Trying to power up a Megatouch motherboard

[gio_aus]

Hi guys,

Got a three spare megatouch motherboards, I believe they are the ITOX EC0026-04 (G586LPX REV:F) and want to test if any of them work. Can you use any AT power supply to try power them up? I connected a working one from an old Pentium desktop but got no response.

Thanks.

[mahkeymike]

Hi guys,

Got a three spare megatouch motherboards, I believe they are the ITOX EC0026-04 (G586LPX REV:F) and want to test if any of them work. Can you use any AT power supply to try power them up? I connected a working one from an old Pentium desktop but got no response.

Thanks.

make sure the power supply is atx standard. Some dell power supply are wired different then standard and still use the same atx connector. Also you might need to use a jumper on the power switch pin on the mobo. Ive not seen a ITOX board so i cant say for sure though.

[gio_aus]

I've attached a photo of the board, from my experience that's an AT connector on the motherboard. My AT power supply doesn't have a push switch on it, would that make a difference? Tried connecting a regular switch to the PWR SW pins on the motherboard and also a jumper but no luck.

[mahkeymike]

Ah, i thought they started using atx for the maxx mobo's. You'll have to wait for lilshawn or ed12 to chime in here. I only have access to XL , force, and ion systems.

[ed12]

ya thats the odd board set they used
yes the power supply is at
if u have the old 1 ? just use the header's from it and wire it to an atx supply.
there is alot of places u can still pick up at power supply's
goodwill,thirfshop's,secondhand stores,even some coumpter shop's will have an old 1 laying around.

ed

[ed12]

or if u are confused
type this into google >at power supply pinout<
the first page first img is your pinout's
+ it will show u atx and the new atxe

ed

[lilshawn]

IIRC, merit actually supplied some kind of AT to ATX convertor cable at one time because they stopped carrying AT supplies.

get one of these:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ATX-20-pin-to-AT-P8-P9-P10-with-3-Pin-Power-Switch-Cable-Cord-PC-009-/270818956893?pt=US_Power_Cables_Connectors&hash=item3f0e11565d&_uhb=1

remember... "black touches black" on the P8 and P9 connectors. if orange and red are touching, it's wrong.

see i remember stuff from A+ 

[Sarver Systems]

IIRC, merit actually supplied some kind of AT to ATX convertor cable at one time because they stopped carrying AT supplies.

get one of these:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ATX-20-pin-to-AT-P8-P9-P10-with-3-Pin-Power-Switch-Cable-Cord-PC-009-/270818956893?pt=US_Power_Cables_Connectors&hash=item3f0e11565d&_uhb=1

remember... "black touches black" on the P8 and P9 connectors. if orange and red are touching, it's wrong.

see i remember stuff from A+ 

You only do that wrong ONCE before its ingrained in your head.

[gio_aus]

so I'm assuming there's no need for the P10 connector with this adapter? how do they work exactly seeing as they don't come with connectors for a switch? i was looking around and found this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/StarTech-ATX2ATPOW-ATX-to-AT-Motherboard-Power-Converter-Cable-/301164416356?pt=US_Power_Cables_Connectors&hash=item461ecc4d64

[lilshawn]

no the switching is handled internally with the ATX. the power was switched on the AT's

the adapter i linked has the "power on" wire jumped so the supply will turn on automatically when power is applied. the one you linked simply has the wires available to switch it with a switch.

you don't want to feed 120 into that faston in your linked item, or you'll blow it all up.

[gio_aus]

so would i need a jumper over the PWR SW pins on the motherboard?

[lilshawn]

no...because the older AT boards don't have a "soft"  switch... they just powered on when the power supply was turned on.

normally with an AT power supply, the 110 (or 220 depending) was fed into the back of the power supply where you plugged in the cord.... the line was brought OUT the front of the supply inside the computer to the power switch out front of the case where it was switched off and on with the user power switch... then fed  BACK IN the power supply and used to power the power supply with mains 100/200 volt power.

TL;DR - the power switch on an AT power supply ACTUALLY turns the power off and on to the supply.

in a newer ATX supply, it's powered all the time... even if the computer is off. this (called "+5vSB") is often used to power USB devices and whatnot so you can use them to "wake up" the computer from an off state. when the the "soft" power switch is pressed the computer sends a ground signal down the "pg" wire on the supply, and the power supply powers up the rest of the power rails (+3.3v/+5v/+12v etc) on the supply to power up the computer.

TL;DR - ATX power supplies are switched internally with a signal from the computer.

when you try and mix and match, you simply need to supply switched 120 volt power to the ATX supply (from the power switch of the megatouch) and then trick the power supply into thinking it's received the "PG" signal from the computer (by grounding the PG" line to the supply)

the harness you linked, while it will work, isn't really necessary as you already switch the power to the supply on the back of the machine.

[gio_aus]

ok so just got the adapter and hooked it up to the power supply and motherboard, still no response. I know the power supply is definitely working so am I to assume either the motherboard or cpu is dead?

[ed12]

u may need to soft start the mother board.
reason is because if the bios batt has been changded ? or is just flat,
your bios setting's would be knocked out

ed

[lilshawn]

...but if this is an old AT board, it should just power up. no soft start here.

take a volt meter and double check you are getting 3.3v, 5v, and 12v on the orange/red/yellow wires (respectively) if the board is getting power, it should startup (barring a catastrophic failure in the past)

if the old power supply was no good and failed in a most spectacular way, it may have taken out the regulators on the motherboard, in which case, it may be junk.

double check you are indeed getting juice out there first though.

[ed12]

i agree with u shawn
i just threw it out there.

ed

[gio_aus]

i thought id change the bios battery to see what happens, now when i turn it on i can see the cpu fan and power supply fan start spinning for half a second and then no response. any ideas?

[mahkeymike]

Sounds dead to me. Why so much effort for such old board? What version are you trying to get working? I have had good results getting boards with same/similar north/south bridge chipsets to work on these systems. You may even have one laying around.

[gio_aus]

ive got a few motherboard, riser cards and i/o cards and trying to see if they are of any use, they are all Megatouch Maxx parts. Do you mean you can use a regular motherboard with a PCI slot to get these working?

[mahkeymike]

ive got a few motherboard, riser cards and i/o cards and trying to see if they are of any use, they are all Megatouch Maxx parts. Do you mean you can use a regular motherboard with a PCI slot to get these working?

I thought you were trying to get your board working to fix a megatouch. I was trying to say that in some of the newer maxx versions like emerald/ruby/sapphire/jade/crown its possible to use a different board that uses the same chipset as the maxx boards. There may be some that use atx and have pci slots. I know ive seen some weird hybrid mobo's out there.

[ed12]

that is a specific slot for the :hybryd-board's:
no foul done

best the op can do is chk like i asked them to
a sure sign the board is getting power is the fan's booting for a sec.
a=try soft booting >there is a set of pin's that allow for this<
b=power board up,and as shawn said meter the reg's

ed

[gio_aus]

ed how would i perform the soft boot?

[Sarver Systems]

on the board, there is a set of pins that you can short out with a small screw driver. Normally a pushbutton would be attached to these pins (when used as a PC inside of a PC case). SOmetimes the pins are marked, sometimes they aren't. If they ARE marked, they'll be marked as "PWR BTN", or maybe just "PWR". You'll see it near "RST" and "HD LED" and "PWR LED".

[mahkeymike]

ed how would i perform the soft boot?

By touching one of these sets of pins i marked in the picture you provided.

[gio_aus]

ive tried touching the PWR SW pins and had no luck. Just tried the PWR pins and that didn't do anything either. Any other solutions? The power supply is powering up the pc it came out of without any problems, someone suggested it may be the ATX to AT adapter I'm using?

[mahkeymike]

Any other solutions?

Another cpu, ram, battery, replace any caps that are leaking or look like they are bulging...

[gio_aus]

had no luck with different cpu, ram or battery. don't notice anything wrong with the caps.

[mahkeymike]

had no luck with different cpu, ram or battery. don't notice anything wrong with the caps.

You seem very determined to resurrect this board which is most likely dead. It seems from your original post, its just a spare so why so much determination? If you have a old maxx cab you are trying to get working you can retrofit newer hardware. You can even get ION going on it. Theres cheap motherboards like the asus A7n8x-la that will work straight out of the box with no software patching needed. You can even use the 13 inch CRT and touchscreen glass. You just need to get a microtouch exII controller to replace the SMT-3 because for some reason they black listed the SMT-3 from force and ion software. Although for some reason it works with 2011 and 2012 ION software. Might even work with 2013 and 2014 but i dont have those versions to test so cant verify.

[gio_aus]

apart from being stubborn  , i thought i'd give it a good go trying to make use of these spare parts. I decided to try another ATX to AT adapter and finally got it working. I however am now stuck on this screen, any suggestions?

[mahkeymike]

apart from being stubborn  , i thought i'd give it a good go trying to make use of these spare parts. I decided to try another ATX to AT adapter and finally got it working. I however am now stuck on this screen, any suggestions?

Congratz man, never would have guessed it was a bad AT adapter. That kernel panic means linux failed to load. If your game is hard drive based, it probably has bad sectors, or some files could have got corrupted.

[ed12]

he's right in the stack

first make sure all your dip switch's are off and try it again..
if it fail's turn on 3&7 or 4&8 this should allow the game to rebuild it's self from the back-up
.dat file

ed

[gio_aus]

how likely is it a hard drive error? this is a brand new ssd not an old IDE drive. I played around with the dip switches but didn't really do anything. At one stage i got

LILO 21.6 Loading Linux...............
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernal.
INIT: version 2.78 booting

but it was stuck on that screen. after that i couldn't get past Ok, booting the kernal.

[ed12]

ssd in a megatouch ?
thats new.
maybe makeymike can chime in?
they are kernel driven  >ide and or sata<
soild state drive
it is looking for it's boot sector....which >ssd< dose not carry with it..
ie the mfg #

ed

[gio_aus]

Its one of these, plugs directly into the IDE port and uses the 4 pin power. Made by King Spec

[mahkeymike]

Doesnt look like an official merit hard drive. Looks like a cheap IDE flash drive. I was under the impression that you could not install onto non official hard drives with any software pre 2005 maxx/force. I dont have a maxx mobo to test this though. Only have XL/Force/ION mobo's.

[ed12]

i am yet to see a ssd or flash drive in any merits i have ever worked on
90% were ide then with ion sata

ed

[mahkeymike]

Im guessing here but, someone must have attempted to clone an official hard drive onto that IDE Flash drive and files either did not get copied over, or they got corrupted, which is why you are getting that kernel panic and crashing at various stages of the booting screen.

[lilshawn]

previous to 2005 you where REQUIRED to have a specially firmware flashed drive from merit in order for a machine to work. in 2005 they changed the code to allow any drive to be used.

the special drives don't have their drive ID show up in BIOS as "toshiba" or "samsung" or whatever brand, they show up as "merit". the software boots and then checks the drive to make sure it's a legit drive.

[ed12]

that unit would be a pre 2005
so how they got a flash drive/ssd to work is beyound me ?
the kernel would default to a death call every time

ed

[mahkeymike]

that unit would be a pre 2005
so how they got a flash drive/ssd to work is beyound me ?
the kernel would default to a death call every time

ed

besides patching the software, you could clone an official hard drive to any drive (CF,sata,ssd) the question is whether the software throws an error during or after install, or both. No maxx mobo here to test with but i am very curious. Maybe someone has 2004 force software they could make an iso i could download? Earliest version on merits website is 2005.5 and i know it doesnt prevent using non official hard drives.

[gio_aus]

So if one were to take a hard drive and change the HWID to "MERIT", then it would work?

[ed12]

well i am a bit lost for advice here..
i would take the key #,and find matching harddrive with the o/s on it
and see if it fix's it

ed

[lilshawn]

So if one were to take a hard drive and change the HWID to "MERIT", then it would work?

well, yes and no.

it not exactly like just taking some firmware and dumping it on there (since every drive is different). there is a lot more going on there. but in a nutshell, yes. the tools and software are not exactly available to the average Joe. very few places have access to it... IE: data recovery and the manufacturer.

start.racist{statement}

This is (basically) to keep the Chinese from buying cheap hard drives, editing them to show up as more expensive larger capacity drives from better manufacturers.

IE:

buy 80gb factory refurb HDD for 5 bucks each.

edit firmware with Western Digital branding and 1tb capacity

sell on ebay as brand new for $120 and you think your getting an awesome deal.

[mahkeymike]

So if one were to take a hard drive and change the HWID to "MERIT", then it would work?

A normal firmware upgrade does not contain the id of the hard drive. Theres a chip on the hard drive controller that contains it. That chip needs to be connected to a programmer and dumped, edited, and reflashed. There may be software out there for specific drives to do this, but i have not researched doing this. For me it would be much easier to patch the software to not look for that special "merit" id.

[gio_aus]

does anyone reckon this kernal panic error could be down to a failure on the motherboard? Is there some sort of motherboard repair software I can try to fix this?

[mahkeymike]

does anyone reckon this kernal panic error could be down to a failure on the motherboard? Is there some sort of motherboard repair software I can try to fix this?

No. That loading linux screen means its booting off the hard drive. I suggest you download an old linux live cd and run it off a cd/dvd drive. Then you will know its not the mobo.

[gio_aus]

mike know anywhere I can dl it? I'm not very familiar with linux

[mahkeymike]

mike know anywhere I can dl it? I'm not very familiar with linux

I would use Wary puppy linux. Its better for really old computer hardware. Just download and burn the ISO to CD.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/wary-5.5/wary-5.5.iso

[gio_aus]

tried to load wary puppy linux and it halted on the screen attached. Any other suggestions?

[ed12]

ok i am going on a limb here
did u load ths to a normal ide drive ?
or are u loading it to the flash ?

ed

[gio_aus]

normal IDE drive in primary, and the cdrom in secondary

[ed12]

ok i want u to try it this way
burn to iso which u did  correct ?
if so then
write to hard drive  OUT OF THE MERIT BOX
so u are placing a linuix drive in the box >OLNY<
go to bios make sure the hd is #1
then place the new harddrive with linuix in..
it should boot to linuix..if this is confusioning to u ?
then snag a windows xp drive any drive with the full os on it
98 is better but xp will get u there >as long as it boot's<
and put it in the merit box >ide<
u should get windows up..
it will >xp< error on u >normal as it will want a wack of driver's<
but it is the acid test,to tell u the board is working
thus your board test's are over

ed

[gio_aus]

i tried the windows method, no luck. Windows XP would crash and reboot when it was loading disk.sys, I also tried to install from scratch and the furthest I got was loading windows setup files. I tried another old drive which I think had Windows 98 from it, but that wouldn't load either.

[mahkeymike]

I am not sure the problem but the fact that you got as far as you have leads me to think this is not a mobo problem. Old hardware does not play nice with newer hardware. Good example is I have a i810 chipset mobo that will not boot off a CF card with a CF to IDE adapter but boots fine off a old IDE hard drive. I have another i810 chipset mobo that boots off the CF card with no problem. You are probably having hardware conflicts somewhere. I would make sure you have nothing but a cd drive connected to the primary IDE and try loading the wary linux cd again with just a keyboard. It might be a good idea to try another linux live cd version aswell.

[gio_aus]

mike u got a link for another linux live cd version?

[gio_aus]

mike tried connecting just a cdrom & keyboard and loading linux, still getting the same screen. Just a thought, but what are the chances of the IDE ports/controller on the motherboard being damaged and causing this issue?

[mahkeymike]

Did some digging, and another possible cause could be bad ram. I would try removing, and reseating the ram. If you have any spare ram, try swapping it out aswell. Its worth a try atleast. I would also try to get into the bios and reset to default settings.

[gio_aus]

yeah I tried that but didn't have any luck either. I also ran memtest86+ and no errors came up. I'm running a 64mb stick, would that be an issue at all?

[mahkeymike]

64mb should be more then enough for maxx software, and that wary linux cd. Im pretty sure it can run on even as low as 4mb. Im thinking you should try the process of elimination. Try one stick at a time, try swapping as many as you have. One at a time. If none of them get past this issue, then I honestly dont know besides CMOS settings, or an issue with the cd drive your using. For what its worth, i have had a cdrom drive not load a force install disc. It goes back yo what i was saying about old hardware not playing nice with newer hardware.

[ed12]

64 is more then enough for maxx..
u still did not answer my question from last night.? or i missed the answer,
are u trying this on a hardrive or the flash/ssd drive ?
as we want the flash out of the box and a normal ide drive hooked up..
then u will go to bios
first boot cdrom
second hard drive
third disabled

and see if it will load over to the hd..
if it dose then,once done,shut down reboot go to bios
disable cdrom,so it see's the hd olny
and see if it boot's

ed

[gio_aus]

ed I've got a 8GB WD IDE connected to the Primary IDE and a LG DVD Multi IDE connected to the Secondary IDE. Under Boot Options theres Removable Device, ATAPI CD-Rom, Hard Drive & Network Boot. I cannot set any to disabled just order them from 1 to 4

[ed12]

8gig is a good range..bios can handle that with room..

u should beable to high light your boot order..

also once the linux is loaded
just unhook the cdrom from the ide port and or unhook its power
the bios will skip it.

all we are looking for is for u to get by the kernel kill
which should allow u to get to a set of other errors..but that is ok..
atleast we got by the kernel kill

there is how ever another test that will tell u if the mobo is working
remove the raiser card
plug in a keyboard/mouse
remove cdrom and hard drive
boot the board bare bones
if it come back and tell's u disk boot failure,insert system disk
its a good bet the mobo is ok..
u then try a test i do
which is to keep the raiser out
and run a smal hd with winxp on it
it should boot with the ram u have
if it dose but bitchs?,no worrie's u are olny do a proff that the port's are indeed working
then u work backward's
ie riser card with no key so it is dumb
but the same harddrive in
this tell's u the riser is working
next is to insert key
windows will not even see it..same test as above but tell's u key is ok
then u have perty much put it down to the os on the ssd/flash..
wish u had posted me the key# as i can tell u if it is canada/uk/usa sw u are running
if canada i have all maxx disk's..for usa i have 0 disks..same with uk

ed

[gio_aus]

I'm currently just running a motherboard with a keyboard, cdrom and hard drive. this kernal error comes up with or without the riser and merit i/o board. Without the hard drive and cdrom plugged in i get "Operating System Not Found". I tried hooking up a hard drive which I think had Win 98 on it, but came up with the Hardware Configuration error and wouldn't load.

[ed12]

oh lord thk-u
man now we can get to it

>I'm currently just running a motherboard with a keyboard, cdrom and hard drive. this kernal error comes up with or without the riser and merit i/o board. Without the hard drive and cdrom plugged in i get "Operating System Not Found". I tried hooking up a hard drive which I think had Win 98 on it, but came up with the Hardware Configuration error and wouldn't load.<

now what we do,follow along please
i want to know a few thing's

remove the cdrom and hd
keep key board hooked up
and reboot the unit >unplug the power< plug back in
tell me what the first screen say's to u..very first screen..

ed

[gio_aus]

Sorry bit blurry

Bios 10.83 27 November 1998
Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0

[ed12]

ok that proves your board is running..
now what i want u to do
is follow the on screen to get it to the bios >setup menu<,
u may need to rember what key to hit.?
then power unit off and keep hitting that key until u get the setup menu..
btw the esc key takes u to the boot order screen as i spoke about..but leave that for now,
as i am looking for a few more answer's here

ed

[gio_aus]

ok i got bad news and good news. the bad news is that King Spec drive blew up and also destroyed the motherboard. CPU, ram and power supply are all fine coz they work on another board. The monitor light just keeps flashing and the screen is blank, tried removing the battery for over 15 minutes but didnt do anything.

good news is i have another motherboard with a problem
i cannot get it to boot a cd or hard drive, just a blank screen. ive noticed it takes ages to get into BIOS when it eventually decides to make it there but no idea what causes this

[mahkeymike]

I think you should just throw in the towel at this point, before you waist any more time and money on these old parts. They are just not worth it. Get yourself a i810/e chipset mobo (force) or a nForce2 mobo (ion) and i'll help you get it running. You can get sec keys way newer then any maxx version for cheap.

[gio_aus]

yeah I guess I have no choice, but I would to know why this other board will not get past bios and load a hard drive or cdrom

[mahkeymike]

yeah I guess I have no choice, but I would to know why this other board will not get past bios and load a hard drive or cdrom

Thats usually a sign of the mobo going. Could be Capacitors, regulators, Southbridge, Northbridge. I have a few of the same i810 mobo's and two of them boot quick. Another one takes over a minute to get past post (bios) and finally boot linux from the hard drive. The bios chips are socketed so it was easy to swap the chips, but makes no change, so it isnt the bios chip.

Like i said, just give up m8. If you want to get a megatouch working, i could help you with that as long as you have a mobo with a i810/e/i815 or nForce2/4 chipset. Im working on a patch to get 3m SMT-3 touch controller working on force/ion. So you can even reuse a XL/Maxx cabinet without replacing the crt/touch glass/controller.

[gio_aus]

are you talking about a Merit nForce2 mobo or any nForce 2?

[mahkeymike]

Any nForce2 or nForce4. Maybe even nForce3 but havent tested one yet.

[gio_aus]

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=1847#ov

I have one of these with an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU, no onboard video though

[mahkeymike]

It would probably work but you would need a gforce video card.

[gio_aus]

I have a GeForce 2MX400 32mb, is that too old or would it be alright?

[mahkeymike]

I have a GeForce 2MX400 32mb, is that too old or would it be alright?

Might work. As long as its supported in the drivers/module that gets loaded.

You will need a ion key though. Also, is the maxx IO board a ISA, pci, or usb? Or do you have force/GT/ION IO board?

[gio_aus]

max i/o board is ISA

[mahkeymike]

max i/o board is ISA

Thats not gonna work. You need atleast a classic force IO board. Any IO board that is usb will work. I seen some classic force IO boards on ebay for cheap. Think it was $15usd for 2 of em.

[mahkeymike]

We could still test your mobo and video card to see if it gets to the no IO board watchdog screen.

[gio_aus]

im looking at about $55 including postage, unless someone wants to donate...

[mahkeymike]

Ouch. How much was the shipping?

[gio_aus]

$37.31 US

[mahkeymike]

I wonder what it would cost me to ship it to you. It would only cost me $20 shipped and i keep one and split the cost. but i dont know if it would cost more or less to ship to you.

[gio_aus]

see how I go with this local guy, I may need a couple of other things too. as for my other working maxx I still need a ruby/ruby2 hard drive, anybody wanna sell me one?