RFM Pin 2K will not boot

[good_buddy83]

OK So my good friend decides to to make a trade and gets a beautiful RFM in return. Nice machine, but he gets it home and now it won't boot. WTF? And I asked the obvious and yes he played it before he packed it up and moved.

I pulled the CPU, pulled the prism card, tried to boot hooked up to a PC monitor with only the Motherboard and power supply in the box. Nothing!

The powersupply is new (2012 vintage). I haven't checked the voltage outputs, but I am fairly certain the power supply wouldn't fail this early.

The fan on the motherboard does turn on and spin when I hit the on switch on the CPU. Still nothing outputs to a display.

Also, everything else in the machine turns on. Flourescent tube turns on, moniotr (you can hear it) turn on. Some voltage lights on the power board are on, but no PF lights, no solenoids, not sound, not display output. Seems to be a non-booting CPU. Also there is an orange LED diode on the Prism card that does light up orange and stays a solid orange.

My only thoughts are replacing the 5 caps on the motherboard. Does anyone else have any better ideas? I have reseated all the connectors, all the cards and all the cables. Still no dice. Also, these caps make me a little nervous as these are smallish caps on a mother board, this is no WPC board, this stuff is small and easy to screw up.

My only other question is where does this black connector go? When I disassembeld the CPU I believe it was under the motherboard not hooked up but I am not 100% sure. The reason I ask is someone before me had marked the connectors with white paint (presumabaly to know how to reconnect. In this case there is white paint ont this connector. Any ideas? Could this thing be my problem? The only spot it would potential fit is on jumper pins, which did not seem right to me. Anyone, disconnected right now and not booting.



Help Please. I did an ebay search last night for new boards and one came up for $1000 which is really not reassuring at all. Thanks in advance.

 

[REVOLUTION]

I'd start by trying another power supply. My money is on the current one being shot. "New" doesn't mean squat, I've bought cheap power supplies that never worked out of the box.

 

[necro_nemesis]

Connections are provide here.

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?t ... _PC_issues

and here.

http://www.blackknightpinball.com/rfm/C ... gxm-av.pdf

I recall it being two pins of a port header with many pins so it's not intuitive. A picture is probably required to show the two pins.

 

[good_buddy83]

Thanks for the replies.

I have pulled an old power supply from a computer that I will try. It has a 24 pin connector, while the mother board only has 20 pins. I think I mapped it out right and blocked off the 4 pins that are not needed. I also think I need to ground out the green wire inorder to get it run. No big deal. I'll give it a shot.

Still not really sure if the mystery 2 wires go in somewhere or not. Hopefully someone can post a pic. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Grauwulf]

No one seems to have asked the obvious question, is the monitor in the machine powering on? You won't be able to hook it to a standard PC monitor because it is a 15khz video signal, now a 31khz signal that a PC monitor needs.

If you post your location someone who is local to you might be able to help, I think quite a few of us have RFM's.

I will also have a stock computer setup for sale soon as I am completing my NUCORE setup.

 

[good_buddy83]

Thanks Grauwulf.

The monior in the RFM machine "sounds" like it is powering on, but no display. I removed the CPU from the machine entirely and bench tested it. I used a standard computer power cable and pluged it into the wall and used a standard VGA cable on flat LCD computer monitor. The computer monitor did not register a a signal when powered on. When I read online it sounded like you hook the cpu up to a standard computer monitor, but maybe I was mistaken.

You can contact kevin the 1984 kid on this forum or on maaca. I am sure he would be interested in buying your computer if we can't get this one to work. I am sure he will chim in shortly and it is his RFM machine I was working on last night.

 

[REVOLUTION]

the LCD monitor won't register the video unfortunately, it's out of the frequency range of the panel.

 

[Grauwulf]

Your mystery 2-pin connector goes here:


I believe that's the reset pins on the motherboard and probably why it isn't booting.

Hope that helps!

 

[necro_nemesis]

Seconded on that connector. Hard to describe without a pic but that's the way I remember mine connected as well. I suspect it isn't the monitor that's the issue if the pf isn't illuminating and going into attract mode. My guess is the computer isn't booting up as mentioned. In addition to what was mentioned did you try re-seating the ram and processor?

 

[good_buddy83]

Wow thanks!

I am betting you are right, it may have been that connector. I am thinking it may have come off in the move, but it is real not intuitive where it goes back. Thanks! I'm hopeful that will fix it.

Yes I did reseat the ram. Not sure how to reseat the processor. I pulled the whole mother board and cleaned it with canned air. We'll try the reset wire like you say as that makes perfect sense. Thanks.

 

[necro_nemesis]

I hate working on that CPU. If Williams had written the software to support a broader range of boards I wouldn't give a crap and treat like any other computer but having to preserve that specific utility mobo is a PIA given they aren't easy to come by. All that's to say is be gentle.

 

[Grauwulf]

If they hadn't folded the pinball division while P2K was in it's infancy, I'm sure the platform would have been revised to use other hardware eventually. They would have had to. And Nucore is proof that it could have been somewhat easily done.

 

[necro_nemesis]

And Nucore is proof that it could have been somewhat easily done.

If your conversant with XINU and have the source code. Not sure if XINU code modification is the route NUCORE took but I doubt it since, correct me if I'm wrong, under the XINU GPL they couldn't legally charge for changes to open source code and NUCORE would have to be offered free of charge.

I believe WMS may have found themselves on a slippery slope with the decision to use XINU.

BTW I have a handful of the appropriate network cards for p2k. About as useless as .... but anyway if anyone is looking to experiment.

 

[kevin the 1984 kid]

Your mystery 2-pin connector goes here:


I believe that's the reset pins on the motherboard and probably why it isn't booting.

Hope that helps!

I put the reset pins inn and still the same results. I still need to get a new power supply in there to rule that out. Thank you good buddy and everybody for your help much appreciate...I want to play this dam pin so bad!!
I live in Port Colborne if there any locals that want to check it out.

 

[tim.sanderson]

I love that game! I hope you get it working soon.

 

[Grauwulf]

And Nucore is proof that it could have been somewhat easily done.

If your conversant with XINA and have the source code. Not sure if XINA code modification is the route NUCORE took but I doubt it since, correct me if I'm wrong, under the XINA GPL they couldn't legally charge for changes to open source code and NUCORE would have to be offered free of charge.

I believe WMS may have found themselves on a slippery slope with the decision to use XINA.

BTW I have a handful of the appropriate network cards for p2k. About as useless as .... but anyway if anyone is looking to experiment.

I'm strictly a hardware guy, I don't know diddly-squat about software. I'll just have to take your word for it. lol

 

[kevin the 1984 kid]

I will also have a stock computer setup for sale soon as I am completing my NUCORE setup.

I'm defiantly interested

 

[necro_nemesis]

You could additionally test the supply for voltages.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKoctd4ReW8[/youtube]

 

[Grauwulf]

Alternatively, you could just sell the whole thing to me.

Hopefully you get it up and running, keep us posted.

 

[Grauwulf]

Any update on this? I'm curious to see how you're making out.