PC won't boot with two Mini-PACs connected

[markronz]

So I've been helping a friend of mine configure a 4 player cocktail cabinet from Dream Arcades that he recently purchased (except we put our own computer in it).   Well in the cabinet, they use two mini-PACs to wire everything up.  They have one mini-PAC for the side-by-side control panel.  Then they have a second on wired to the head-to-head control panels.   What's weird is that when both USB's for both boards are plugged in, the PC will never boot up.  There's no error messages or anything like that, it just hangs there.   If I reach into the cab and unplug one of the USBs the computer starts up almost immediately after it's unplugged.   It doesn't matter which board I unplug, but if there's one or none plugged in the PC boots up fine.   Anyone have any idea why this might be happening?  Or how to fix it?   Once the computer has booted up, I can plug the USB right back in, and everything works just fine.   I'd hate to have to unplug and re-plug in the USB every time you start up the cabinet!   Let me know what you think!

[AndyWarne]

Not sure about this but you could try disabling USB keyboard support or "legacy USB support" in the PC BIOS

Andy

[markronz]

Thanks Andy, I will give that a shot and let you know if resolves the issue or not!

[Encryptor]

You could email Dream Arcades and see what they do with their pc's when they install them. Even though you didn't get their pc I would think they would still help you.

[rcub3]

Isn't this an IRQ conflict issue?  As I understand it, peripherals get an IRQ assigned by the pc every time they boot up. If 2 get assigned the same number, crash. I know this was an issue I used to see with older computers...  I haven't seen this issue in yrs. 

[Hitek]

Are you by any chance using a USB hub?
I originally had a d-link powered USB hub in my arcade cab. When I had my ipac4 plugged into it, the computer refused to get past POST and wouldn't boot. I could also start the machine without the ipac4 connected, and plug it in once the machine got past POST, and all was well. I didn't like this solution, so I replaced the d-link hub with a kensington powered hub, and the problem went away. I'm not sure what the problem was, but the d-link hub and the ipac4 didn't get along during boot.

I had another *kind of* similar problem on my jukebox, but it doesn't actually prevent boot, it just delays it, for literally 15 mins. On my jukebox, I have the same kensington powered usb hub, but this time, if there are ANY storage devices plugged into it at boot (external USB drive, flash drive, whatever) it will literally take 15 mins to enumerate the drives before booting. This one was a simple fix, I moved the external storage devices to plug directly into the computer, and used the hub for mouse, keyboard, wifi and touchscreen connections.

[Encryptor]

Not sure about this but you could try disabling USB keyboard support or "legacy USB support" in the PC BIOS

Andy

Also make sure it's not trying to boot from USB. I've seen that hang up a pc on boot when I forgot to unplug a USB stick that wasn't bootable.

[markronz]

Hey guys.  Sorry for my lack of a response on this thread.   It's my friends cabinet, so it took me a few days to work with him on this.

Not sure about this but you could try disabling USB keyboard support or "legacy USB support" in the PC BIOS

Andy

This is a good suggestion, however his BIOS is a lame HP BIOS, and so far as we could tell, there is no Legacy USB Support option in the BIOS that we could turn off.   Seems weird, like all BIOS' should have that, but apparently not.

Are you by any chance using a USB hub?

We were initially not using a USB hub at all, no.   We did try to move one of the IPACs to be plugged into a USB hub, thinking that it might help, but it did not.  We also tried moving both IPACs to be plugged into the USB hub as well, and that did not work either.

Also make sure it's not trying to boot from USB. I've seen that hang up a pc on boot when I forgot to unplug a USB stick that wasn't bootable.

We did check the boot order as well.   It goes something like CD/DVD then Hard Drive, then USB.  So I don't believe that's an issue.

So this unfortunately is still a problem.  
Just thought of this, but there are USB Mouse convertors that make them PS2 connectors.  Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Female-Male-Computer-Adapter/dp/B004SQANE0
Since the computer DOES boot up with only one IPAC hooked up, maybe using something like this might work?   Anyone think there'd be any issues using something like this with a keyboard encoder like the Mini-PAC?

Or if anyone has any other ideas of things to try, we'd appreciate it!

[DreamArcades]

I did get an e-mail from this customer (I'm 90% sure it's him, first name Troy). If so, he says they are booting correctly now, but he's having an issue with key repeating when we goes to the right. If so, that's a simple matter of the key assigned to "key" getting messed up and needs to be reassigned.

My techs have been in contact with him and even left a v-mail message with him today. Have him setup a time for a phone call with one of our techs, we'll pay the long distance fees.

If I'm wrong and your friend hasn't contacted support, have him do so. We'll need some more info. to get to the bottom, because some 4-player customers ask for the IPAC's to be given different ID's.

I've been OOO for a week or so, but have him contact support and I'll make sure he gets taken care of.

Mike

[markronz]

I did get an e-mail from this customer (I'm 90% sure it's him, first name Troy). If so, he says they are booting correctly now, but he's having an issue with key repeating when we goes to the right. If so, that's a simple matter of the key assigned to "key" getting messed up and needs to be reassigned.

My techs have been in contact with him and even left a v-mail message with him today. Have him setup a time for a phone call with one of our techs, we'll pay the long distance fees.

If I'm wrong and your friend hasn't contacted support, have him do so. We'll need some more info. to get to the bottom, because some 4-player customers ask for the IPAC's to be given different ID's.

I've been OOO for a week or so, but have him contact support and I'll make sure he gets taken care of.

Mike

Yup, that's the same person.   I told him to contact you guys as well.  So he will be in touch very soon I am sure.  I just wanted to post on here as well to get other ideas.    Regarding the boot problem, it's still occurring as of last night.   I think he may have been mistaken if he said otherwise.  When BOTH Ipacs are plugged in, it doesn't boot.  If one or none of them are plugged in, it will boot.  He did request that the IPACs be given two different ID's.   I thought that would only make sense so they appeared as two different devices to the computer.  Do you think that's why the computer won't boot up?  Why would that be?  I would have expected there to be problems in they had the SAME ID, not if they were different.  So that's confusing to me.

And yes, he is having that issue with two of his joysticks as well.  I did help him use the WINIPAC software to assign keys to everything.   I guess I'm not sure what you mean that the key is messed up and needs to be reassigned.   For example, Player 1's joystick has a problem going to the right direction.   This is simply set to the RIGHT direction in WINIPAC, as is the MAME default.   I don't believe is anything else mapped to the right direction key.   But I will let him work with you guys on that.   If he needs my help, I'll join in as well.

So I guess you can still respond here if you'd like to explain more, or else you can wait to work with Troy on the phone.