Megatouch XL - motherboard ??

[cush]

Hi,
Just got hold of a merit megatouch XL it looks like the older version from what I have read so far.
I am getting the disc boot failure which from what I can find may be a motherboard problem.The pdf for megatouch classic mentions that this error is a Telco motherboard issue.
In the footnote it says that dipswitches ds2 & ds3 must all be in off position, then it says early I/O boards have ds1 and 1,4 & 8 must be off. Where Im getting confused is it also states early boards have the blue volume disc too. Mine has the volume disk but does not have the ds1 only ds2 & ds3.
Is there anything I can do to eliminate I/O or Motherboard as problem ? I have never had any of these machines before so forgive my newbie status.

[ed12]

ya there is alot u can do to deduce your problem
1=reseat the ram,take it out clean it,i use an eraser on the coper pins,next reseat it,
2=remove i/o header card ,it is the 1 the i/o board plugs into,repeat the cleaning process on the pins of it,reseat it to make sure it is tight
2=do the same to the actual i/o card
3=remove button bat if yours has 1 ? and push dowm on the center pin as to tighten it
4=make sure all fans are working right and that the 1 over the micro is not cloged
5=make sure your power supply is working right +5 and +12
6=make sure the ide cable is tight on both ends
7=turn all dip switchs off,then try a boot,see what it dose
8=if problem is still there turn power off,turn dip switch4 and 8 on
reboot machine and see what it dose
these are the basic steps

ed

[cush]

Thanks for your reply.
I have taken all the boards out to clean them all up as the whole thing was caked in dust.
I cleaned the ram and riser along with the I/O board and even took out the u12 and then reseated it.
I will give your other suggestions a go now, when you say try 4 and 8 on which bank does this need to be done on ds2 or ds3 or both ?
Thanks.

[cush]

right just tried the switches by putting 4 & 8 on ds2 on - still same
then both banks with 4 & 8 on - still same
then ds3 with 4 & 8 on - still same.
psu wise I put red probe on yellow wire at mainboard connector and other to ground = -4.88 that seem right only just noticed minus ?
then red probe on red wire (same connector) and ground = 5.04
Also tried molex yellow wire & grnd = 11.94
Not sure if I have done that properly if not any advice appreciated.

[ed12]

hold on here
your probes to the meter must be reversed
black=ground=same with the machine
red=+5v this is where your probe should find it
yellow is +12volt this is where your probe should find it

2nd remove all cd's from this unit
u are doing a : restore:,2 banks of 4 1 bank of 8
the bank of 8 should be all off if everythink is ok
4 and 8 on to do the restore

now if was caked in dust..no suprise there
u might do well to go get a 1oz of silcon :heat sink compond:,
remove the heat sink of off the micro,clean off the old stuff both the top of the chip and the heat sink,re apply fresh stuff.

now a neat test here
is to remove old hard drive,and insert any hard drive that has a running o/s..i use a 98 drive for this as it is not fussy where it is hooked to
this will tell u your board is truly booting..

now side note here replace the cmos bat,as it will be on its way out

ed

[cush]

Ok I will get a proper meter and try again tomorrow as I used a small pocket thing.
now on your 2nd points: where you say 2banks of 4 and 1 bank of 8 this is what Im getting confused with, as I stated in first post I think it is the older style I/o card as it has the blue volume disc but has ds2 (which is 1 to & ds3 (which is 1 to , the classic pdf states that the older board with volume disc should have a ds1 but mine doesn't.
pic:
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p187/HuMpH_02/Arcade/IMG_0133.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p187/HuMpH_02/Arcade/IMG_0136.jpg
I have some compound so I can redo the micro, but this machine has no hard drive from what I can make out it uses the u12 rom on I/o card as the c: drive then uses the cd rom.
I think I may also have some spare battery too so can change that.
Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

[ed12]

i will chk my riser cards when i go the warehouse tomrow
and get back to u..
i will also chk this no hard drive thing as i have never seen that before
maybe shawn can chime in here on that point?
ok your's has 2 banks of 8
i will dig out the proper setings
i c u12 but i was always under the thought that is where the o/s for game type was stored,the chip above it is your :key-chip:,and it is plenty bad enough to cause u this problem,if u can replace it,it is a simple dallas chip.

ed

ed

[smartbomb2084]

DIP switches on an XL I/O board are not used...they should all be OFF.

[cush]

DIP switches on an XL I/O board are not used...they should all be OFF.

ok thanks, must have bigger problems then 

[ed12]

ok brought home to complete mobo's with riser's and i/o's
now i see where the confusion comes in
on the i/o board u will c
u11=dallas ds1230 barrtey back-up ram
u12=sa3014-xx your key chip and part of the lower level game
u13=29f040 atmel chip >your main game rom<
now also which i am clear this has never been told to u
but these unit's are j-tag-able
ie look at the far side of u13 u will find
a set of row of pins,these are called :bed of mails test point:
u can read/write or do any thing u want to the board,even at the lowest level..
i can bet i can dump both the atmel >no brainer and the key chip<..

i would love to know what the machine would do if u just run it without a cd in it ?

ed

[ed12]

ok
i took the time to dump them
u11
and
u12
ran both through a crc chker to make sure they were right
bing bang boom they are.
if u want i can dump the dallas bat chip? why 
as it is olny a time keeper,back-up high score,game >date-keeper< !thk's SHAWN:)!
but in any account,they are saved as .bin's
if needed i can convert to hex using bin2hex >thk's alo166< for the fine conveter

ed

[cush]

Ok I took out micro and re did compound ect and new cmos battery but still getting disc failure 

[ed12]

read your pm
if u want copy and paste it to the thread.
we need this test done as i explained to you

ed

[lilshawn]

step through the boot and check and see if the drive is being detected by the computer itself. perhaps it's gone south on you.

one of the first few screens you see when you boot it on (just after the memory test) should have the drives detected shown.

[cush]

I took out the riser and I/O card and attached an old hard drive, the unit auto detected it fine.
It started to boot the drive and got to a white progress bar at the bottom of screen and then just keeps rebooting and is stuck in that cycle, this is probably the drive itself as it is an old 4.3gb that I found in a junk box as Im not sure the old 486 mobo would see a large modern drive.

[ed12]

4.3 is not out of its range..
try a good known working drive in it
and as u said in pm :slave: that 1,and see if it will boot with your main putter?,
once this is done redo your test with it,windows will go sideways at times.
hence the reason i keep a dos drive handy,as shawn did point out in his post
about testing the complete thing,but right now i think that is putting the cart before the horse? as we are trying to find out if your mobo is bad,we care less about the riser and such..for it to go 1/2 white bar means it is trying to mount the drive but is getting held back >cycle<,what u could do if u have a 98 disk
is place the cd in the rom and tie in the older 4.3g hard drive and reload windows98,
if it takes then bing bang boom u have a good mother board,and we move on.
rember u are doing this test using your merit mother board..so this will tell u the trick of the tail..

ed

[cush]

I have just had another play with the hard drive and have it now booting in safe mode (win98) so I guess now I should see if I can get it to format and install fresh from the cd drive, or is this good enough to believe the Telco mobo is working as it should ?.

[ed12]

1 test down,congrads u have a working mobo
so we are now looking at the game it's self
ie riser card etc
will post u back on a few thing's

ed

[ed12]

i do have a few concerns with your riser card
1=no 6 pin removeable chip >game key<
2=lack of harddrive
i will need to pell the hood of off a xL
which i will do this evening
but that aside for now
what i would like u to do
is leave the harddrive in
replace the riser card and i/o card
and see if it will come to windows 98 like it did without the riser card
u do not need the cd-rom in at this time
and to answer your question about the harddrive..no leave it alone
thats going to become your best friend in the futher
u see u did a basic mobo test
just to make sure where u are going
by now it should have dawned on u that the mobo is fine,ram is fine,cmos bat is fine
etc etc,neat trick to nail down this bird eh ?

btw make sure u have a mouse and keyboard attached to the game
or 98 will cycle

ed

[cush]

Hi ed,
ok just put riser and I/O back in with the hd attached, it boots the same..into safe mode.

[ed12]

thats ok
safe mode is fine
it just means 98 is pissie with u or the hd is a tad bad
this was not the point of the testing
the point was first to make sure your mobo is working
which it must be to get to safe mode right...
now with the riser and i/o back in
we know that part is working
next we look a tad more into it
1 step at a time
we will get u there
i still thinkk it should have a hardrive ? but as i said i will need to lift the hood on 1 of my xl's to see if it dose ?
and no i do not give a dran about there manuals
i have found more and repaired more then there manuals good have given me
error#97/#86/#93,call them they do not  have crib note's on them
but i do

ed

[cush]

well I wont be questioning your opinion mate, I only said it doesn't have a hd  cos the manual says that u12 is classed as the c: drive  plus it looked as though it has never had a hd in there, was far too much crap an dust everywhere.

[ed12]

i agree with u totaly
i just like to have a peek under the hood of 1 for my mind's sake..
if indeed u12 is the c:\ then we have a tad of a problem..
with the missing part i asked u about
as the game will not boot without it
u will need to write a patch to go around the !key!
WHICH I WILL NOT HAND OUT,i can explain it,it is linux
and u might want to be very good at that o/s

ed

[cush]

previous owner says he has been playing it for last couple of years and that it just had no video one day although he knew it had power. If mine now has something missing then he either tried to fix or changed the card (he denies doing anything) He had to move house and had nowhere for it so I adopted it  .
Video has worked 100% since I cleaned it all out, luckily.
In one sense I hope one of yours is same as mine, at least it would give me some hope 

[ed12]

ok i am looking into it right now
in the mean time
go here
>http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_kw=MERIT+MEGATOUCH+XL<
u will clearly see the key chip
it is above the switchs
without it u are going to be doing some linux code work
or just by 1
will find u the key #'s for uk
as they differ from mine and or usa

ed

[cush]

The only other thing I can see that could be what your looking for is a 5pin small chip nr the switches not a 6pin.
link to pic incase not clear on previous pic
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p187/HuMpH_02/Arcade/IMG3.jpg

[ed12]

yup
thats her,it may have come off in shipping?
here is what the game will do without it
load then cycle,load then cycle
with linux set to echo off u will not see the wrong or no key inserted for a few cycles
if u turn echo on u will c it

ed

[ed12]

welp as i thought the manual is as usefull as a bag of dirt
but here it is

The >Dallas key< and boot PROM are located on the
CRT-500 I/O board, as is the volume control for the
countertop version. The volume control for the
upright and cabaret models, is located at the front of
the PC shelf (see Figures 4, 6 and 7 for locations).

ed

[cush]

ed not sure if we have crossed lines here, that pic is my actual board mate so if that is the right chip then at least it aint missing..sorry if any confusion I was looking for 6pins with dallas written on it  .
Bad thing is it has been there all the time so not sure if that gives you any clues.

[ed12]

yes cush
it dose..thk-u for clearing it up
now we move to the i/o riser card
i wish u knew someone that could program flash and eproms over there in the uk
as i could zip up the 2 bin's and send them to u..all they will need do is change the country id code,which is easy as all get out in hex.
but until then,go to the dallas web site reg as a eng co. and order a sample of the bat back up chip,u11worest case u could buy 1 from digikey
it is a dallas ds1230y..
u12 is your c:\,u13 is a 29f040 flash chip,now i know for sure u will need to change
the dallas chip anyway,its bat would have ran down by now,and i am yet
to c a u12 go sideway's i will chk my crip notes tonight,as i think there is a power feed that goes to this board that loops through the coin door/box



ed

[ed12]

cush
here is what i was refering to
>Also located within the cavity of the coin mech are 2
internal switches, ”SETUP” and “CALIBRATE,” and
the coin meter. Location of these switches can be
seen in Figures 5 and 7. Pressing the “SETUP”
button will bring you to the Megatouch Setup screen
(see Figure 1). See the next section for calibration
instructions. The remote monitor controls are also
located inside the coin mech section, Velcroed to the
top of the coin box.<
they must be there and active
if like u said the wires are messed up
i have the ppw on them.

ed

[cush]

ed from what I can make out the two buttons "setup" and "calibrate" have wires attached then the loom goes to a black box which I think is the credit control box and 2 plugs from that are unused which must have gone to the coin hardware on the door which has been removed.
The narrow ribbon cable from the 2 buttons also  connects to the I/o board.

[ed12]

if u look at the cash box with the accepter in place
u either have a plug with alot of green wires on it ?
it not it is a thin ribbon cable style plug..
now if it is the 1 i know for them,it will have 6 green wires,1 white wire,1 yellow wire.
this is from the accepter,the 2 buttons will have 3 wires in total,then u will
have a black and a white :high power: wires,these were to go to 117vac or in your case 220vac,we make no never mind of them 2..
now all of the green wires/yellow wirw/white wire/and the 3 from the switchs must be tied into the i/o card through a couple of headers,1 that the coin asambley plugs into,and 1 that plugs into the i/o board
lets this out of the first..
if u need i will see if i can up-load a pic.

ed

[cush]

ed I pm you some pics of the wires and bits on coin door.

[ed12]

i did..
and as i said in the return pm,i have never seen a cash code in a merit ?
maybe another >@< can chime in on this ?

from there i d/l the link,i will look in my cash code book of things..
also that dose answer the question about :some of the dip switchs:.

ed

[ed12]

ok i know alot more now,then i did an hour ago

look at your pic that shows ccu/and the rest of the #'s
i think it is pic #3 ? or 2?
but u zoom right in on that corner
THAT is your unit..
i have requseted the info..
will post it when i get it

ed

[cush]

ok ed thanks.
I sent a few pics incase it was the chip info you wanted too, I see the bit you mean in the corner nr the dip switches.

[mahkeymike]

I am confused reading this thread. OP says he is getting boot failure. This to me sounds like a a few possible problems. #1 bad hard drive or CDrom drive. #2 bad CD disc. #3 bad IDE cable. #4 problem with Motherboard BIOS 1st boot setting.

Now, that said, All im reading here is I/O this, I/O that. What does the I/O board have to do with the system trying to boot off of something? Do these old XL machines boot directly off a chip on the I/O board? All the ones ive seen boot either from cd drive or hard drive.

I am trying to put together a test rig from XL parts and I am stuck because the motherboard wants to boot off the hard drive and for some reason detects the dvd drive i have connected, but wont boot the disc inside. It will boot off a hard drive if i connect it though. I dont have a ps2 keyboard to get into the bios to change the boot order.

[ed12]

well i agree with u,i have never seen a merit
without a harddrive,but sure enough u12 is the o/s
so we were working
a=on the fact the mobo was indeed ok
b=that the i/o board was ok
c=that the coin inteface was ok >service switch/cal s/w<,but atlas
this part has been tinkerned with,so until i recieve the requested info
 i am at a stand still.
now it is highly posable that yes it needs a game cdrom.
as i rember i have a wack of max-xl disks here,
but i agree with you that with the bios batt replaced,it is highly posiable that
that the bios defaulted to harddrive=0/cdrom=1
and a ps2 keyboard would be in order to switch this around,
now unless i missed the @'s statment he says that all he got with it was a :sound: disk,which i find very odd

ed

[cush]

ed did you mean me when you mention a "sound" disk ? if so then we got crossed lines somewhere lol I got a cd with it and printed on the disk is :
Megatouch XL
1999 Merit Ind,Inc
PG3001-01-05 R06
No idea what is on it but was told it has the games on it.