCI card and MB. The MB has intact SATA connectors and is EXACTLY the same as what's in my original BB#1, same p/n, same components...everything is the same (see photo). The PCI card is also EXACTLY the same. So I switched out the MB and PCI card from BB#2 into BB#1, keeping the 2 BIOS chips paired, if it matters. Between BB#1 and BB#2 I have 2 memory cards, each 2GB, so I installed the extra memory card on the MB that's now in BB#1. I also put in new batteries in both the MB and the PCI card.

3. I've checked and verified all cables and connectors are tight and none are missing/hiding somewhere. The current configuration is essentially the same but with better components than the as-received machine...only now it doesn't work.

Any ideas now?

[sccarlso]

If you moved the PCI card from your old brainbox with the bad sata port to the "tested good" one.   You likely will have to also pull the SOIC bios chip from the motherboard on the old brainbox with the dead sata port and put it in the new "tested good" brainbox motherboard as well.   The chips and numbers mean nothing, they are the same chips, but show bios chips have been reflashed.

Your old dead brainbox likely had show bios chips in both the PCI card and motherboard, they both need to follow each other in a swap.  The one you received that is "tested good" probably has plain IGT bios chips in it's PCI card and motherboard.  But the boot2 chip follows the PCI card, so no need to pull it.

So you have mismatched bios chips.  Thus, the CRC error.

Use a chip puller to remove the SOIC bios chip on your old brainbox motherboard, and put it in the "tested good" one.  If the socket is broken from not using an SOIC chip puller, it's pretty much dead as it won't make contact with the chip properly anymore.  The bios socket on the motherboard is pretty much impossible to replace if it gets cracked.  So make sure you use a chip puller.

Then I'd bet this "tested good" brainbox will boot with the ekey and diag so you can clear NVRAM and Safe Storage and be up and running again.

[kamorela]

I'm not sure I followed you.

To simplify, I had a 'tested good' brain box with MB with PCI card. I took both of those and put them in my original brainbox. Kind of like a heart/lung transplant from one body into another.

In the meantime I took the HD from the 'tested good' brainbox and put it in my brainbox. I'm getting a lot of different red screen of death message, about 4 different ones I think. Prior to the red screens, as it's trying to boot up, I'm getting all the usual boot noises...from printer? money/ticket-taker thingy?

I've never changed a BIOS chip before, I'd need to get a puller and probably try to find a YouTube video on how it's done. I really don't want to do that unless troubleshooting tells me that's what needs to be done. Could it be the HD rather than the BIOS?

[sccarlso]

Reading more on how you did this swap.

You  "I switched out the MB and PCI card from BB#2 into BB#1".  Usually folks just swap the whole brainbox and not the motherboards.

So the bios got switched up somewhere.   

But what you want is the hard drive, PCI card, and bios chip from your bad motherboard with the broken sata connector all with the new motherboard. 

[kamorela]

OK, so then if I understand, all I need to do is switch MB BIOS from old bad MB to new MB?

[sccarlso]

Correct. 

That's the only component that wasn't swapped to the new motherboard.

[kamorela]

I have a chip removal tool on order from Mr. Bezos, will be here tomorrow. I saw a couple videos on how to remove those chips and I can't believe how easy and simple it is...WITH the right tools and a cautious attitude. If this works I'll be pretty happy. 

[sccarlso]

It is really easy.  But ya, essential to have a chip puller!  Still have to be careful, but with the tool to grab that chip, you can just wiggle it a little bit and it pops right out.

Without that puller, pretty good chance you'll snap the plastic socket and then the whole board is toast as it's pretty much impossible to fix a cracked socket.