Aloha FOH Wedge MSR Stopped Reading

[lrouse]

Hi all,
I am an ex Aloha Tech. 5.0 certified. My boss opened a restaurant and had me install his Aloha system to save some money. I did it all myself and it has been running fine for the last year. Suddenly, both the mag card readers stopped working. Swipe a card and it wouldn't read, green indicator lights were not lit. After troubleshooting, I purchased new ones and had them install them. (I don't live in the same state as the restaurant) The green light is on, on the card reader and it still won't read. The BOH is configured to use the mag readers and it is set for keyboard wedge. The Term settings haven't changed. I must be missing something but I am rusty LOL. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. They are running version 6.5.25

 

[coorsman]

Can you swipe a card in notepad and see if they read.?

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[lrouse]

Hi Coorsman,
I did and they do not read. The green light on the reader turns off as soon as you swipe a card. I had them plug in an old card reader , thinking the new ones weren't compatible or programmed and on the old reader, the green light turns red when you swipe but no read and the light stays red... they also do not read in notepad and were working as of yesterday A.M.

 

[coorsman]

I would try them on the server computer or another pc in notepad. Also did the new ones come with drivers that might need to be installed. Opos?

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[lrouse]

I'll try them on the server. The new ones are keyboard wedge (PS2)interface, same as the old ones. Would Opos apply to that interface?

 

[lrouse]

It does read on the server. But it reads a bunch of garbage along with the data on the card. I am guessing I need to run the config utility for Magtek and disable Track 3, if it is enabled?

 

[lrouse]

Well that didn't work... I also installed the Mag tek MTD driver on the terminal which is all I did on the server before I used the card reader there. It still doesn't work. Sooo weird that it works on the server but not on either of their two terminals. I also noticed that the driver made an entry in the device manager , on the server but no entry on the term device manager. I am starting to wonder if the PS\2 ports went bad? But the readers light up...until you swipe them. Sooooo confused!

 

[coorsman]

Either that or it's some kind of usb2 only or something, ya kinda weird if you ask me too. I'm leaning toward some kind of hardware issue.

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[wyalin]

mine using aloha + IBM surepos, need make sure the bios setting: ps/2 keyboard/mouse enabled, not automatic.

hope it help.

 

[posrescue]

Bet you got magteks that are programmed as HID not wedge. They are the same device but programmed differently from manufacturer. There is a program available to change...

 

[lrouse]

Thanks for all the great info! I ended up replacing them with IDtech USB readers. Those worked in a pinch and from the research I've done, they won't last very long so it's great to see some more suggestions to go through when the time comes....

Thanks again everyone!