Batteries themselves dead?

Per "the guide," If your batteries are good:

Step 1:
Is power getting to the U8 RAM chip?
With your game off and batteries installed, put your DDM on DC volts and put the black lead on the backbox ground strap. Then put the red lead on diode D2 on the CPU board. The banded side of the diode should show about .5 volts less than the non-banded side (which should be about 4.3 volts). If only one side of the diode shows voltage, this 1N4148 diode is bad.

Step 2:
test for voltage at the CPU U8 RAM chip. With the game off, you should get about 4.3 volts DC at pins 26, 27 or 28 of chip U8. If you don't, the battery voltage is not getting to the U8 RAM chip, and the game will boot up with the "Factory Settings Restored" error. Note pin 28 of the 28 pin U8 chip is in the same position as pin 1 of the chip, but on the opposite row of pins. Pin 1 is designated with an impressed "dot" right on the top of the chip.

If those check, U8 could have gone bad. If your batteries are good but you aren't getting voltage it's either a cold solder joint at the holder, or something bad in the holder.

_{Post edited by jalpert}

Ok, it was a stab at the obvious.

I wish I could take credit for the verbiage, but it was a copy and paste from "the guide." Years ago we used to have a document that answered about 92% of all the tech questions answered on pinside. The guide got taken offline, and has been largely forgotten about.

http://pinwiki.com has a lot of really good info, but this section in particular isn't worded nearly as clearly or concisely as "the guide."

I've had this issue on three WPC machines. My whitewater is starting to have this issue now.
Those two diodes need to likely be replaced. I've replaced the batteries, has it solve the problem, then a while later the problem starts up again. Replacing those diodes has always solved the issue.
Plus its fun to work on the CPU next to those chip$. Like a game of operation.

My WCS had this issue just last week. Soldered on a remote battery holder and bingo, problem solved. My regular battery holder looked totally fine too, cheap replacement did the trick.

You can also change to a NVRAM chip which negates the need for a battery holder/batteries for ever. For the price you pay for them (about $35) it will eventually be cheaper than replacing batteries every year. The ONLY issue i have found with the NVRAM chip's is that they, strangely, don't keep time or date in the machine (a small issue really), otherwise i have not had any issues in regards loss of high score records. More to the point, in regards your post, i have never had the machines reset back to factory settings in all the time i've used these chip's

Mine is the exact same thing. I soldered the new remote holder wires behind the spot you plug into directly on the board. Fixed it.

Just match up the negative and positive wires correctly and you should be good.

I guarantee there is something wrong with the battery holder.... 9 times out of ten it's simply a cracked solder joint to the board. These holders suck and when people replace the batts they flex the crap put of the connectors and they break. You won't be able to see it unless you remove the cpu board... Reflow the solder at the 6 connections or just do what others said and get a remote battery holder and solder that in. Best to get batteries off the board so they won't leak and destroy it..