IPAC keys freaked out and now no longer work - looking for advice

[sirzooass]

I've had an IPAC working perfectly fine in my cabinet for years but I think it may have just died on me. Here's exactly what happened.

I updated my Nestopia emulator and programmed the input keys using my control panel. Everything was fine.

I went in to play the game and noticed the buttons weren't working right so I exited and began to reprogram the input keys thinking I messed up there. Then I noticed that the keys that I was supposedly pressing were rapidly changing from key to key, as if I was hitting a bunch of random keys really fast.

So I opened Notepad. When I moved the joystick left "left key = left" was flickering and then erasing really fast. Other keys were doing the same sort of thing. Then all of the sudden the computer went in to sleep mode. I'm guessing I just happened to hit the sleep shortcut randomly pressing buttons. I then rebooted.

Now, the LED does light up on my IPAC but my computer it not detecting any keypresses either from the IPAC or a keyboard passed through it. If at that point I disconnect the IPAC then plug the keyboard directly into the computer the keyboard doesn't work. I have to shut down, plug in the keyboard, then restart so that it is detected again. So I guess my computer is simply not detecting the IPAC and thinking there is no keyboard attached when it boots up?

Another bit if info is that if I unplug my IPAC when it is on with the steady LED, then plug it back in, it flashes once then immediately goes out. Not sure if that is normal or not.

Has anyone had a similar situation? I'm using the PS/2 connector. I was going to try buying a USB adaptor and see if the same problem happens but don't want to waste time with that if I don't have to.

[genesim]

I had similar problems with my PS/2 port.   Though the keyboard worked fine. 

So I used my only free USB slots and got erratic results.   Not so much with the IPAC, but my Xarcade.

I got both running through the PCI Express slot USB and they work perfectly.   So in essence, maybe some things got fried.   Personally I think the newer USB ports on computers are being less "powered" because the Spinner and Mouse work fine through those, but it is only a guess.   I just wanted it to work consistently, and I have no problems since.

USB is faster anyway.

[genesim]

Just a note, everything you stated did happen to me as well.   But with a reboot, the keyboard worked fine.   

I hate using a pass through anyway.    Me thinks if you do go USB your problem will be solved if the Ipac isn't fried.   Make sure and check your grounds to your microswitches if you have done a recent modification.

USB with everything else works fine on my computer though.  Just encoders have these problems.

[sirzooass]

Thanks so much for your insight!

I just yanked out my control panel and hooked it up to another computer and it appears to work fine, so it seems the IPAC is fine and it's a computer specific problem, which is a bit odd. Why would a keyboard work in the PS/2 port and an IPAC wouldn't? Are there IPAC config files hidden someone on my machine that I need to delete perhaps? I did go into the hardware profiles and try deleting the keyboard so it would re-recognize it but that didn't work. I'll try again then go the USB route.

[Dustin Mustangs]

This might be a "duh, I already knew that', but just in case I'll pipe in. 

The behavior you describe in notepad makes it sound like your ipac has entered the built in 'programming mode' ( http://www.ultimarc.com/interact.html ).  I have found that if you enter this mode and do not properly exit it you will get all types of weird behavior.  To exit it, you will have to enter the mode as described in the above link and then hit 'e' to exit.

Also, I have had some unusual behavior out of my ipac (not necessarily like you are having) because of which key strokes I am emulating with it.  I have found that (on my machine) using anything other than actual letters and numbers can lead to trouble.   This would include buttons like tab, alt, ctrl, enter, ect...  Not sure if I am the only one who had problems with this or what, but the mame (and ipac factory) defaults use a number of these problem keys. 

Just some thoughts...   

[sirzooass]

Aha! I just went in to test mode on my other computer and the "1 left = left entr" that displays in Notepad when I push the joystick left is exactly the sort of messaging I was seeing  when this problem started. I'm not sure how I managed to accidentaly hit ctrl-alt-p but I suppose it's possible. So reset it to MAME defaults and exited properly.

Unfortunately, I hooked it back up to my MAME computer and it was still hosed. But luckily I had a restore point from a month ago, used System Restore and I'm back up and running again. I should have know all along to blame Microsoft, not my IPAC! Something must have gotten corrupted.

Thanks guys for your time and insight!