Alpha 2 Pro V22/22 Boot Problem

[dailey]

My machine has always been temperamental in booting up. I wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences with their Alpha 2 that can shed some light on this.

Whenever I turn my machine on and it completes boot up, about 50% of the time the cabinet and topper lights are all blue (should be red) and are not under software control. It's as if the Light Control Board (LCU) is not working. The LED on the LCU indicates it's communicating with the MPU and there are no errors. If I reboot it usually clears up. Sometimes I have to reboot 2 or 3 times. Whatever is happening is not just confined to the lights though. Occasionally the machine completes boot up then has no sound. Today I turned it on and got blue lights. After reboot I got a printer communication error. Rebooted again and everything is fine.

Rebooting always clears up the problem, though I may have to reboot multiple times. Once the machine is up and running correctly there are never any problems. There are never any glitches or errors while playing or for as long as the machine is on. It runs perfectly until the next time I boot up.

I might add that I turn the machine on/off from a surge protected power strip. This problem is really an annoyance but so far not too serious as it can be cleared up with a reboot, but I'm hoping the problem doesn't grow worse. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

[Harvs]

Odd question but what does the Ideck do when you boot after the machine has been off for a while? Does it flash red, green, blue etc? - I have had A2's that needed to be rebooted a few times due to the Ideck simply needing new caps. The caps on those decks take sh!ts..

Not saying that is the issue but it came to mind. 

[sixcardmark]

Never had those lcu problems but every once in a while I get no sound at boot up.  A reboot does fix it every time.

[dailey]

When I boot the machine the iDeck is black and says "No Signal". It doesn't flash any colors. At some point when it is installing the operating system I believe, the "B" logo appears on the topper and the red "iDeck" logo appears on the ideck.

[rickhunter]

Anytime I get funky things like that and they get solved by rebooting, I try changing the power supply first.  Maybe you have caps that are borderline and not providing enough current to the mpu, thus creating the issues you are having.  On A2's there are 2 power supplies, one on the MPU and the cabinet power supply.  I would try replacing one at a time to see if it solves your issues.

[dailey]

Thanks Rick. Changing the power supply makes sense.

[dailey]

I believe I have solved the mystery of my boot up problem. Thanks Rickhunter for the power supply tip.


The problem has been that upon completion of boot up the lights are often the wrong color (not under software control), machine has no sound or no communication with the printer. Any one of these malfunctions or a combination of them happen on a cold boot.. The condition always clears up with one or two reboots.


I swapped the power supply and the problem seems to be gone. I bench tested the suspect power supply and found that there was only 1 volt at the 5 vdc output for the first minute following power up. After it warms up for a minute or so the voltage comes up to 5 vdc and remains stable.

[rickhunter]

Awesome, you can probably fix the bad power supply and have as a spare.  Look for bulging caps and replace them.