Making a hard drive from scratch

[CycoGuy]

Okay I recently picked up a couple IGT slants and have some software questions.

Story first. These are my first machines ever. I knew they didn't work when I bought them, and that was the fun. To get one going. One was a G22 slant and it was just for parts as it was pretty dirty and beat up. I've stripped and cleaned everything and all the parts are now on the bench (both monitors worked great). The other one is a Universal Slant with the 22" MLD screen. That is the one I am getting running. It had a bad power supply so I scavenged one from the parts machine along with the connector from the parts machine as the connector on the harness in the good machine had a couple burnt/melted pins. Then between the 2 machines I got 15 good, working edgelit dynamic buttons after taking them all apart and cleaning them (I needed 14 and so I have one spare). With all of that the machine now turns on but I never get the IGT splash screen. Originally when I turned it on I got a "No IGT signature is found" message. As I didn't know the age of batteries, I changed all of them except the one in the suitcase. Well of course now I get a "No mass media devices detected, system halted" as I need an ekey7 and diagnostic drive to go any further. Those are on the way. So troubleshooting will wait for that.

But I'm thinking the hard drive may be bad. It's a SSD but looks a little sketchy (it is wrapped in electrical tape). So the machine has a 625 brain box but it also has 2 sticks of 2gb ram (4gb total) and a E4690 graphics card along with the aforementioned SSD, so it appears to have been "upgraded" at some point. The sticker on the back says AI014-A03 for OS. I am not sure what boot chips it has (the one of the PCI card is labeled 70624400W, the one of the motherboard is 49LF004B 33-4C-NHE although I'm not sure that means anything). The motherboard itself is part number 102-G0193-04, which I believe makes this a AVP 3.0M board. I am thinking about just buying a new hard drive, a set of show chips, an OS USB and a Game King 8.3R USB.

So my questions.

If I start with a clean SSD, does it matter what drive I purchase? I've heard SanDisk and Transcend work in these machines. Recommendations? Cheaper the better, I guess.

Does it matter what show chips I buy? I found a source on ebay and they say that they are family 14 show boots. Does it matter what motherboard or OS I have or will these work regardless?

What OS should I buy? I can find a bunch on ebay but they're all different versions. I find AI014-A09, AI014-B04, AI014-B0E and AI014-B0F. I believe that there is a difference between the A series and the B series, but I don't know what it is or if it matters. Is one made for the 3D games that MLD supports? The sticker on my machine is A03, but again, it appears my machine has been upgraded so maybe that is outdated.

Finally, the game itself. I would like either Super Star Poker (original or version II) or some Game King Software (it looks like 8.3R is the "newest"). If I could do both, that would be cool. Basically I want pokers including Super Times Pay and Ultimate X as well as slots. I may not even need the Game King but I'm not positive. Advice?

Thanks for hanging in there and educating this newbie. I have had fun getting this all cleaned up and working this far, I'm looking forward to getting a game actually running.

[shortrackskater]

 

Surprised no one has replied yet. Maybe bumping it will help. 

 

[CycoGuy]

I got it all working. Ended up using a Kingston A400 drive mentioned by others. Loaded up the OS (AI014-B0F) and Super Star Poker. Had to change boot chips as I found out the machine I bought (that wasn't working at the time) actually had Family 20 on it. So I took the Family 20 boot chips and the hard drive out so that I can go back there down the road if I want to try it. Machine is now up and running well. Still need to add some more slot games as Super Star Poker doesn't have any that are very good, but it has all the poker games that I really wanted so that's why I went that way. Many thanks to the members here who helped me out. I have learned a ton and am ready to continue down this addiction (I mean journey).

[Chris-socal]

That is a really good summary and follow up. Glad you got it working.