Revenge From Mars
Bally, 1999You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider mattster.
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I'm running RFM via Nucore and the computer appears dead: no fans, leds, nothing.
I replaced the power supply but nothing.
Jumped the power switch pins, nope.
Did the paperclip test and the PS fan runs and one led comes on on the computer.
Prior to this problem the game would often boot to a login prompt and would occasionally reset if it did boot correctly.
I have no idea where to go from here. Any suggestions? The longer this game is down the more desperate I am to play it!
Quoted from CubeSnake:I know Rob Anthony from lockwhenlit.com fixes original Pin2K computers-maybe he does Nucore, too? Just a thought.....
I tried lockwhenlit but he doesn't work on Nucore.
Quoted from Joe_Blasi:Do you have a different PSU to try? bad ram may lead to random reboots but this sounds like some kind of PSU issue. Now a bad PSU can nuke you MB as well.
Yes, I bought a new power supply but no luck. Is replacing the MB a practical thing to do?
Quoted from Joe_Blasi:You can get one that will work with the cpu / and ram in there but try to boot with just the MB and psu plugged in and then start adding stuff like video / keyboard / mouse / drives.
a dead CMOS battery should not stop the system for booting but a weak one may mess up the nvram / bios settings to a point where you need to pull it / set reset cmos jumper.
Yup, I've got the computer out of the game with everything unplugged and still nothing.
How do I reset the CMOS?
Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:I fix computers. The most likely cause of a failed boot is a bad power supply. Since you've tried a new one my next suggestion is look closely at every capacitor on the motherboard. You're looking for any that are leaking or almost leaking. In the photo with the diagonal orange slot the cap on the right is leaking, the one on the left with the flat top looks good.
If your motherboard has the manufacturer and model (mine is shown in the image as GeForce 6100SM-M v1.0), post it and I can help you find a compatible replacement.
Could also be a hard drive issue but the computer should boot with an error message if that were happening.
I've never seen a bad CMOS battery do anything but not remember the BIOS settings.
P.S. The pictured motherboard was still working! We replaced the computer because it was several years old and too slow for photo editing by modern standards.
Caps all look normal.
The MB is by Foxconn A6 VMX Series.
Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:Take out the battery. It looks like a coin. You may have a jumper covering two pins on a three pin connector, moving it to the other two pins momentarily, then moving it back will also clear the settings. http://foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.aspx?T=Motherboard&U=en-us0000346
Next step is remove the memory and blow the slots with compressed air. If you have more than one stick of memory try booting with only one and try it in each slot. Could have a bad stick or bad slot.
Took out the battery and did the jumper thing and still nothing. Also reseated the memory. You'd think at least the power supply fan would work!
Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:I would test the power supply first, disconnect every cable and short pin 16 (the only green wire) to any black wire momentarily. Your PSU fan should come on. Disconnect power to turn it off.
If you have any cards in the PCI or PCI-E slots, remove them. Disconnect any USB devices. Disconnect SATA cables. Double check your power supply 24 pin power cable and your 4 pin AUX power cables. You want nothing connected to the motherboard but the CPU, CPU fan, one stick of memory, the power supply, and the power button.
Attempt power up.
If unsuccessful, try the other stick of memory in the other slot.
If still unsuccessful remove CPU fan and reseat the CPU using the ZIF socket. You'll need new heat sink compound before running it but it's ok to test with the old stuff.
If still nothing your motherboard is probably dead.
Ok, did all this including checking the power switch and still nothing. I guess the motherboard is officially dead.
Quoted from markmon:No. The atx power supply fan only comes on when the PC powers on.
This is a simple matter of rebuilding the pc. That's why you went nucore in the first place. Get a cheap used PC off eBay or such and install the nucore from scratch. Not sure why anyone suggested pinbox. You already have a nucore. You dont need pinbox.
This will work well: ebay.com link
This looks like the answer but I'm going to get a refurbished MB so I can use the Nucore case. The board is 54.00 plus shipping from China.
Thanks everybody! I'll followup when I get the new board installed.
Quoted from markmon:I bet you could even take the PC I pasted and put your hdd directy to it and be done.
That would be cool but then I'd have to find some alternate way to mount the case in the backbox.
Ok guys, I got the new motherboard(amazing it only took a week from China).
I transferred the CPU From the old board, reconnected everything, put the Nucore CD in the drive, booted it and it works!
The only problem is thereis no power to the playfield. The game boots to the screen where I choose game platform using flipper buttons but I can't because everything is dead.
I figure something isn't connected somewhere.
Anybody ideas on tracking this down?
Quoted from MythMaker:Sounds like your parallel port isn't working. It is what connects the PC to the main driver board that powers the switches / lights / everything.
Make sure the cable is connected correctly. If the PC has a parallel port it is possible it isn't enabled in the BIOS. Usually Del, F1 or something when the computer first boots to go into the bios and make sure the parallel port is enabled.
Thanks dude, I'll check it out.
Quoted from MythMaker:I found this on the support forum:
If nothing changes make sure the parallel port is properly connected and that the parallel port is set to port 378 in bios.
The LEDS look correct. They will all turn on only when the computer is properly communicating with the driver board.
Thanks, this is all good.
Quoted from MythMaker:Also maybe turn "plug and play" OS to OFF or legacy port mode on if any of those kinds of settings exist in the BIOS
Legacy port mode is on.
Quoted from scott_freeman:Do you have the USB board with the security dongle connected?
Not sure what you mean. Please elaborate. Thanks
Quoted from scott_freeman:See the attached image. Do you have the green circuit board attached?
Yes, I have it plugged into one of the usb ports on the computer.
Quoted from markmon:How did you verify that the parallel port is connected to the motherboard? Many of these plug in via board headers. Did you toggle standard vs enhanced parallel port options in the bios?
Well I changed it to what I believe is enhanced parallel port and it worked! Power to the playfield now.
New problems: no sound, and system reset during play.
I just hope whatever problem damaged the original MB doesn't kill this one too.
Quoted from markmon:Can you plug in a pair of headphones into the computer rear speaker output jack, (usually the green one) and hear sound? If so problem is between the pc and the amp or speakers. If not, problem is in PC side. Perhaps as simple as sound being muted.
As for system reset. Are you taking about the pin2k game resets like a Williams reset type issue? Or the whole PC resets and you see the bios POST and the machine reboots?
Sound problem fixed. I had the jack plug in the wrong place.
When it resets, the screen freezes and pf goes dark, then reboots back to a startup screen that says american megatrends at top. At this point I have to connect a keyboard to continue the bootup process.
Quoted from DocRotCod:Try reseating your RAM and/or swapping slots on the RAM.
Will do.
Quoted from markmon:Why do you have to connect a keyboard to continue the boot process?
It's prompting me to enter F1 to skip warning or press DEL key to enter BIOS.
Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:You can disable that warning in your BIOS. Go to the "Standard CMOS Features" section 1.6 "Halt On" and change it from "all errors" to "all errors but"
Your computer needs more testing. If it were mine I would disconnect it from the pinball machine and run Linux from a USB stick to see if the computer randomly reboots while testing. If it does, you have a PC problem. If it doesn't, you have a pinball component problem.
Ok guys, here's what I did. Went to BIOS and it's already set to "all errors but". However, the keyboard and mouse were disabled. I enabled the mouse and keyboard and now it boots up all the way!
Played about a ten minute game and didn't reset. I'll give it a workout this weekend to see if the reset problem persists.
Thanks everybody for your time and patience. The collective knowledge base on this site is amazing and it's so cool that you guys are willing and eager to help.
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Norfolk, VA