A couple issues with Aloha.

[whichwich]

Issue #1: The swipe bar on the side of my Front of House terminal has stopped working. I don't get any error messages, it just doesn't read any card I put through it. Is there any sort of diagnostic I can run to see what the problem is? Or is it most likely just 'dead'.

Issue #2: I started getting an error message a while back that stated:
"Could not initialize the OPOS Pole Display"
Not sure what that means but would love for it to go away. It pops up every time we touch the screen from the screen saver.

Issue #3: Is there a fairly straightforward and easy process to reformatting a Back of House Server? I've reformatted several computers before with good results but obviously there is more than just copying files to a hard drive and then throwing them back on.

Thanks for any and all help. I am running Aloha 6.0.3 on my terminal and Windows XP Professional on my server.

Nate

 

[99GuinnessLover]

1. Does a reboot of the terminal bring the Card reader back? If yes it could be the groundings on the Mag reader itself. A lot of the new cards out there today create a large amount of Static and can cause a poorly grounded MSR to stop working. If reboot does not bring back then it probably is fully dead.

2. You have Use Pole Display flagged in your terminal setup. The Pole display is the display seen on the customer side, but from the sound of it you are not using this feature. Just go into Maintenance/Hardware/terminals and it is on the other tab. Unflag "Use pole Display" and do a refresh that should get rid of your message. Do for all terminals where you might be getting the message.

3. The process of starting over on an Aloha server can be straight forward if you have done an Aloha install before and know how to set up you Lana Number, Environment Variables, and permissions on your Iberdir Directory. Outside of those settings you would need the contents of the Aloha Directory copied over. Not sure if you still have the Aloha install CD but that would be needed as well. If you try it I would probably get a New Hard Drive to install on so that if you are unable to get POS up you have a Backup drive that works to fall back on.

 

[whichwich]

Thanks for the reply. If I select 'refresh data' for the server, is that all that is required to 'reboot' the terminal? If so, I guess its dead. Is there a way to get a new reader, or do I need a whole new terminal?

I'll try that next time I go in.

That sounds out of my league! I didn't do the install so I'm not familiar with any of that stuff you mentioned. Maybe I'll contact tech support to see how much they offer a service like that for.

Thanks again.

 

[99GuinnessLover]

Try doing a full reboot of the terminal. Meaning turn the terminal all the way off using the power button and leave it off for like a minute then turn it back on.

 

[cruiserguy]

One other thing... If you are using 6.1 Aloha or higher you need to change a couple settings on the terminal to get that card reader working... What type of terminal are you using?

 

[TLowder]

I would guess the card reaader is dead if it was working before and just stopped working. But one test you could do is open "note pad" or any other text editor and while the curser is there swipe a card and see if it changes the text. This depends if Aloha uses keyboard emulation type card readers. I don't use keyboard emulation MSR's for security and other reasons, but a lot of POS providers do. While I don't know what kind Aloha uses, someone else here should know. Or just try it on a station that you know works first, if it changes the text try on the one that isn't working.


Tom

 

[whichwich]

Okay, full reboot of the terminal did not fix anything. And I didn't get a response with the notepad thing either. If it is indeed dead, do I need a whole new terminal, or is it possible to just get the reader replaced?

cruiserguy, the terminal is from Radiant and the model number is P1220-0154

And I got that stupid error message to stop! Thanks guys.