Author Topic: Big Tony's Pokerkard (Read 44224 times)

bossgp · « **Reply #60 on:** October 22, 2015, 04:51:38 PM »

I have changed my bios settings, no go still have critical memory error ! anyone else

RevisionX · « **Reply #61 on:** October 22, 2015, 10:14:49 PM »

Bossgp,

I think I may have a solution for you as far as the critical memory error goes. I was able to create this error after I decided to turn the PC off (using the on/off button) while in the middle of a game. After it rebooted - "Critical Memory Error". It certainly didn't like being rebooted mid-game - so odds are something became corrupted or out of sync. I isolated the problem to the USB key by deleting any PokerKard-related file with a modification date of today. Error still there. I had the original image I took of the USB key (used "dd" in Linux) and after re-imaging I'm back in business.

Before re-imaging, I copied the files from my working USB key to the non-working key and this did not work. Good evidence that there is data somewhere on the drive not visible to file explorers. Most commercial backup apps (like Acronis) do their backups based on the source drive's file system, and will ignore any space flagged as 'empty.' True block-by-block copies take a long time, and companies market "speed" as a feature by reconstructing the original file system and copying only the data. A tool like "dd" doesn't analyse the source, instead it copies each and every block on a device, slowly making a perfect image.

My next test will be to determine if the dongle and the PC are truly "paired" in some way. I'll create images using my working hardware and image them to non-PokerKard hardware (off the shelf hard drive and USB key).

Quick Summary:
Game working perfectly.
Put in $2.
Played for about 5 minutes.
Pressed on/off button on CPU.
Booted back up.
Critical Memory Error.
Isolated issue to USB dongle.
Restored USB image.
Game working perfectly.

Next Up:
Image working hard drive using CloneZilla.
Image working USB dongle using dd.
Restore hard drive image to different make/model hard drive.
Restore USB image to an off-the-shelf USB key.

Best regards,
RevisionX

jay · « **Reply #62 on:** October 22, 2015, 10:31:29 PM »

EASEUS is a free partition tool that copies everything.
They of course will haunt you forever trying to get you to upgrade to the paid product.
I don't use it often enough but if I was in the market for such a product I would pay for this one.

RevisionX · « **Reply #63 on:** October 23, 2015, 08:00:30 AM »

All -

CloneZilla and DD are both absolutely free and both can be used by creating boot-able CD/DVD/USB keys. You can boot to them from Windows machines, but I certainly recommend disconnecting your main hard drive while imaging other devices just to avoid the chance of a catastrophe.

Once I image my hardware (drive and USB dongle) and write them back successfully (after corrupting each), then I'll just post up those images on my website/blog and people can use those images to get their machines running.

I'll create some HOW-TO pages on using CloneZilla and DD for PokerKard, to help ease people into using these open source utilities.

Best regards,
RevisionX

RevisionX · « **Reply #64 on:** October 24, 2015, 10:23:10 AM »

YouTube videos are up!

The entire boot process - from power up through attract mode:
https://youtu.be/jMciXFJId-s

Game play (2 hands):
https://youtu.be/Zz4NXt7PxJ8

Enjoy!
RevisionX

bossgp · « **Reply #65 on:** October 24, 2015, 07:45:16 PM »

RevisionX , Thank you look forward to your images

RevisionX · « **Reply #66 on:** October 26, 2015, 12:41:29 PM »

BossGP -

The images I created are on my web page at:
http://www.scottcking.com/?p=219

Just scroll down to Step #2 and 3.

I'll try and get some docs up soon for imaging these to your PokerKard hardware. It will involve a couple of USB keys and I'll write the docs so that the PokerKard PC is being used in the imaging process (that's how I did mine). Once you have those two images (and working hardware), you're nearly there.

Best regards,
Scott...

PokerKard79 · « **Reply #67 on:** October 31, 2015, 11:31:58 AM »

Hi RevisionX

I'm also trying to get past the "Critical Memory Error" issue on my machine. I downloaded the Clonezilla image of your drive and also the DD image of your USB dongle.
I'm hoping you can perhaps help with a few questions please.

1. Any idea how to restore the DD image in Windows? Or would I only be able to do that in Linux

2. If I use your HDD image to restore to my HDD - the software version will be US. If all works and I can finally get past the "Critical Memory Error" (fingers crossed), then I will pretty much have an exact clone of your pokerkard machine from and OS/Software and Dongle perspective. My machine is configured for a different country with the coin acceptor configured to accept coins in my currency. Any idea how I could get past this? Is there a free mode on these machines that can be enabled?

RevisionX · « **Reply #68 on:** November 01, 2015, 10:30:49 AM »

BossGP -

I'll spend a little time today trying to determine which files need to be synchronized on the USB key and original hard drive. It's accurate to say we have a "workaround" using images, but an elegant solution that avoids lengthy imaging processes would definitely be preferable.

RevisionX

RevisionX · « **Reply #69 on:** November 01, 2015, 12:36:27 PM »

Spent several hours on this today, but looks like whatever is synchronizing the PC to the USB key is in sysmax.exe. Dead end. Not going to spend more time in this rabbit hole...

RevisionX · « **Reply #70 on:** November 01, 2015, 06:48:19 PM »

Ok, successfully restored both the USB key and hard drive using only CloneZilla. That will make documenting how to restore these much easier. I'll try and get to that this week.

You will need (2) USB keys.
Key 1: Stores the CloneZilla images (USB dongle, hard drive)
Key 2: CloneZilla - this key boots to CloneZilla so you can write the images to your hardware.
Anyway ... more to come. I'll do everything using the PC in BTPK to minimize confusion.

The new matching Clonezilla images are uploading now, but should be on-line by 9pm CST 11/1/2015:
http://www.scottcking.com/?p=219

RevisionX

PokerKard79 · « **Reply #71 on:** November 04, 2015, 02:04:12 AM »

Hi RevisionX

Checked your site (which rocks by the way) - I noticed the HDD Clonzilla image hasn't uploaded - it still shows the old one dated 2015-10-24. Any idea when the upload will be completed?

Thanks

RevisionX · « **Reply #72 on:** November 04, 2015, 11:26:29 AM »

BossGP,

Thanks (website)!

Doh! I'll fix the link when I get home tonight...and make this a reminder to set up my VPN so I can remote in from work.

RevisionX

RevisionX · « **Reply #73 on:** November 04, 2015, 10:20:29 PM »

BossGP -

I made new images from my working set - data files and CloneZilla drive/dongle images should be up by midnight CST, 10/4/15..

http://www.scottcking.com/?p=219
RevisionX

PokerKard79 · « **Reply #74 on:** November 05, 2015, 12:27:03 AM »

Thanks RevisionX

Downloading it now.

Going to reimage my HDD and USB Dongle this weekend and see if this fixes the issue. I'm still a little worried about how I deal with the fact that if it works I will have a US machine that I think will only accept/expect US currency - but will cross that bridge if I get to it.

RevisionX · « **Reply #75 on:** November 05, 2015, 09:17:41 AM »

Hi -

I think the goal here would be to get a "working" US version, then copy over the files from your machine to the working set. The "sysmax.exe" file has several variants in the c:\pokerkard folder. I believe they are ".bak" and ".new", but you'll find if you re-name those to sysmax.exe the game will start looking for modems and other hardware that may be "non-US?" It could be as easy as renaming this file - I was unable to find anything that seemed to set a "locale" in the pokerkard folder, so they may have sysmax binaries for each region. Obviously, finding a working unit in your locale would be ideal for creating new images. Back up your data and try copying the files from the non-image sets and overwrite your USB dongle and hard drive - it may work without imaging, I haven't had a chance to try that out yet.

Best regards,
RevisionX

bossgp · « **Reply #76 on:** November 06, 2015, 09:39:11 PM »

Thanks for the images, downloading them over the weekend.
Fingers crossed this will get it back working, I'll let you know how my adventure goes.
Cheers

RevisionX · « **Reply #77 on:** November 07, 2015, 09:25:27 PM »

Status:

1. CloneZilla to USB secutiry dongle does NOT work
2. dd image works 100% of the time

New matching drive and USB dongle images (sorry for the churn) will be up later this evening. I did a full walk through using the PokerKard hardware and (2) USB keys tonight - and took screen shots as I went.

The walk through will cover imaging your game's hard drive and USB dongle using CloneZilla and "dd" in around 35 steps. Basically, a step-by-step guide for recovering the T4 USA models.

RevisionX

bossgp · « **Reply #78 on:** November 07, 2015, 09:28:12 PM »

I downloaded both the image of the hard drive and the USB dongle and transferred them to different USB sticks, I also downloaded Clonezilla and burnt it to a CD,connected an optical drive to sata and connected a newly formatted 80 GB HDD.
Loaded Clonezilla, followed the prompts and restored the hard drive image.
Did the same for the USB dongle.
removed the other USB sticks and optical drive used to store the images and the clonezilla cd.
Turned on and system boots to bios, shows starting system, Windows XP screen, then Big Tony's Texas Holdem, then another screen "Game boot sequence started "
this message is quite big stating "if you wish to upgrade game then insert your upgrade stick into a free USB port now otherwise wait. about 30 seconds and it tells me boot v2.0 in the left hand corner.
Game screen then turns black, and stays black, if I hook up my keyboard and use control, alt and delete I can see an error screen behind the black screen"Sysmax base runtime error 91 object variable or with block variable not set"
tried 3 different hard drives with different brands and sizes, and same for the USB dongle
same problem, tried to download both images again and same problem.
At this point I am looking for any suggestions, or willing to buy an imaged working hard drive and dongle set, please someone help.
This is starting to interfere with my day job.

RevisionX · « **Reply #79 on:** November 08, 2015, 10:09:43 AM »

BossGP -

That error you're getting sounds like a variant of the critical memory error (synchronization problems between USB dongle and hard drive), which the new walk through on my page solves - it's a full CloneZilla and DD imaging process using the PokerKard hardware. This is the original method I recommended, but then I got lazy and tried a bunch of variants to avoid having to write up this tutorial. Live and learn.

First draft is complete:
http://www.scottcking.com/?p=279

RevisionX

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Author Topic: Big Tony's Pokerkard (Read 44224 times)