Touchtunes MJS invalid key

[lilshawn]

i have an older allegro with the MJS computer. it operated properly.

as a precaution we checked the computer (blown caps and whatnots) we tested the CMOS battery and it was near death so we replaced the battery.

on first boot the computer reported invalid or corrupted CMOS data. there is no conventional BIOS setup program only a command line to debug with.

on advise from tech support , we booted without the HD to enter the debug mode and issued the following commands:


cmos init
cmos save


the computer no longer displays CMOS errors on boot, but once the OS starts to boot the first step is to unlock the jukebox. it reports back "invalid key"

I peeled the computer apart and checked the board to board interconnects to make sure they were solid and connected correctly.

does anybody out there know how to fix this? something somewhere is amiss. I have the feeling it has something to do with the CMOS data. apparently this is something that happens with these computers (found an ebay listing selling the computer stating "The unit boots with NO CMOS ERRORS like most. And all boot up perfectly, NO INVALID KEY message." , but i cannot locate any info about how to fix it.

[ed12]

eeprom

ed

[ed12]

and if mem serve's me right
u must request hit,for the juke id#..you know the sticker on the unit,
call that into support,then :demand: the frog's :head eng-dept: get into it,
to target your id with a old up-date so it will rev
pain in the ass i know

ed

[mjbraun]

Following up for historic purposes and in case anyone else finds this thread, as I've been digging into the TouchTunes ecosystem.

If you look inside the control board, you'll see what looks like an empty BIOS battery holder. In a working jukebox it would hold an "iButton" which contains the necessary information to decrypt the OS. TouchTunes uses a DS1993 iButton with 4k of storage to hold the key for decryption. While there is some readable information on the hard drive, it's not actually usable: the "real" software lives inside a protected partition that is accessed and mounted using information from the iButton (so you can't just drop an DS1993 into the slot on the control board).

An iButton works kind of like a SIM in a cell phone: it allows TouchTunes to bill the right entity for operations performed by a hardware device. However, unlike a SIM, a) the device is useless without it and b) you can't get an iButton that's not tied to anyone's account. They're more or less unobtanium: even if you found someone selling one, they would be liable for all charges you might run up unless you take over the iButton and the only way to do that is to be an operator. And the only way to be an operator is to buy 10+ jukeboxes from TouchTunes.

A vendor I spoke to put it best:

...if you have all the other parts: you have nothing. If you have an I-Button: you have a jukebox. That said this is the most important part of the entire machine and is why you don't see valid ones for sale. The I-Button IS the jukebox, not the cabinet, computer, hdd, touchscreen, ect. I-Buttons are currently going at a rate of $450 each right now and have been going up as they have stopped selling them. They have a new version now and the only way to get one is to purchase and entirely brand new $4000 jukebox. So what I-buttons are out there are all that will ever be.

[lilshawn]

just to touch base... I spoke with a fella who is one of the repair depots for the OOW touchtunes equipment.

The issue with the MJS computer is(was) the date and time stored in the BIOS.

when the software starts up it polls a bunch of data

hash files...database info...Ibutton data...etc. and it starts hashing the data to produce a checksum.

now, apparently the date and time is compared to some system files (we are guessing to check for invaild/corrupted/changed/hacked files) and if the date/time is not in line with those specified it fails to boot and throws the generic "invalid key" error.

see, when you pull the battery the CMOS data gets corrupted....)apparently when you do the "cmos init/cmos save" it resets everything EXCEPT the date and time.)

Buddy has a "high score" sheet of sorts at work of the computers that have come in with either really high or really low (also really crazy)time date infos that have ended up in the CMOS.

fixing this issue is as simple as setting the date and time...except with the computer setup the way it is...you can't...at least not conventionally. there is a way to do it but... I have no access to the program needed to do so as of yet... but I have something in the works.

[pinballjail]

I've had that happen a few jukes and replacing the hard drive fixed the problem.

[ed12]

just to touch on this for u
here is what i do with our gen3's,
i do a full .img of a working system.
by .img i do not mean a cd but a hd->hd .img
and hold it as a master..thus i have a virgin and or just about there as of,for when they fail..and they do!!
same crap >>heat<<

ed

[SCking]

Just stumbled on this topic. I have the same or very similar problem. Have you gotten any success?

[lilshawn]

it must be sent to an authorized repair center for BIOS reprogramming. it is the only way as of currently.

I have not been able to procure the necessary boot device to reprogram the computer in the way it needs to boot again properly.

[bbillnextech70]

been diging into this and there is a hidden os that all installes and updates and time and date can be change only on the hidden os. Any one came across info about it.?

[lilshawn]

yeah according the the service center, he said apparently the gen2 harddrive has the ability to hold the operator menu button at boot to boot into the ODT diagnostic suite, where you can change the date and time. also that functionallity has been removed from the gen3 and up drives (which are the current version.)

if ODT in gen3 has a date and time set...i'm kind of wondering if you could set a juke to reboot to ODT in a machine, wait for it to shutdown, but then kill the computer before it boots... and then pull the drive and install it to the "dead" unit, to boot it into gen3 ODT to set the date/time.