Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Arcade Collecting => Merit/JVL Touchscreen => Topic started by: Newbee22 on March 04, 2016, 11:47:16 pm
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I have an ion evo unit. Everything inside has a 2006 date on it. It also has the purple mother board that I keep reading sucks. Well when the switch is turned on the only thing that starts up is the bill collector. The screen stays blank and fans or anything come on. I keep seeing post about the capacitors so I checked them and they seem to ok. Any ideas what this might be? Now take it easy on I am no computer engineer.
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1 of 2 things has happened.
1: the bios battery is dead... and the setting that normally is set to turn the computer on automatically when the power is applied, is no longer set.
if this is the case, you'll have to change the battery... then connect a keyboard and jumpstart the board by finding the power switch header pins on the motherboard (2 red colored marked pins on the bottom right side) and switching the board on. you'll have to mash the DEL key on your keyboard to enter the BIOS settings and set the "on AC loss" option to "ON"
2: the board has overheated and gone "dead" to protect itself. the bios will need to be reset. it may or may not come back alive again.
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A customer just brought in a Ion Evo HOME model that appeared to be completely dead (no signs of life when the power switch was flipped). It turns out the CMOS battery (type CR2032) was completely dead.
When you replace the battery (it's located in the very lower right corner of motherboard) you also have to do a couple of things to get the machine to power up. First, bend up a paper clip and shove it into pins 13 and 14 (green wire and black wire) of the motherboard power connector. This will force the power supply and motherboard to turn on when you flip the power switch (don't turn it on yet though). Next you plug in a computer keyboard into the keyboard connector on the motherboard. Make sure someone holds the paper clip in the motherboard power connector until you're done setting all the computer settings. Now turn on the power switch and press the DELETE key to get the setup menu. Now select the "Load Optimized Defaults" setting with the arrow keys and Y/N keys. Select save and exit. Now remove the power connector jumper paper clip and shut off the machine (unplug the keyboard too). Next time you turn on the machine it should boot up fine. Once the game has booted up, I advise you to press the diagnostic button on the interface board so you can get into the test menu. Select SYSTEM then SET TIME/DATE. That's it!
Now there was also a problem with some ION EVO machines not powering up intermittently. This service bulletin addresses that problem:
http://web.archive.org/web/20100106074531/http://www.meritgames.com/Support_Center/Bulletins/PDF/FLDBLL54.pdf (http://web.archive.org/web/20100106074531/http://www.meritgames.com/Support_Center/Bulletins/PDF/FLDBLL54.pdf)
Here are the instruction for installing that harness:
http://meritgames.com/Support_Center/manuals/manuals%20cs/TN100%20-%20PM0685-02%20asus%20power%20on%20harness.pdf (http://meritgames.com/Support_Center/manuals/manuals%20cs/TN100%20-%20PM0685-02%20asus%20power%20on%20harness.pdf)
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I am a bit sceptical about starting a pc supply by jumpering pin 13 and 14.
A pc motherboars has a voltage monitoring chip that checks if all voltages are within spec's.
If some are 2 high or low, the supply is turned off to prevent damage to the motherboard and it's components.
If the capacitors on your motherboard have gone bad, it usually results in voltages that become higher.
If you force the supply on by jumpering pin 13 and 14, the motherboard can't turn it off again and the overvoltage can damage some components.
So, the correct way is to find the power button pins on the motherboard and shorting those for a second. If everything is in order, the supply will turn on. If not, you will see the blower rotate for a few seconds, and the supply will turn off again.
I once had magic smoke when I jumpered pin 13 and 14 on a pc supply and learned my lesson.
I have seen arcade setups that use the trick to ensure the system turns on with the power, but I can only advice against it as you bypass the voltage monitoring system on the motherboard that should do the job (turning the supply on)
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I usually just jump start the "power" button pins on the front panel connector on the motherboard. I usually have to remove the aforementioned harness from the connector.
then yes, just go into the BIOS and set the on AC loss to on and it's good to go.
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I had already tested the power supply with my power supply tester which puts a load on it and has a voltage meter on it. A rotary switch on it selects which voltage lines to check. All voltages tested out right on the money. This particular machine is a home model and has only been in a home. In fact it was so clean inside it looked like it had just been uncrated. The capacitors on the motherboard were the next thing I checked. All tested perfect with my ESR meter and none had any bulges.
Machine is now working perfectly fine.
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I am not judging your repair skills.
I am just posting a warning since others might not test their power supply and check the mobo capacitors before they force start the supply bridging the "/power on" pin to GND. (On the supply connector)
You say you checked the ESR of the capacitors on the mobo. Is that something you can do leaving them in the circuit?
If so, what ESR meter are you using?
If you have multiple capacitors on the same supply rail, how would the meter be able to test one specific?
Question is, if you have to remove them, isn't it better to replace them right away, knowing that they have a bad reputation?
Usually, decoupling capacitors are connected to large copper areas (the inner power and GND planes of a multilayer pcb.)
Due to that, they don't desolder very easy (Unless you have something to preheat the pcb). As they aren't that expensive, it seems to make sense to take no risk and install new better quality ones right away.
In a perfect world, powering the system using the 2 jumper pin's on the mobo that normally connect to the power switch should work just as well. It's just not always obvious figuring out which pins to use.
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Updating the links to the Ion EVO power-on harness bulletins.
Field Bulletin descring the problem and kit number SB0542-01 to buy:
http://www.meritgames.com/Support_Center/Bulletins/PDF/FLDBLL54.pdf
Installing the harness:
http://www.meritgames.com/Support_Center/manuals/manuals%20cs/TN100%20-%20PM0685-02%20asus%20power%20on%20harness.pdf
Where to buy the SB0542-01 harness kit:
https://www.betsonparts.com/ion-power-on-harness-fldbll54.html