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Author Topic: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)  (Read 5679 times)

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Garbagemonster

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Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« on: April 16, 2017, 10:41:35 am »
Hello all, my name is William. But you'd best refer to me as GarbageMonster.
This is my first time posting! I'd like to say thank you for welcoming me into your community. I'm really excited to talk hardware and troubleshooting with enthusiasts.

Okay, so I've come across a Megatouch "2007", and I'm not certain if that's even it's generation. On one side of the cabinet it has a Megatouch Force 2007 decal, then on the other it has a "Powered by Megatouch Force 2008" decal. The software this machine is running is Megatouch 2008.5, so I assume the software has been updated before. Either way, it's the variation that sits on a counter top and has a spinner on the bottom. It should be the Megatouch Force 2007 model.

So, I'll start at the beginning. When the machine came to me it was having a hard time booting. It would POST and cycle through all of it's hardware checking, but after all of the [OK]'s, it would just go right back to the beginning of the process and loop constantly. I assumed the hard drive was corrupt or that it was going out, so I cloned the drive using Clonezilla and examined the data. I did my best to recreate the drive onto a laptop HDD I had laying around. Everything clones over except two of the partitions, something wasn't right about the cloning process and they didn't complete successfully. I used an IDE/SATA bridge to install the hard drive into the machine and did some hardware ordering. After a bit, it rebuilt some of it's own partitions after hitting the "memory reset" combinations on the DIP switches. Booted fine, I played some monkey game.

So, I go to put the thing back together the next day, assuming I had solved everything. But as I go to turn the machine on, the screen stays black despite the powering on sound and the static initializing from the monitor. I thought I had broken something putting everything back in order so I was very worried. I called a couple buddies and got their advice, then took the entire thing apart and put everything back together, being extra careful to secure everything everywhere. then I go to boot the machine back up, boom! Screen is working perfectly. yay, wonderful.

BTW- The screen has no appearance issues. The monitor has great integrity when it's on and warming up.

So, I think the machine is fixed again. I go to take it back to the man I'm fixing it for, do a test in his garage, no dice. Machine decided not to display anything on the screen again. Damnit, let me take this back. So I've been troubleshooting the hardware for this machine and I've noticed some distinct symptoms.

- The machine does not display an image on the screen after it has been plugged in and turned on previously.

- If the machine is unplugged and left to sit, with the power switch left ON, the machine will power on and the monitor will work fine.

- When the monitor decides not to work, a green light on the Remote Adjustment board turns from green to orange. I will post pictures of this "remote adjustment board" because I don't think these come stock inside of these machines.

- When the machine starts correctly, the motherboard gives a beep indication at the exact time the light decides to either stay green or turn orange.

- Unplugging the machine and leaving the power switch on resolves the display problem. Typically it does not fault once it's up and running correctly.


So! I suppose I'm focusing on the power flowing into the machine, the screen displaying images, and the potential issues that could yield these symptoms with tube monitors such as these. So far I haven't noticed any bulging capacitors, but I haven't inspected the lower boards yet. The one detail that throws me off about this whole situation is that the computer hardware seems to coordinate itself with the screen display symptoms with timing and a beep code. So far, I think, the beep code has only been one beep.

Also accessing the BIOS my keyboard locks up and won't participate in navigating the options. I don't have another legacy keyboard to use here, but I have successfully gone through some of the options for five seconds or so before the keyboard stopped working.

I know this is a lot of information.
But I'm sure it will be a fun thing to think about.
Thanks for reading!

I ended up getting some CRC errors from the new hard drive.
I'll fix that after I fix the screen issue.
:)


Will.


mahkeymike

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2017, 07:29:42 pm »
It looks like you put alot of effort into this post. If you can try make the long story short i will try to help you. Sorry.

Garbagemonster

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2017, 12:12:28 am »
TLDR;

the Megatouch system turns on, but the monitor does not always turn on. The screen is a tube television not an LCD.

The monitor turns on fine after I leave the device unplugged with the power switch on.

When the monitor does not start up with the system, the remote adjustment board (see pics) displays an orange light instead of the typical green light.

When the system boots up correctly it gives a single beep code.
When the display does not turn on, I don't think there is a beep code.

???? Thank you for communicating about this ????

ed12

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2017, 12:40:27 am »
i never seen u saw u reolaced the power supply.?
they will do exactley what u describe with a bad power supply.
u can test this with any atx power supply

ed
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orizzle

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2017, 06:33:35 am »
Sounds like a power supply or motherboard.

mahkeymike

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2017, 07:28:02 am »
As far as i know, the tube monitor should get its power directly from the ac plug. It sounds like your motherboard is randomly turning on which could be something wrong with motherboard or the psu like the other guys mentioned. The orange on monitor is most likely sleep mode when the monitor doesn't detect a signal from the motherboard.

Things to try first.
try a different psu.
try another stick of ram
try another cpu

Garbagemonster

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2017, 08:05:48 am »
Thank you everyone for your replies. I certainly hope it's something as simple as replacing the power supply.  :P

Garbagemonster

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2017, 10:16:37 am »
Also, just encountered a random reboot with the machine powered up into a menu. That seems like it could be memory more than anything.

obcd

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2017, 12:17:15 pm »
The one beep you hear is typically the motherboard bios saying "I am alive".
The monitor led becoming orange is likely also what you get with the vga connector unplugged. (No video signal)
Pc motherboards have a voltage monitoring chip. It will only release the reset when the supply voltages are within specification.
You might find the bulging capacitors in the power supply cabinet.
Obvious, anything can prevent the mobo from running stable.
Those systems are pretty compact build and have issues to move their heat away.
 

ed12

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2017, 12:38:52 pm »
the last 2 posts by mike and obcd are your starting points
this is the exact way we do these machines
1=power supply
2=caps on board bulging
3=ram (remove clean reinsert)
that is perty much a step for step

ed
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Karetaker

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Re: Megatouch Force 2007, all around hardware problems. :-)
« Reply #10 on: May 03, 2017, 10:08:33 pm »
It doesn't sound like a monitor issue. Try CAREFULLY re-seating the hard drive connector in the hard drive. Cleaning the memory and re-seating would be my next step as already mentioned.