Need Help!- Keyboard error on EZ-Path

[md63825]

I have a 1995 Bridgeport/Romi EZ-Path and when I boot-up the machine, I get the message, "Keyboard error - Press F1 to resume." First, I would like to know who the genius was that wrote that message. How can you press F1 when the keyboard is not working?

I disconnected the small keyboard cable inside the cabinet and tried plugging in a standard PS/2 keyboard that I know works and I get the same message. So I am figuring that it has something to do with the keyboard card but the PS/2 connector looks to be mounted directly to the main computer board.

Is there a keyboard card or is it all built into the main board. I am not a computer technician but I am trying to play one. I was wondering if there might even be a small fuse for the keyboard. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mike

[machintek]

On the original mother board, there was a keyboard test in CMOS which had to be turned off because the smaller keyboard did not pass this test.
The CMOS battery is near the keyboard plug on the old mother boards. If this battery gets old, it has a tendency to leak out its electrolyte which eats away the small deposited wires on the mother board. Usually the keyboard will stop working due to the damage.Lastly the mother board is bad.

George

[md63825]

I found the battery under the keyboard plug and negative end is corroded. Where can I find one of these batteries and is it something I can replace myself? Does it do severe enough damage to the board that makes the board un-repairable?

Thanks,
Mike

[machintek]

If you indeed have the Ni-Cad battery (made of a stack of 3 button cells welded together and covered with shrink tubing), it is soldered onto the mother board. I use a solder sucker and soldering iron to remove these and can purchase a replacement at a local electronics store. BUT! It may be too late for the mother board. It may be damaged. Thrift stores and dumpster diving are alternative places for parts or a new mother board kit from EMI-inc.net.

George

[md63825]

I am going to give removing and replacing the battery a try first. I found the 3.6V 60mAh stacked batteries online for about $9. I tried to find an external battery source to jumper in, but was unsuccessful. That is the cheapest approach for now and if it works and only holds me over for a short time, it will be enough to allow me the time to repair it properly. I don't necessarily believe in the "car dealership mechanic" approach to replacing the most expensive component first though. I also located someone that has a tested motherboard out of a Bridgeport Torque Cut 22-30 and it has the same part number (31944034) as mine for about $250. EMI wants $790 for theirs. My only concern is when I replace the battery, I will have to remove the attached cards on that motherboard. If I am successful at replacing the battery and connecting everything back to its proper place, will I have an issue with the operating sytem programs? The same goes for if I swap out for a different motherboard. I have three disk that came with the machine. One has EZ-Path Version 1.01/5.13 written on it, another has EZ-Path Back-up written on it, and the other has EX-Path Desk Top Software written on it. I am not worried about losing part programs since I back them up monthly anyway and I use CAM software, I am just worried that I do not have all of the necessary software to re-install onto the machine if I need it. Additionally, since I could not get a keyboard to work on the machine, I could not document the bios information, so I am not sure how that will affect the situation.

I really appreciate your feedback so far. I would have never thought about looking at the battery as a problem if you had not mentioned it in your earlier reply to my initial post.

Best regards,
Michael

[machintek]

The original configuration was a 386 mother board with a 387 math-coprocessor. It had a hard drive and the BMDC plugs into a ISA slot. So any mother board you get will require a ISA slot. By virtue of the fact that the ISA is old technology limits the speed of these mother boards so they are compatible with the BMDC (slow). And usually because of the old version of BIOS, the hard drive is limited to 504 MB.
A resurrection, if the hard drive fails, requires DOS disks, including a boot disk so you can FDISK a new hard drive to the 504MB limit. Or you can get a DOM (disk on a module which is a solid state flash memory module that plugs into a IDE connector and replaces a hard drive).
Version 1.01 sounds like one of the original versions. I wonder if you will have the same difficulty I had. One of the first EZPATHs I installed I wrote a program such that as i parted off a part I tried to create a small radius to debur the part. The machine would not do this. By this time it was late at night and the following day I heard from Bridgeport that they had not perfected the software yet to do this kind of a move. something I considered very basic.
Hope the battery works.

George

[md63825]

I would like to thank machintek for his help. I found a 486 MB that works fine. I made several phone calls and was amazed at how much people were going to charge for either a refurbished board or to repair mine. EMI wanted $784 for a refurbished and Radwell International wanted about $950 to repair mine. I can't believe that they have people that pay these prices. One of the better prices I found was a company called Northwest Equipment Sales. They offered me a newly rebuilt and tested board with a warranty for about $220, which I thought was very reasonable. I eventually found one from a gentleman that is retired from equipment repair. He sold me a tested board with a new video card, a small fan (instead of a heat sink), a disk on module (DOM) loaded with updated software, and extra disk for $150. He even talked me through the installation process over the phone. And this board has a replaceable nickle-size memory battery that I can buy at Wal-mart! I new there were still decent people in the world.

[machintek]

unfortunately most places out there cater to commercial enterprises which have deeper pockets than you or I.
Glad to hear you are running, and you are very welcome.

George

[stein530]

md63825,

I also have an EZ-Path II that is exhibiting computer problems. Would you mind providing the contact information of the gentleman that helped you replace yours?

Thanks.....
Rick

[s_manijak]

I had a keyboard error on the ez-trak mill. I found the motherboard to be bad. When I replaced the mother board every thing worked except the dnc for up/down loading programs. I forced the IRQ to 3 and then to 4 but no luck. The version of dos on the control is 6.2. the motherboard is from a windows 95 box. Any ideas why the rs232 port will not work. The control hangs on selecting asc11. The dnc worked prior to board replacement.