From Mach 2 to ST to Despair

[BovvaBoy]

A new beginning: (in a nutshell)

Bought myself a mach II 3 years ago, worked fine for about 6 months then stopped, curiosity piqued i remove the cooler head and the backing plate and find two blown resistors (blackened) where the heating element was. Bugger.

I went and bought a new mobo thinking i had fitted it badly, ran great for 6 months again then bam, same problem on a different motherboard.

New mobo again, re-fitted to perfection then the blooming prometia loses its compression and gives up the ghost at a mere -15 .

Contact chip-con and they says they will replace it but only with an ST, they give me nowhere to go so i have to take their offer (oh! they also required the old mach II back in exchange, nice of them wasn't it? 10 mins repair and a fat 550 quid in their pocket).

Installing the ST (a new hope)

Install the ST, runs fine for 3 months and now there are problems somewhere, will not boot the machine, and the ST being the ST is completley without any diagnostic features, so i need help guys.

Now i have just paid 2000 quid for my new computer but i am loathe to build it with the ST attatched.

I usually switch my machine on at least twice a day and run for long periods, so....

Heres what im asking really:-

1.Is the heating element my jonah?

2.Can i mod the ST to see whats going on in the bloomin' thing (usb)

3.ST works fine (standalone).

4.Is it possible to Usb from the prometia onto a seperate computer mobo just to diagnose.

5.Can anyone provide a tutorial on anything moddable to help me?

6.Should i get rid of the ST or swap for another system and where would be the best place to do this and what system to swap for.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm pulling my hair out here and for gods sake i'm a sunderland supporter i have enough grief in my life.

 

[stocky]

Sorry to hear that and welcome to EP!

The ST is moddable as far as I know. From what I remember I think that you would need the different control board.

You can boot the prommy using a separate motherboard, so there is hope. But I'm going to leave it to one of the experienced to see this thread and guide you, as I have never done this conversion!

 

[boardy]

The ST's are moddable yes, sometimes with the ST board if your luck but if not then you'll need a Mach 2 board.

There is a guide somewhere here which tells you how to mod the existing ST board. The units can be run off other machines yes, and can also be connected via USB to the other machine. You don't HAVE to run the USB and all that gubbins on the machine your using it on.

Cheers

Boardy

 

[boardy]

Heres the how-to on converting ST to full Mach II

http://www.extremeprometeia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243

Cheers

Boardy

 

[fatty]

If its a newer model ST then the mod trick wont work but you can always buy a new controler and display from Phil and you will have a fully functioning mach2

P.S welcome to E.P UK

 

[GoLLuM4444]

Welcome to EPUK.

I hope that £2000 Mach 2 cooled new computer of yours will be adding to our 3dmark rankings .

 

[BovvaBoy]

Thanks for your help.

I will endeavour to have a look see tonight.

Info on the new system for the benchys:-

2 x PCI-E gforce 7800 gtx bfg running in sli

dual core pentium d 3.2 2mb

4 gig 240 ddr2 mem

audigy z2s with internal and external audigy 2 plat pro

etc etc but thos are the main bits

and about 2 terabyte storage.

So you can see why i dont really wanna risk this going titties up again.

Glad to be here guys.

 

[GoLLuM4444]

Well get ur benchies in when it's up and running, I'm fairly sure that's an above average spec so will boost the team average. Glad to have you aboard.

 

[maverik-sg1]

I secend everything that everyone else has stated here.

Welcome to the forums dude.

I feel sure that thre is a solution here for ya, the control board swap out looks most likely to work for you.

The spec of your machine is great and we would love you to join TEAM EPUK benchmarking champions.

With a fully working Mach I feel sure that you can challenge for the no1 spot here.

Good luck, keep us posted with your progress.

Cheers

Coach Mav

 

[BovvaBoy]

St controller board.

Any chance any of y'all know if its instantly recognisable wether the controller board on the st is the old or new version without me removing it, or do i need to dive in and search for a usb header somewhere. Any reference pics about

Cheers in advance

Bovvy

 

[boardy]

Only way to tell is to plug it in mate. If it doesnt have the header then its obviously not right but if it does then, you could be in luck.

I only have Mach I now so don't have any pics.

Cheers

Boardy

 

[BovvaBoy]

belay that question.

Any chance any of y'all know if its instantly recognisable wether the controller board on the st is the old or new version without me removing it, or do i need to dive in and search for a usb header somewhere. Any reference pics about

Cheers in advance

Bovvy

What i really need is a photo of a controller and the relevant connectors (in place), are these available anywhere, will save me having to dismantle the thing to get the controller out, there is next to no space inside and due to the length of the famous chip-cons cabling system i have to unplug all the connectors blind. (well not really blind but i'd rather be 100 per cent).

These are what i need to check:-

The grey 2 pin conn, goes where?

The red and yellow two pin power connectors, go onto the controllerboard in which sequence, i.e red =left or red =right.

i have made a usb cable and am ready to try but YES you guessed it, the photos i took with my phone are too damn dark (which i should have checked, what a numpt eh?), so upon removing the cables im a bit nervy putting them back.

There are three i need locations for. The grey, red and yellow connectors onto the controller board they are all 2 pin and female.

Oh 1 more question do i have to short the power or something to have the prometia run when not attatched to a computer?

If this seems like a lot of questions then i do apologise i'm new to the internals of prometeia and if you feel the information is around somewhere and i'm being bloody lazy then feel free to direct me.

Cheers guys

your humble apprentice

Bovvy

Seems i have the old st controller card and there is indeed a usb conn buried in there.

cheers guys

 

[GoLLuM4444]

You need to have a running power supply connected to the Mach 2's molex input to keep it running with or without USB connection or power switches - that's all.

I think the USB header wiring is explained in the ST -> full mach 2 thread mentioned earlier on.

 

[slim]

Even if you have the USB header, doesn't necessarily mean it will work :|