Megatouch Auto Test

[didgey101]

Hello all,

Ive just joined this forum so please excuse me if im in the wrong bit..I have a Megatouch Force 2006.5 upright cabinet in my home and as my Daughter went to switch it on this morning it displays the message "Auto Test" and thats all it does!!
None of the fans are running and it just stays on the auto test screen..
Anyone got any ideas where I can start looking please??

Very many thanks....Tim

[smartbomb2084]

Sounds like your power supply for the Motherboard has gone bad.

If not the power supply then the Motherboard itself is bad but a bad power supply is more likely.

The 'Auto Test' you are seeing is the monitor displaying its own internal video signal because it does not have one from the Motherboard to display.

Does your power supply look like this?    http://themegatouchstore.com/memafoposu.html

[lilshawn]

this is the monitor test screen. shows your monitor is good.

your bios battery on the motherboard may have died on you. the default setting of the bios is to have the computer stay off if the AC power  has been lost... the megatouch software requires the setting to be ON so when you power up the cabinet, the computer comes on too.

see if you can locate the power switch header on the motherboard and see if you can jump it to power it on.

alternatively you can try finding the green wire coming out of the power supply and down to the motherboard connector... place a wire into that cavity and touch the other end to ground and see if it powers up.

in either case if it powers up, replace the battery, then, if you hook a keyboard up to the computer and change the "on AC power loss" setting to ON, you should be back in business. (don't forget to save the changes)

[smartbomb2084]

Never had a FORCE ECS motherboard not power-up due to a dead battery...

Are you sure you aren't having a MAXX Unicorn Flashback or thinking FORCE ECS ION which does NOT power-up with a dead battery?

[didgey101]

Hi all. Thanks for the replies. I thought I found the cmos battery but I think that turned out to be the dallas key dongle thingy. The picture of the power supply in the first post is the one I have. Is it worth changing that first and if so where can I get one in the uk? Many thanks. .tim

[smartbomb2084]

It would be the first thing I would try....

Can't help you with UK availabilty on one.. stuck here in the USA.

Contact the Daveman at the link above and he may hook you up with one or even try EbAY.

Also if you have any kind of computer type switching power supply with a 20 pin connector you can hook it up to the motherboard as a test to be sure it IS the power supply.

It will work but it probably won't fit into your cabinet correctly.

 

[didgey101]

Hi. I have a atx pc power supply I could try. Without sounding stupid can I just put it straight in to try it. Pc power supplies in the uk work on the 240 volt ac input and I know the megatouch is a usa originated machine but I take it I dont have to alter the voltage at all?

[didgey101]

Me again. I have just tried my atx power supply and cmos battery from my pc and still no joy. ..

[lilshawn]

you are going to have to jump start it using one of the methods i posted. it's not going to magically power up on it's own. the computer settings are still going to need to be reset.

depending on how the cabinet has been modified to work in your country depends on what, if anything, needs to be done to make your regular ATX supply work.

if they used a stepdown transformer, then you will need to switch your supply down to 110 volts to work inside the cabinet... if you are just using a cord outside plugged directly to mains, leave it at 220. if there is no stepdown transformer in the cabinet, then leave it at 220.

you could also meter test the AC input of the power supply cord with the switch turned on and see how much voltage is coming out... 110 or 220 volts.

IF the computer still refuses to boot up using either of the methods i posted earlier, then you may have a fault on the motherboard. (bad capacitors or blown power regulator.)

[mahkeymike]

Pretty much what lilshawn has said. You have way too many variables with voltage, along with the fact that the ECS motherboard merit used for force are complete utter garbage. Im surprised nobody asked you this, but merit at some point sold a jumper wire cable for the ECS force board so that even if the bios settings went to default, the board will always try to power_on when power is given to the power supply. If you have that jumper wire cable already on, then you can rule out a bios setting, and more then likely the motherboard itself needs repair or is toast.

[didgey101]

Thanks to your replies im getting somewhere.  Ive just connected a wire between the green wire on the psu and earth and the motherboard and fans all come to life but the screen still says auto test any ideas what I can do now. .thanks

[ed12]

hook the video output of the game to a normal lcd and see what u get
this will point u in the right way,have no worries about the touch screen at this point
just leave all else hooked as normal,expect u are putting the video from the board into a normal lcd,no need for spec's at this point as u are olny testing for boot

ed

[lilshawn]

can you post a photo of the motherboard here? that way i can tell you where to look and also we can try to spot any problems.

[didgey101]

Hi again.  Tried to post a picture but it says its too large so will take another picture later at a lower resolution.  Seeing as the motherboard anf fans come to life when I earth the green wire does that not give us any idea what is wrong?  Thanks. .tim

[smartbomb2084]

Motherboard is probably junk if it looks like this...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Merit-Megatouch-Force-motherboard-board-repair-service-EVO-PCB-/200915844717?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec7847e6d#ht_1495wt_891

When the fans came on was there a RED LED and a GREEN LED lit on the board?  Probably just the RED one was lit.

Also...Gentlemen...Aren't ATX power supplies supposed to run from 90 VAC to 240VAC making them plug and play world wide?  No need for country specific voltages anymore.....

Not a big fan of outright grounding the 'Green' Power Supply Turn-On lead to troubleshoot unless I know the problem is CMOS related.... The system shut down because of a problem and defeating the safety circuit can cause you you even more trouble than you may already have.

[ed12]

Also...Gentlemen...Aren't ATX power supplies supposed to run from 90 VAC to 240VAC making them plug and play world wide?  No need for country specific voltages anymore.....

correct u are

as far as the red/green lights
red=power on ,but with the 5v good line disabled u can not really tell much.
correct there also

as for the green led on,that happens after post
so it is a sure thng the board is not making it to post

to wit when i posted just tie in a normal lcd
so u can get a better idea
ram,porcesser,i/o etc

ed

[didgey101]

I will try an external lcd later and let you guys know what it says. Am I ok to ground the green wire again though to see if anything comes up on the external lcd as I dont want to brick my machine. I bought two of these 3 months ago one for my shed and one for my stepsons shed. Unfortunately I cant borrow any parts from my stepsons machine to do a bit of fault finding as hes working in India for 6 weeks. If it is my mobo do I have to get a dedicated replacement or is any desktop pc mobo with the same in and outs compatible?
thanks again

[lilshawn]

Also...Gentlemen...Aren't ATX power supplies supposed to run from 90 VAC to 240VAC making them plug and play world wide?  No need for country specific voltages anymore.....

Lots of ATX style power supplies still have a voltage select switch. I'd rather mention it for moot than to have an overvolt issue.

there is a VERY select few boards that will work with this software. They intentionally made only a few boards work with the software to cut down on people fixing their own machines and having to buy parts from the maker. if you manage to post a pic of the board we can let you know your next steps to troubleshooting it.

[mahkeymike]

If it is my mobo do I have to get a dedicated replacement or is any desktop pc mobo with the same in and outs compatible?
thanks again

You need an exact replacement mobo. There is a way around that, but you need atleast a mobo with an intel i810/E or intel i815 chipset mobo. Since the company no longer sells exact replacements, your only option is ebay and I see "used" exact replacements going for between $150-$300. There is a few ebay sellers that offer repair services but there only doing capacitor replacements and will send you your mobo back if its anything more then just caps. You end up losing atleast your shipping costs and at worst the cost of labor.

[didgey101]

Just thinking.....I tried changing the cmos battery yesterday but I used the one off of my pc motherboard!!
I stupidly thought they were all pretty much the same but could it still possibly be the cmos battery as the one I used may not have worked as its not compatible with the megatouch mobo??

[ed12]

a few things that go south on them mobo's
cap's 100 % of the time
re-cleanning ram  100% of the time
re-move processer heat sink and re-silcon grease it,place sink back on
bad fan's 100% of the time

for TESTING olny,just about any mobo from that time will do to TEST gut's OLNY
it will BY NO MEANS WILL ALLOW U TO BOOT TO THE FULL GAME..
but the basic step's will point u to where u need to go next

as far as the green wire goe's for testing that's ok,for full time run no not a grand idea,as it is the power supply portect line

ed

[lilshawn]

as far as the green wire goe's for testing that's ok,for full time run no not a grand idea,as it is the power supply portect line

yes, if you ground out the green line it will turn on the power supply, this will let you know at least the powersupply is still functioning okay at a rudimentary level. (you mentioned the fans spin up but nothing else.) while it doesn't eliminate the power supply as the fault completely, it's enough to move on to something else.

you are going to have to find the power switch header. I don't recall 100% which board was used in the uprights, but i believe it's probably the ECS board. If your board is actually one of the brown ECS boards (P6IWP-Fe)

the front panel connector is the top rightmost connector in this photo. it has 21 pins (one missing for indexing purposes)

if you use a pen or screwdriver to jump the 2 leftmost pins as oriente in this picture (one on the top row and 1 on the bottom row), your board should turn on. if it doesn't, it may be toasted.

[didgey101]

Jeez you really know what your talking about.  Yep ive just jumped those two pins and it boots up to full game. There is a funny little black plug that was seated on that set of pins that I had to remove to gain access to the two pins. Looks like my mobo isn't toast hopefully.  Ideas on what I do next would be great please. .thank you...tim

[didgey101]

Hi. Ive just hooked up a keyboard. Jumped the two pins to start it up. Held down delete on the keyboard to enter bios but cant see which category the option to change on ac power to on is in? Ive just checked the cmos battery I robbed from my pc which is now in the megatouch and they both have the same number and voltage so should be ok. Just need to sort out getting it to stay on now as I still have to jumpthe two pins to fire up each time I turn the machine on..many thanks. .tim

[mahkeymike]

That black plug is the jumper cable i mentioned earlier that is supposed to bypass the cmos setting so that it automaticly turns on when a power supply get plugged in to electric outlet. The setting you are looking for is in the advanced settings menu under listed as something like after power fail, the options are "last state" "off" and "on" you obviously want "on". But the fact that you have the jumper cable and it isnt doing its job leads me to think you may have a short somewhere, or possibly a capacitor is going bad causing the cmos to discharge.

[lilshawn]

sometimes if the board overheats and crashes it can cause this too. I'd pull the CPU heatsink and clean off the goop (if any) and put some new stuff on there.

[didgey101]

I dont have any heat sink compound and its 10pm here so will have to wait til tomorrow.  Will try that first and let you guys know. Thanks again. ..

[lilshawn]

I dont have any heat sink compound and its 10pm here so will have to wait til tomorrow.  Will try that first and let you guys know. Thanks again. ..

If that cooler is still stock, likely it will have this weird graphite/aluminum foil jobby on there. peel that crud off and clean everything up and put some nice grease on there. that'll bring down your temps 10 degrees right there. I don't know what the heck they were thinking when they put that together.

[smartbomb2084]

Download this PDF and go to the CMOS CONFIGURATION page and follow the instructions for ECS (FORCE) at the bottom of the page.

Make sure your battery is good.  This should help you out too.

[didgey101]

I now have a brand new cmos battery from Maplin electronics as well as some proper high quality heat sink compound and I have a print out of the cmos setup that was posted on here so I will be home from work in an hour or so and I will get stuck in and Im hoping I may be able to post back here a bit later with either some good news or crying for more help...
Thanks...Tim

[didgey101]

Gutted. .its still no good. I put a brand new cmos battery in and I reseated the fan with good quality compound on the cpu but now when I jump start it it won't let me enter bios setup by holding down delete it just skips to posting. Im not one to give up but if I had a towel I would throw it in.  Any more advice please?? Thanks

[didgey101]

Got into bios and did everything in the pdf and still wont boot...I dont know what else I can do? ?

[ed12]

ok i need to ask u 1 more time
is this on the merit monitor or on a sep lcd display ?
as this will tell me alot of tricks of the tail as it is..
also if u got into cmos u are half way there.
u see going to bios means u passed the board "boot-test"
from here what i would do is make sure your first boot device is the cdrom then the hard drive,if this dose not get u to boot >game<,i would swap in a good running winblows loaded hard drive,> TEST OLNY<,to see if u get full board boot up
if not your board is south
about that simple...

ed

[mahkeymike]

Like I said before, The fact that you had that jumper wire installed and it wasnt doing its job, It sounds like you have a short or some capacitors are going bad causing the exact symptoms your having. Ive had it happen with these garbage mobo's. I would start inspecting all the capacitors to see if any are bulging on the top or leaking underneath them.

[didgey101]

Right, ive looked all over and cant see any bulging capacitors.  I have also just hooked up my external lcd monitor.  With the external monitor it still needs me to jump the two header pins to bring it to life. It gets to full game as it does with its own monitor and I can control the game fine by touching the megatouch screen in the correct place whilst its being displayed on the external screen. Any further ideas?  Thanks again. ..

[didgey101]

Sorry just want to be a bit clearer. .machine will always boot to full game and play perfectly until I turn it off. Then when I turn it back on the problem is it wont come to life unless I jump the header pins but as soon as I do that it boots to full game every time and I can play it for hours as long as I don't turn it off. ..

[ed12]

ok now we are getting some where

>Sorry just want to be a bit clearer. .machine will always boot to full game and play perfectly until I turn it off. Then when I turn it back on the problem is it wont come to life unless I jump the header pins but as soon as I do that it boots to full game every time and I can play it for hours as long as I don't turn it off. ..<

so your clue is as was pointed out to u "bios-setting's"

advanced/power options/always on

the test u did with the lcd confirms it
+ the fact u short the power pin's to start it
now i will ask a question
on these mobo's in the merit's was a jumper wire
1 end has a 2 pin plug,1 end has a 6 pin keyed plug and then a third wire goes to
the i/o board,do u have this plug ?
u see this plug is your wdt >watch dog timer,and power control plug<
some time's with these mobo's the cmos will say it set a saving,but in truth it tend's to drop it..
so if u read the tech2012 stuff u will clearly see this plug
and where it should tie in...
that is where i would go next

ed

[mahkeymike]

Ed, He has the jumper wire. Its not working. He said he had to remove it to get to the power_on header pin to jump it to Earth/GND to get it to boot. Again, this sounds like a short, or bad cap. I had this same problem, and eventually mobo died.

[lilshawn]

i find that jumper wire doesn't really work with most machines. I've also seen several iterations of it (with different wires bridged etc.)

I've had better luck with the old 16 volt 100 uf cap wired on there.

[didgey101]

So is my mobo broken then?