What would disable or conflict with an IPAC after the XP title screen?

[sirzooass]

I have a strange issue with my IPAC which was running fine for years. Wondering if anyone has any insight.

When I boot up my computer running XP the IPAC light stays on, but buttons do nothing. The keyboard hooked to the pass-through doesn't work either. However, if I hit F2 while booting to go into set up mode I can navigate the menu with my joystick and use they keyboard so everything at that point is working. I'd guess this means that my IPAC is fine. It's as if something is disabling or conflcting with it after the Windows startup screen.

I've been going back to a restore point even though nothing (to my knowledge) was changed or installed to fix the problem, but it's rather annoying considering I have to do it every single time I boot up. I'd think after doing a system restore once I'd be good to go, but I have to do this every single time I power on.

I thought maybe it was a PS/2 issue and got a cheap USB adapter off Ebay which didn't work. I'm contemplating buying the scpecial cable direct from Ultimarc, but I'm not covinced this is a PS/2 issue.  From what I've been reading USB is more flaky than PS/2 with IPACs anyway.

Does anyone know how to go about troubleshooting?

[Turnarcades]

Not sure about troubleshooting, but I have had a few dodgy PS/2 cables. If yours is PS/2, swap the cable. The USB ones can be less reliable due to the way different PC's assign the drivers for USB. In one of my other threads I've mentioned about power surges when incorrectly wired to a coin mech, so if you are using one, check that thread for advice.

[AndyWarne]

Have you tried a different keyboard on the pass through?
Andy

[SavannahLion]

I've been going back to a restore point even though nothing (to my knowledge) was changed or installed to fix the problem, but it's rather annoying considering I have to do it every single time I boot up. I'd think after doing a system restore once I'd be good to go, but I have to do this every single time I power on.

This comment kind of peaks my interest. Why would a keyboard work after a restore, but the restore state doesn't survive boots? Maybe it's an errant virus or program disabling the keyboard input? I remember a a couple of AOL specific viruses that were annoying in a similar way, but they haven't surfaced in the wild for years.

Try this. Remove the iPac and just use the keyboard. If it still doesn't work. Do the restore. Immediately after the restore, but before you start clicking around to run programs, bring up Task manager and take a snapshot of all the running programs. Save or print the images as a reference. Then do your routine as if you were booting into your arcade to play games. If you can, bring up the task manager and compare what you see now with what you had before.

Of course, if the keyboard isn't working on the second cycle, then you're boned. Start with an intensive virus scan to exclude that possibility. If the keyboard problem is severe enough, you might need to resort to using something like BartPE

[sirzooass]

Thanks all!

I will investigate further based on your suggestions and let you know what happens.

[sirzooass]

Seems like the only way I can get it working without a restore is to plug the keyboard into the computer, boot it up, then yank the keyboard cable out and attach the IPAC. At that point there is a series of beeps and it works. Not much of a improvement upon the system restore unfortunately I ran a virus scan and the system was clean, but didn't go through the task manager yet. I installed the OS fresh for this cabinet and only installed arcade emulation software but I suppose something could have snuck on there since it's networked to my wireless router.

[miles2912]

After a few years you should blow out the software and re-install.  Especially if you use the cab for other things and install other apps on it. 

After the machine boots, can you re-program the i-pac?  Use a mouse if you need to.

[AndyWarne]

Best way to get this fixed is drop me an email and I'll send a USB cable free of charge... problems will be over.

andy@ultimarc.com

[Malenko]

Best way to get this fixed is drop me an email and I'll send a USB cable free of charge... problems will be over.

andy@ultimarc.com

and that sir, is why you are awesome. 

[Lo_Wire]

Did this resolve your issue? I am having the exact same problem.