Maxx Sapphire boot issue / rescue disks

[Arm123]

Hey everyone... been a while, glad to see some familiar faces

I have come across a nice looking maxx sapphire machine that I wanted to help restore for a friends 92 y/o father, to play with. Unfortunately, I have come to a dead-end with it.

I started out by booting it up to a "crc error --system halted" message... so i replaced the bios battery, reset bios to defaults and set the date... Same crc error persists.

Then went online and found ISO of the sapphire / force 2004 rescue disks, which I burned and tried to boot off of... result, system times out on the "Loading..." message. I tried multiple times and received strange inconsistencies when they kernel was trying to load... So I reseated the processor and replaced the ram... seemed to clear that up and allow me into the rescue / refresh program.

Now, I am getting CDROM errors... so I played with the IDE channel configuration (slave/master) and replaced the ribbon cables. Tried multiple combinations and came up with the following...

The primary IDE channel on the motherboard seems to be toast. Whichever device i have hooked up to it... comes up with errors on boot the process. I have also tried using a dual terminal ribbon cable, with both devices hooked on to the secondary IDE mobo channel. This comes up with a kernel panic termination.

I am left with ether buying a new mobo or hd / flash kit... I really just wanted to get this thing up and running asap, as it is a favor for a friend.

Is there anyone that would be willing to do a solid and provide sapphire hd image ?..

Thanks,





 

[Megatouchmike]

The crc error is bad motherboard 99% of the time in my experience. Curiously enough, the machine should still run dos based versions like emerald and diamond.

I can send you a sapphire image if you still want to try.

[Arm123]

Hey there Mike, thanks for the reply good sir!

Yup, for sure one of the IDE channels are toast... However, I was able to dig through my old hard drives from 2013, when I used to do this sort of thing more often. Found a CHD backup of a sapphire and couple others... Good thing I never trash things 

Cloned a drive and hooked up... works ! 

Thanks again Mike

[Megatouchmike]

That's great to know. I've never tried the other ide channel before. So did you get it running by hooking up the drive to secondary channel?

[Arm123]

Dang, I spoke too soon... I took a second look and saw that it was indeed the primary channel, I had the sapphire HD I cloned, was hooked up to.

Randomly, the primary channel seemed to work for a few boots and I played for a while. However, messing around with the system and changing the channel to secondary (which i can confirm now... does not work / boot... just hangs when loading boot loader) The primary channel started giving me boot errors again. 

I pulled out the whole board and soldered / hot aired the primary IDE connector on the back the board... just incase. However, the same two alternating boot errors occur.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QsGIxOe-kkE

https://youtube.com/shorts/gu47-ZVzSqs


Guess i need a new motherboard ?

[Arm123]

Found a similar sounding situation here:
https://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=24146.0

Because this project isn't for me and I am so cheap... i might try replacing some caps on this board before ordering are replacement :-P

[Arm123]

And yet... another:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141370.40.html

man, these mobos are crappy: MITSUBISHI / ITOX mobo

[mahkeymike]

I am not familiar with Maxx hardware, but watching those videos, it looks like bad hard drive rather then bad mobo.

[Arm123]

I would also come to that conclusion as well, given the block / error messages...

However, I have tried multiple hard drives / images and anytime I'm booting off the primary IDE channel, the error occurs.

Even in the rescue CD program, I get HD errors during install on different / fresh HDs... then I swapped the CDROM and HD channels and receive CDROM read errors.

Given that the Linux Sapphire software doesn't like to boot off the secondary channel, the common denominator seems to be the primary IDE controller...

Need a mobo 



Given the unreliability of the ITOX, Im wondering if i can swap this ITOX mobo out for a Unicorn board ?

[mahkeymike]

Providing the IOboard and touchscreen have the same connections , i dont see why not.

[Megatouchmike]

Are you dead set on getting sapphire running? Like I said earlier you should be able to downgrade to a dos version