Ipac4 'forgot' all my buttons

[Creeper]

Has anyone had a problem with their ipac4 'forgetting' all the button configuration and restoring to default? I've had my cabinet setup nicely for around 5-6 weeks and had no problems to speak of. I have probably dumped 80 hours of playing into the thing already without a hiccup. Just now I was playing Donkey Kong Jr and went to exit back to my front end. The game exited but out of nowhere the buttons aren't working right. I restarted the front end but no luck. So I ran the ipac utility and loaded my saved CP layout file. All the buttons are wrong, some aren't registered at all. I rebooted the computer for good measure but same thing. What could have possibly happened and has anyone else every been through this?

It pains me to think that this could be a reoccurring problem. I'm not sure which keyboard keys I had assigned to everything and I've configured quite a few custom controls for particular games.

Is this a software or hardware problem?

[Creeper]

As this problem happened late last night I decided to leave it and see if I could fix it in the morning. Unfortunately the problem has gotten worse. I booted up the cabinet and the player 1 controls seemed to be working, so just to make sure I loaded up the ipac config utility again, but the problem was resurrected. Under the 'key editor' most of the buttons were replaced with 'unknown 212', 'unknown 223' and so on. No buttons are working what so ever now. I took the CP off and started checking the grounds. One looked questionable so I replaced it but everything else was quite normal. I went over them 2-3 times just to make sure but I don't see any other problems. I put the CP back on, booted up the system but it didn't help at all.

The light on the ipac4 is on, and having plugged it into my laptop as well, the problem persisted. It seems it can only be either my wiring or the ipac, but I don't think it's the wiring as I don't see any problems and it's been working great for weeks up until now.

Any ideas? I don't want to bug Andy at Ultimarc if I don't have to.

[Donkey_Kong]

One thing I thought of after reading this (if possible?)...once you get the keys configured and saved just the way you want them, can you save that customization as a file of some kind, and store it somewhere safe in case you should ever get deprogrammed for whatever reason, you could just plug the file right back in.

Sorry, no comment on the actual problem you are having because I don't have a clue...good luck getting it fixed someone around here will probably be able to actually help you.

[Creeper]

Hey DK,

I'm just learning now that there are two types of files you can save for the ipac config utility so if this happens again it won't be a problem. I only saved the one file previously.

After unplugging and replugging the ipac about 10 times, the buttons at least seem to be working now. I went through and reprogrammed all the inputs and everything seems to be back to normal for now...I swear this thing is possessed sometimes.

[javeryh]

I always use a windows restore point and go back if something goes wrong.  In this case you could go back and save your configuration in case it ever happens again.