Aloha terminals keep dying 1

[juancruzhurtado]

Hi everyone,

We have a restaurant with three Radiant 1510 Terminals.
Their motherboards keep dying. We have replaced all three terminals at least once. Unfortunately we cannot afford a new set of computers, so we have replaced the non-working ones with other used terminals.
What has been happening is that the capacitors of the motherboards get blown out.

Do you know if this is a known issue with this computers?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Juan

 

[AlohaRoss]

Hi Juan

Do you have line conditioners on your computers? Power in Mexico is not as robust as the states. Line conditioners will prevent spikes going into the computers. Also make sure things like refrigerators, blenders, vacuums, and other power suckers are not on the same circuits as the computers or printers. email me for more info

AlohaRoss

http://www.needalohahelp.com

 

[juancruzhurtado]

Hi Ross,

I am not in Mexico, I am in Los Angeles (event though my name is Juan .
Every terminal has a small line conditioners connected to it.

So by your answer I assume this is not a common issue, correct?
Do you know of any places where they may fix these motherboards? A used terminal runs for 300 bucks, so I don't know if it's worth fixing the motherboard.

Thank you again,

Juan

 

[MenulinkMan]

I highly recommend that you put all POS equipment on dedicated circuits to prevent line noise, go from outlet to battery backup, to line conditioner, to equipment. I have rarely experienced any terms dying other than their LCD's going out due to age. I had about 20 1510's that worked just fine for years and years ( and still have a few out there now ). No known issues exist with them.

I thought the P1510's had already hit their end of life with NCR. We tend to use the P1220's if I need a used terminal. They are good for another year or so with PCI compliance. If I get new, I send out P1230 or P1530's ( which is normal now )

 

[juancruzhurtado]

Thank you MenulinkMan for all the info.
Just one question, and please excuse my ignorance, but what is NCR?

Juan

 

[AlohaRoss]

Sorry Juan

Had you confused with different Juan in Mexico who posts here often. I am also in Los Angeles. I can stop by and take a look at your environment and see whats going on. I have not seen the p1220's blow caps. Menulink is right about end of life on the P1510's

Call me from the number on website and I can help you out

AlohaRoss

http://www.needalohahelp.com

 

[MenulinkMan]

NCR = National Cash Register. They purchased Radiant Systems.

 

[timinski]

Juan,

The leaking capacitor problem is world-wide and not exclusive to Micros. Many PC mainboard manufacturers from HP/Compaq, IBM, Asus, Acer and so on, also all have histories of the same problem. The issue is caused by a capacitor supply source that had manufacturing problems themselves and voila, down the supply chain it went. Apparently even medical equipment (i.e., non-PC type hardware) is/has been failing because of the problem. Your only option is to 1) Buy recent manufactured hardware (many now use solid capacitors) or 2) Buy older-model equipment that was manufactured before the supply chain issue....

...now when that was, I can only say that I've seen the issue mostly on hardware manufactured BEFORE the Core2 duo hit the market. So, if you can date that Intel/PC market-release event and buy units made way before or a bit after then you may be ok.

Sorry for the bad news.

-- David
Montreal QC Canada

 

[timinski]

Oops, sorry...

...I stated "...exclusive to Micros." I meant Aloha/Radiant.

-- David
Montreal QC Canada

 

[MenulinkMan]

Last time I heard of the cap issue was in 2002 when the bad batch of electrolytic fluid came out of China. Out of the thousands of Radiant/NCR terms I have deployed, not one has been affected by it - from the old 1510's to the 1220's that have been out for years.

 

[juancruzhurtado]

Is there a specific brand of battery backups and line conditioners that you trust and recommend?

 

[soustech]

I have seen two Radiant Terminals P1510-0240 models where the capacitors have blown and are leaking down their sides. Many other terminals I have seen where the capacitors are slightly bulging at the top. I expected those units to have problems when I noticed the bulging capacitors but they are still hanging in their after 3 years.

The good news is capacitors are cheap and on most radiant motherboards I have seen their is plenty of space between each capacitor making them very easy to unsolder, replace with new ones and resolder back into place. Also the last time I checked the cost of the capacitors was less than a dollar each. In fact I think I spent around 30 to 40 cents on average per capacitor. Find a techie that's good at soldering and they should be able to replace all the capacitors with new ones in less than 2 hours time. I think we spent about $30 to $50 per terminal to have them all replaced and that included the labor.

I think I have some pictures I can post later on showing some of these capacitors.

 

[PosGuyUS]

invest in PowerVar, Ground Guards. If you put an O-Scope on the power, see that ground shows less than 1 volt on it, closer to 0 volts on ground is best. any higher than 1 volt spikes and you've got a bad ground. Even on isolated grounds this can happen which is why most POS vendors push the PowerVar or similar conditioners.

 

[MenulinkMan]

Powervar makes some units with built in power conditioners that I deploy as well. I use 250's for 1 term and printer, and 400's for the file servers and spots that require 2 terminals and 2 printers. Works like a charm.