Batteries keep dying

[enchanter100]

My g20 with show bios and fam20 games keeps going through the round batteries on the NVRAM pci riser card.  I replace one and maybe 1-2 months it goes dead again.  Could it be the pci card needs replaced?  Other suggestions or ideas?

[sccarlso]

If you are leaving the machine plugged in all the time, and only turning it on/off with the switch inside the machine.  It should barely touch those batteries.

As long as it's always plugged in, it shouldn't be using hardly any power from those batteries.  At one point I had my machines on wifi switches to power them on and off remotely.
But cutting off total power to the machine like that, and I was eating batteries.   Until I realized what was going on by removing power at the power plug!  lol

So if it's always plugged in and they're still dying that quickly, that could be the case.  If you're turning it on and of at the power cable outside the cabinet though, like connecting the power cord to a wall switch to turn it on and off.  That will cause it use up batteries quick.   

Luckily those cards are fairly inexpensive and easy to find if you do need to replace it.

[enchanter100]

This is plugged into the wall and always turned on/off with the games power switch.  Any leads on that card?  I found one on teh bay for 90 bucks..

[sccarlso]

I would post a WTB in the classifieds.   Reaches a lot of people and someone likely has a few lying around.

Also you can post a WTB to the FB group as well.

[dailey]

Sccariso:   
You raised an interesting point about where you turn the machine on/off and its effect on battery life, but I must respectfully disagree. Whether you turn the machine on/off at an external power strip/surge protector or with the cabinets main on/off AC power switch(s), it makes no difference on battery life. Battery drain is the same. In either case, with the AC switched off, the DC voltage power rails (+3.3V, +5V, +12V) are dead and are relying on battery backup. The only factor that alters the battery lifespan of your IGT G20 is the total amount of time the machine spends completely unplugged or turned off. Where the AC is switched makes no difference.

The CR2032 coin cell battery in the G20 should last 1 to 2 years when machine is only turned on occasionally, verses 5+ years if constantly on as in a casino environment.

I welcome other input. If I'm wrong, please correct me. I think this is an interesting subject.

[lookes]

Generally on battery backed up RAM etc, there is almost zero draw on the battery if the power is on. Usually there is either an IC, or two diodes that steer the voltage source. Most I have seen use the 5V bus to reverse bias the diode that is in series with the battery (so it doesn't try to 'charge' it). That 5V powers the RAM or RTC or whatever, and the battery is totally out of the circuit except for sometimes a voltage monitoring circuit. Some newer devices use an IC that does the steering, along with providing a battery low or battery good signal. Those IC's fail once in a while and drain batteries.

[sccarlso]

With the machine off and plugged in.  There is power still on to a few circuits inside when you turn off the power switch, so there is a seperate circuit in the PSU that is unaffected by the power switch.  Which is why almost every manual says to unplug the machine when doing things with the boards and such, not to just turn off the power.   If there is no power at all, the telltale battery will die very fast.  As most AVP's have telltale batteries that are 10-12 years old, and are the old Ni-Cd batteries.   

When in a machine that's plugged in but powered off, your telltale battery or NVRAM batteries/CMOS battery won't die quickly at all.   But if you unplug the machine entirely, or take the brainbox out of the machine and put it on a shelf for a few months.  The batteries in it will likely be dead in a few months.

Also, if you have an IPC progressive controller, and have multiple machines are daisy chained to it through each machine with fiber optic cables.  If power is totally cut to just one machine, it would break the chain, and all the machines would lose their connection to the IPC. 

I had three connected to an IPC.  And if you use the switch inside to power off a machine, the fiber optic card in it still gets power and you can see the activity LED still flashing, so it doesn't break the networking chain even though the power switch is off, and the telltale battery still gets power.  If you do pull the power plug on one machine, the fiber optic card loses power and all the other connected machines will tilt.  Not something desirable in a casino to lose a whole row of machines that are linked if you have to shut off a single machine.

I replaced the NVRAM batteries in all my PCI cards, and the CMOS batteries 2-3 years ago.  And my telltale batteries still hold a charge, but are really old.  I always keep them plugged in. And I haven't had a single battery die in any of them yet.  And they aren't powered on that often, just kept plugged in.