ultracade computer replacement woes... info? *FIXED*

[lilshawn]

so we have had this ultracade kit buried up our shop (sans computer) and figure i'd give it a shot at getting it working.

the original computer is long gone before my time here. apparently a victim of bad caps. so we have the I/O board and all the software and harnesses from the old cabinet (since repurposed)
i have read around and found that the i810 or i815 (possibly others) chipset boards can (read "might") work, since that was the original computer chipset.

I pulled a motherboard from a Merrit Force Radion counter-top machine. as well as a spare board for one we had. as luck would have they have a i810 chipset the  other, for some reason, had i810-L chipset. bonus!

I tried the i810 and a brand new 80GB hard disk. - does not like hard disk. no electronic serial # maybe?? says cannot be installed on this machine after disk check.

I tried the i810 and a USED 10GB hard disk. - installed fine, installed game pack fine, (called Global VR for #) goes to attract okay, games select fine demos in the front end play fine, plays "game control" intro. starts game, and then about 2 seconds into start of game intro, screen darkens to maybe 50% and freezes. happens to all games the same way.

I tried the i810-L and the USED 10GB hard disk. - no re-install required i guess, it seemed to work okay.... but operates identical to i810 above. tried re-install, ID is indeed the same, and yes still not working.

I tried the i810 -L and a USED 40GB hard disk. - thought maybe the drive was bad... called for another key since the machine ID generated is different now... identical as above

swapped processor and ram but still not working. is there something i'm not getting here, or should i try to source another board to try? i'm so close, yet so far!!!

[davidrfoley]

There are a lot of variations on the 810 motherboard design.  The freeze after a few seconds was common in several boards.  You are chasing the hard drive, but the hang up is coming from the motherboard.  You can use any Intel CA-810e motherboard, or Intel D815 motherboard, they will work.

[lilshawn]

Thanks, I guess I'll dig around on the e-bay and see what I can get.

how does this look? : http://cgi.ebay.ca/COMPAQ-DESKPRO-815E-INTEL-CHIPSET-MOTHERBOARD-W-CELERON-/150533358532?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230c7cc3c4#ht_734wt_932

[Gray_Area]

Whoa, he returns.

[davidrfoley]

Thanks, I guess I'll dig around on the e-bay and see what I can get.

how does this look? : http://cgi.ebay.ca/COMPAQ-DESKPRO-815E-INTEL-CHIPSET-MOTHERBOARD-W-CELERON-/150533358532?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230c7cc3c4#ht_734wt_932

That one should work.  Chicago Gaming used a lot of Compaq and Dell motherboards on the Arcade Legends builds.  The only compatibility issue was with some of the sound chips but the soundblaster set should be fine.

[lilshawn]

well i received my e-bay board today... if i don't get sidetracked by anything else, i'll have another stab at this...wish me luck!

[lilshawn]

ugh, the damn thing won't boot!

After some searching around (and I should have known being the disgusting greasy corporate entity that Compaq WAS) the damn Compaq boards use their own power supply pinout. causing the power supply to shut down since a bunch of 5 volt and 12 volt lines are being grounded aaaaaaaaaaarghhhh

I'm going to step away for a bit before I start swinging hammers. I guess i'll hack up a old power supply ATX24 connector/plug to make a standard ATX to Compaq ATX power supply adapter. that way I don't need to frig around if the power supply croaks.

*sigh*
Comcrap...I mean Compaq:
http://pinouts.ru/Power/compaq_24p_power_pinout.shtml

Standard atx:
http://pinouts.ru/Power/atx_v2_pinout.shtml

[lilshawn]

well i made an adapter harness to match the compaq pinout and the board still doesn't work.

i'm offically consfuswed. 

Maybe a bum board? can anyone confirm or deny the power supply pinout? all of the searching i have done says it's standard ATX and others say it's proprietary.

[lilshawn]

well i gave up on that particular board. it's part number is 187498-001. it does NOT have a standard 24 pin ATX...and apparently it didn't like the adapter I made for it either... the network controller chip blew up. i don't know if it was because I tried plugging a regular ATX power supply into it and killed it, and the proper power harness finished it off. 

anyways i picked up 3 Compaq Deskpro EN series computers for $10. gotta love kijiji.

I originally bought 1 for $5, buddy was moving and had a bunch of them... didn't have any bites on them so he figures figured hey, why buy 1 when you can have 3?!  so i gave him $10 bucks for his trouble... he even wanted to offload some old keyboards/mice and a monitor... uhm... no thanks.. 3 computers was going to be hard enough to carry back to my van.

they have the same intel 815E chipset on them as the other board... good good... main board has part number 187500-001 (for future reference) P3 - 800mhz 512mb ram it runs good at this speed. (i think the original computer was a 1ghz.) i shouldn't need to upgrade the processor. i do have a couple of Celeron 1100A processors if it becomes an issue. they should work.

so I installed the system disk...cool no problems, called Global to get the basepack install code... twice... aparently the service guy had the machine ID written down wrong. 

installed, tested, works alright. played a few games via keyboard....

now... to decide which cabinet will be sacrificed to the BYOAC god...