STAR* TECH Journal
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(PART 1)
SERVIC:E PROCEDURES
In this issue, let's take a look at
the servicing procedure itself.
Skill is something that can be
learned, evaluated, perfected,
and increased. Those who do well
at a job tend to be those who get
excited about not only doing it,
but doing it faster, better, and
cheaper.
Troubleshooting is by and large,
a mental discipline. A skilled tech
is one who can think his way
through a complex problem ~md
arrive at the solution. The pro-
cess is a mixture of analysis and
deduction, coupled with tests,
measurements and substitu-
tions. A large part of being a re-
ally good technician is being able
to maintain that mindset. The
enemies of productivity are dis-
couragement, apathy, failure: to
force one's mind to think logi-
cally, and the temptation to beat
yesterday's high score on what-
ever game is currently in the
shop.
Like all trades there are proce-
dures one tends to follow. In other
words, a successful repair will
have several elements or compo-
October 1992
APPROACHES
nents that made it successful. If
we can concentrate on what
works, then we become more ef-
fective in what we do. The steps
given apply and are used in all
forms of repair, but of course we
are looking especially from the
amusement viewpoint.
The first step of repair is to con-
firm the com plaint. Often the
first matter a game tech must
settle is "what's wrong?" This is
true from the route man who ar-
rives to find an out of order sign
on the machine to the factory re-
pair center who gets a circuit
board. I currently work for a dis-
tributor, so I'm somewhere in the
middle. At this point we all seem
to have the same problem. No-
body seems to know or is willing
to tell us exactly what the prob-
lem is. Anyone talking to us, how-
ever, is agreed on one point- we
need to get the thing fixed.
It is at this point that the team
mentality, or lack of it begins to
help or hurt us. The team begins
with the player unhappy with the
game, through the cashier or lo-
cation manager, through the
route person, operator techni-
cian, shop manager, distributor
contact person, distributor shop,
factory service, sometimes clear
back to the design team that
needs to update something in
that piece of gear!
Too often a technician will fail to
appreciate his team, and his work
will suffer. lfhejust plays a quick
game and does not find out who
put the sign on the machine and
why (not always easy!) he can
miss some very embarrassing
problems. Such as:
V Plugged coin slots. (Atech ~~li
usethe service switch.0rjustflip
the coin wireJ