What's wrong with my Mach II? - HELP PLZ

[FlyBoyGeo]

Well just last night after rebooting my computer (See sig info below) my computer locked up/froze during the boot up process. After shutting things down, resetting CMOS, and waiting over 3 hours, I attempted again. This time no post, nothing only the compressor and fans on the Mach were running. I let this progress for about 10-15 minutes and the Mach would not turn on motherboard for post.

I looked at the back of the Mach II and noticed the third from left orange light on solid, and a flashing fourth from right green light. So I waited again and this time the compressor, fans, and everything turned on and same lights appeared. So I thought maybe that it was not cooling correctly or condensation built up at the CPU. No condensation at all found. I started up the Mach II not hooked up to the motherboard or cpu and noticed it cooling down quickly, which appeard to be normal.

I unhooked all the Mach II stuff threw on a cpu fan, and bingo booted right into windows no problem.

So why isn't this thing not turning on the motherboard??? I think I have read in the forum that the Mach II has a bad temperature sensor, could that be it?

Thanks, as I am pulling my hair out. This thing was purchased in March '04. :(

[FlyBoyGeo]

Well pulled off both covers again, check for any cracks holes, bad wires, etc. Found nothing. I restarted it up again, this time ran for about 5-7 minutes with 3rd light amber/orange solid and 4th light flashing green. Shut itself down with 1st light red being displayed. :(

I unhooked the Mach II and went to air with the motherboard posting, booting, and loading into windows no problem. What gives???

[chilly1]

Did you try to start it with a second PSU?

[FlyBoyGeo]

chilly1, I went ahead and connected up a second PSU to the Mach II molex and the same thing happened. Just started fans and compressor, and shut itself down with back panel lights displaying flashing red (1st from left), and two solid amber lights (2nd and 3rd.) I do not have a front lcd display for error messages only the lights :(

[FlyBoyGeo]

Well after pulling out some more hair, I decided to give it a try again, everything hooked up as normal with 1 PSU. Low and behold it took about 2 minutes and fired right up into winxp. WOW, thought all was ok, then BAM >>> after 15 minutes of joy, it shut itself down :cussing: AHHHHHHHHHHHH

Back lights showing red flashing and one amber light. This time I looked back in the unit and noticed the compressor being extremely hot to touch. I dont think I've felt it that hot ever before??? :(

Any help?

[fatty]

This may sound like a silly question but are both of your fans running inside the mach2 I had a unit with an intermitant fan fault and it would shut the prom down??

[FlyBoyGeo]

fatty, I appreciate any comments/concerns you may have! Both fans are running, or should I say appear to be running normally. When I got back into windows for that brief period of time, I checked with the nventiv 1.23 software and and turned them both up to turbo just as a precaution. So I dont think its the fans themselves.

[fatty]

Codes

7. ALARM CONDITIONS, CAUSES AND REMEDIES In the event of an alarm, the red diode (4) will start to blink and the function of the light diodes (1, 2 and 3) is altered. Light diodes 1, 2 and 3 can afterwards be coded binary to indicate the failure that has occurred – starting from diode 1 (1 binary), diode 2 (2 binary) and diode 3 (4 binary), thus a failure condition is given a number from 0 (no diode is lighting) to 7 (all diodes is lighting).
Error code Description (Indication in the Display) Cause Remedies
0 To Slow. Check that the yellow/yellow wire is connected properly to the main board.
Contact the local reseller for further assistance
1 N/A
2 To Hot. System failure
Contact your reseller for further assistance
3 HOT STOP System failure
Contact your reseller for further assistance
4 Fan failure. If there is a Display connected, it will indicate which Fan is defect. The fans cannot turn or bad connection to the Chip-controller.
Contact your reseller for further assistance
5 Fail sensor. If there is a display connected it will indicate which sensor is defect. The sensor is broken or bad connection to the Chip-controller.
Contact your reseller for further assistance
6 No Shut down The PC has not been shut down (dead lock). The compressor continues to cool.
Contact your reseller for further assistance
7 Cooling fault The bimetal is open. To high condensation temperature.
Contact your reseller for further assistance

Depending on which ones are on this should help

[FlyBoyGeo]

Nice, so right now out of 4 lights. The 1st one from the left is flashing red, 2nd one is off, 3rd is solid amber, and 4th is solid green. Soooooooo, interpreting binary codes means:

6 No Shut down The PC has not been shut down (dead lock). The compressor continues to cool.
Contact your reseller for further assistance

Not sure if thats right, cause it turned everything off. Only thing that has power is those lights.

[fatty]

Green(1)amber(2)amber(3)red(4) therefor from my working you got red(4) and green(1) and next to the green an amber(2)

4 + 1 + 2 = 7

7) The bimetal is open High condensation temperature

maybe any hissing noises have you moved the mach around ?? :stick:

[FlyBoyGeo]

Actually, I have moved the entire unit/case from its normal working position to another where I can work/test it. But only about 3-4ft away. It did make a wierd hiss kinda sound while starting up. What exactly does the bimetal do?

[fatty]

It sensors temps but if it made a hiss you may have damaged the thermal bus a put a hole in it try disconnecting it from your cpu and wiggle the thermal bus around if it hisses you know its refrigerant escaping and you will need to have the unit repaired in other words its knackered what area are you in ?? beacuse chilly does repairs in the usa and extreme prometeia in the uk do regass and repairs

[a5h]

i think its just the temp. sensors not sensing the temps right. I have a Mach II also, and the temp ensors are COMPLETELY screwed. i run it on a separate PSU 24/7. at one point, my Mach II was also running ~15 mins normally and then shut down, and i found out that it was because the sensors wern't sensing the temps right and thought the temp was too high for the Mach 2 and shut itself off. but why urs doesn't run on a separate PSU i dont know :confused:

[FlyBoyGeo]

fatty, maybe it wasn't a hiss but more a metal echo-y kinda sound. I was probably just hearing things, as my mind was going nuts. I have PM'd chilly1 about possible repairs. :)

a5h, I somehow got the Mach II working for a few minutes and started up the motherboard, got into windows to look at the temp readings (as I dont have a front panel LCD display), and it was showing 59-60C which I know is wrong, because I could feel the line to the cpu and it was very cold? :confused: While I was looking at the temps of course it was showing alarm, so I shut it down.

Still showing back panel light codes of flashing red, two solid amber lights.

[Hobocrow]

That echo~y metal noise was probly just the compressor internals bumping against the shell walls. They're mounted on springs and easily bump against the shell when moved around.

You have probly aready done this, but may sure all the wires on that wicked controller card are secure. Hope you find the problem. :)

[FlyBoyGeo]

Hobocrow, I checked and rechecked all the connections. Jumped it again with another PSU and still same damn lights of flashing red, two solid amber lights.

:wierd:

[Hobocrow]

Hobocrow, I checked and rechecked all the connections. Jumped it again with another PSU and still same damn lights of flashing red, two solid amber lights.

:wierd:


OK ... quick draw, just shooting from the hip now! Maybe, reload the controller software ... start fresh there. :)

[FlyBoyGeo]

Same deal, nothing new after troubleshooting more :(