JVL Vortex noobie questions.

[Spongebob]

Recently purchased a JVL Vortex, not working but complete. When turning on i get the "No signal" message. I have few questions regarding how to tell if the mother board is good or not. First off I get 4 green LEDs on the motherboard  light up on start  up and then 3 of them turn off, one stays on. CPU fan runs. My power supply tester is showing 3 voltages. +12, -12 and +5. Looks like that is all this power supply produces. The CF card is not recognized by my PC card reader. It says it needs to format the card to be usable. Does this mean the card is no good? Will this motherboard boot up to a bios screen like other motherboards if no operating system present? (such as the CF card not inserted) And what about the IO card battery? Is it required to boot up the mother board or again will it boot to a bios screen? Thanks for any info on this.

[mahkeymike]

No signal means no video is being sent to the monitor. I would check the vga cable is securely connected to both the monitor and the motherboard. If that doesnt fix it, and the motherboard is powered on and running, then you have a problem with the motherboard. I would start by replacing the ram, as you might have a bad stick. Thats best case senario. If you try other known working ram and still no signal, then most likely the onboard video is shot, and you will have to replacve the motherboard.

[Spongebob]

Thanks for the reply. RAM did not fix it. Will this motherboard output any video without a CF card installed and the io board plugged in? Like I asked in the first post, should I be able to read the CF card with my card reader on my pc? I keep getting an error saying the CF card needs to be formatted before it can be used. I figured I would like to verify if the CF card is any good.

[mahkeymike]

If no CF card is inserted, you would see a failure to boot a device on the screen. The fact that you are seeing a no signal on the monitor means the motherboard is not outputting video to the monitor. If its not the cable, or the ram, its the onboard video is shot. Your motherboard is basicly dead. All i can tell you is, you need to look over the board and maybe get lucky that there is blown capacitors that you can replace. If you can't do that yourself, you are going to have a hard time finding someone willing to waste their time on a hit or miss reparing a motherboard most people have never worked on.

There is a reason these JP30 Motherboards sell for $350+ on Ebay, if you are lucky to even find one. I have some in good working condition, but i would be basicly parting them out of a working vortex with minor cosmetic flaws. If you are interested, PM me and we can work out a deal.

Also, The reason your pc is telling you to format the CF card is because the jvl vortex, and all of their other machines use linux, and windows cant read linux partitions so your pc thinks its a blank CF card. If you inserted that CF card in a linux system like ubuntu, it would read that card perfectly fine.

[mahkeymike]

You're in luck. You might want to jump on this. before its gone. The seller claims its in working condition.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jvl-I-Touch-Motherboard-Jp30/324408508320?hash=item4b8840ffa0:g:ozsAAOSwSABeTYSp

[mahkeymike]

You might want to make sure you have a JP30 or a JP20. Both were used in Vortex. There is a special cage and sound board for each JP20 and JP30 that are not interchangable.

I include the correct cage, and sound board. But not for what that JP30 i linked is going for. So make sure you have a JP30 before you buy it, because it wont fit a JP20 cage or sound board.

[Spongebob]

Thanks for all the help. I do have the JP30 motherboard so I jumped on it. Keep you posted on progress when I get it.

[Spongebob]

I got the motherboard and replaced the battery on the io board and it fired up. Thanks. Next question, is there any info on how to disassemble this thing? It is filthy and it needs a good cleaning. Bunch of dirt and gunk behind the clear plastic bezel.

[mahkeymike]

There is 4 screws holding it in. It just pulls out after the screws are removed.