I was posting on my local coin-op forum for some help (tips and tricks).
I thought I would just add the posts I had made over there.
I have tried a few different things and made some progress.........with a different PC.
Anyway this is what I had posted :
I went out at lunch and picked up a new power supply.
When I got home I tried to get some sign of life on the PC.
I disconnected the HDD, took out the RAM, and tried to boot up.
I got nothing. I tried adding back one stick of RAM, nothing.
I downloaded the manual for the mo-bo, wanted to make sure the red LED that was not lighting up was nothing to stress over. It wasn't, it was only used when two videocards were detected.
I even tried a different videocard in a different slot, but still nothing.
I dug out an old PC I had kicking around that I never got to using. I tried the same power supply and videocard from my existing (non working) set up.
IT WORKED ! - so it would appear I messed up my MAME PC mo-bo.
I wish I had paid more attention to the error I got onscreen prior to this, but sadly I didn't. Oddly I keep telling myself I knew it was a bad error, yet I did not take the time to note it. It would have given me some insight on where to begin should I wish to attempt a fix.
None the less nothing I can do now. I'll bring back the new power supply as that wasn't the issue. The biggest bummer is all the time now to set up a new PC. I was not in the mood yesterday but today I'll dock my MAME HDD and see if I can pull off the data. I was (am) really happy with the set up I had.
I want to do the minimum amount of PC that I can. I find that to the worst and longest part of these setup's. It's the reason that as I do this laptop I'm working on I'm trying to keep everything clean and organized, so for future builds I can just copy my "ARCADE" folder and it will have all ROMS/videos/snaps/emulators and utilities contained.
I assume it isn't worth having a 12 year old PC looked at, I'll just take the loss and use what I have to get this MAME set up going again. It might even serve as the motivation to finally install my Aim Traks!
But what drives me BANANAS is that literally within 2 minutes it went from working to nothing. PC was on, playing fine, game frozen, reboot, PC loads, shows error and hangs....whatever the error was I just remember the # 3 showing and it was underlined and blinking, it didn't continue to load, so power down power up then TOAST ! Ughhhhhhhh
I'm a little bummed at the work I have in front of me....but it is what it is!
I was currently working on a MAME laptop, so I'll just duplicate the files on both PC's.
Want to do as little work I can. I'm hoping that when I dock my HDD tonight that it was not damaged in this fiasco. I'm happy with the MAME set up I had. I had my custom MARIO BROS Mala layout, all my snaps, my videos, and ROMS were good to go! I had NES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, and Turbo GRFX all installed and running.
Tonight I plan on writing Windows 7 to an existing HDD I had so I can get the PC up and going, then providing my MAME HDD was not damaged I'll move all the files.
If it isn't one thing, it's another.
I had a buddy come over after work to give me a hand with my PC.
I got an error saying that on the new PC the processor was overheating. This happened literally moments after the PC was powered on.
I plan on adding new thermal compound tonight when I get home, hoping that will resolve the issue.
I did however get Windows 7 installed on the new HDD. I was then able to use my HDD dock, dock both drives and move over all my old MAME files.
So all the artwork, videos, ROMs, emulators, tools (FuzzyRename/ROMlister/Arcade Ambiance Project/etc) .
Tonight I'll put on the thermal compound and download the required drivers for the mo-bo.
I need to also DL the manual and see where to install the extra USB ports. I need to make sure I have enough ports for the two Aim Trak guns & sensor.
Not sure if things like that can be connected via a USB hub.