HELP With Bally Alpha Not Being Able To Clear And Set Up

[erbs]

I have a Bally Alpha Roullett. I am not too familiar with the Bally Alphys. I have had the game for some time. I decided to go through it. Cleaned it up, changed fans ect. The game was working great after cleaning.I had played it several times. I then decided to check the batteries. The battery on the MPU was 2.85. So I changed it. Then I noticed there was no battery on the backplain  Machine was working without the backplain battery ? That was a first for me. So when I put the clear in ( I have the correct one ) it starts to clear for 10 seconds then throws an ( out of range error) that I can not get past.
I have tried 3 clear cards, same one thinking one may be bad. Any help would be appreciated.

[dailey]

Are you saying you could not find the backplane battery, or the battery holder is empty?

[erbs]

The machine was working with no battery in the backplane. I never knew that was possible. I did put both batteries in and still getting out of range error.

[sixcardmark]

Very strange.

[erbs]

Anyone have an idea on this error?

[Stayouttadabunker]

I don't know about Bally's but my thought is why would anyone put a battery on the backplane? 
That's something new to me...unless that's where they keep the watchdog chips?

Usually for backplanes on IGT's, there's only a re-writeable EEPROM - to hold stuff for like a 100 spins right?
Then they re-write all the new stuff over it after the next 100 spins, and so on and so on...
I wish I could help more.

[dailey]

On Bally's, the CR2032 battery on the backplane powers the door status monitoring circuit when power is off.  The battery on the MPU maintains the NVRAM when power is off.

Exactly what model machine do you have? Alpha 1 or Alpha 2 ?  V/32?  Attach a photo if you can.

I read somewhere that an "Out of Range" error on an Alpha 2 during a Ram clear is usually a video problem. Make sure your VGA/DVI cables are securely connected to the MPU without adapters or extenders that might corrupt the signal. Next, the problem might be the monitor or the signal being sent. It's possible the video board is going bad, but first I would try reseating it. Next, try another monitor if you have one.

[erbs]

Dailey sorry for the delay. It is a V32.  Machine was working fine until I went to replace the battery. I have even changed the cables, tried 3 different clear cards. I do have the right clear card according to the bios. It starts to clear for about 15 seconds then goes out and I get the out of range. I am lost.

[dailey]

An out of range error on an Alpha 1 V32 during a ram clear is usually caused by improper battery voltage or a corrupt clear procedure.

Verify you are using the correct batteries, CR2032 and CR2477N, and they are >3V.  Reseat the batteries. I once had a CR2477N battery connection in the MPU socket fail. I just rotated it a bit.

Ram clear three times. If it fails, repeat. On the third time it does it slower.

Be sure the MPU is fully seated.

[erbs]

No luck. Batteries are correct 3.26v. Checked all cables, Mpu is seated correct. Tried clearing several times gets as far as in the pic then goes black, then out of range. ??

[dailey]

Test with an External Monitor: Plug a standard VGA computer monitor into the video port on the MPU (brain box). If the external monitor displays the clear menu, the issue is with the cabinet monitor's ability to handle that specific signal or a faulty cabinet monitor.

[dailey]

What clear card are you using?

AVOCLEAR0335-01 (Clear 335): The most common clear card for the Alpha 1 V32
AVOCLEAR0312-04 (Clear 312): Typically used for older OS versions, such as OS 317.

[Stayouttadabunker]

On Bally's, the CR2032 battery on the backplane powers the door status monitoring circuit when power is off.  The battery on the MPU maintains the NVRAM when power is off...

Thanks for the explanation Dailey.
I kinda figured the backplane battery was for watchdog monitoring.

My two cents on the "out of range" message.
I've seen similar messages like this because of flakey power supplies, or a bad, burned ground pin in the power connector housing to the monitor, on other video machines.

[erbs]

Thanks dailey, I will try that tomorrow. I'm using the 335. The right one for the bios. I did also try another PS too.

[erbs]

I tried the external monitor and it did display the clear menu. I will check with some different cables than I did last time. What I don't understand the monitor was working great before trying to clear. Possibly the video card? One last message that flashed before going blank was  Fixed Disk 0 : Sandisk SDCFB-64  Not sure if that meant anything.

[sixcardmark]

Sandisk SDCFB-64   64mb sandisk CF card.

[hsjerry]

I tried the external monitor and it did display the clear menu. I will check with some different cables than I did last time. What I don't understand the monitor was working great before trying to clear. Possibly the video card? One last message that flashed before going blank was  Fixed Disk 0 : Sandisk SDCFB-64  Not sure if that meant anything.

Out of Range from my experience has sometimes been caused by newer OS and BIOS with the video card. On one of my Alphas it won't load the display on older video titles on a brand new monitor. I recall that using an older bios and OS will fix the issue, so try a 320 OS and Bios and see if you can get to the clear screen, note you will need AVBBPRORIMPU‐01 or AVBBPRORIMPU‐02 to run 320 OS and 320 Clear.

One more theory you COULD try is removing the video card THEN booting up ram clear. See if you can get to the clear screen.

[erbs]

Hsjerry, Thank you for the info. I will give it a try soon as I get a chance. Been really busy with other things lately.

[hsjerry]

Hsjerry, Thank you for the info. I will give it a try soon as I get a chance. Been really busy with other things lately.

Good luck!