ION Hard Drives

[smartbomb2084]

Any of you coin-op techs find any alternatives to using purely MERIT approved drives?

I was told that although a non-MERIT drive will work it could cause a lag in time between when the screen is touched and when it responds...  any truth to this?

Also.. anyone know of a source for 2.5" Notebook IDE drives?

[lilshawn]

i know for sure after the 2005.5 update you can use any hard drive. before then, they wrote a custom firmware to the harddrives and the software calls the firmware ID from the drive. if it's anything but merit0001 (or whatever)  then it doesn't run.

people pissed and moaned about it enough that merit changed the software to eliminate the call.

you can:

edit the firmware so the drive ID says merit001 instead of samsung HM120
or
buy an IDENTICAL maxtor drive and transfer the logic board over
or
upgrade (if need be) of post 2005.5 software and load your own drive.

if you already have post 2005.5 software just pop in a new drive and re-install the software off the factory disks.

[MegaBitMike]

Do you mean 2005 jade or 2005 force? I had 2005 force cd's and key and i swear i was able to use some standard 3.5" ide drive when the official took a dump. Its been so long and i no longer have the cd's. It appears merit/ami only hosts 2005.5 anymore. nags me i cant test  , but oh well.

[wicky]

edit the firmware so the drive ID says merit001 instead of samsung HM120
or
buy an IDENTICAL maxtor drive and transfer the logic board over

[ed12]

no it means
in the linux kenerl of the mbr u place merit001
instead of the hardrive barking back it's s/w bios code..ie segate/wd/size
as mackymike..he is def a better hand at explaining then i,but it is do able

ed