Anyone else having issues with Unitec POS downtime? Details below:

[D3Dubs]

Site details: 2 bays, Razor IBA, Unitec C-Start, ~3 yrs old

Issue: The POS goes down intermittently. I'll show up in the morning and the primary POS screen will be whitish/blank, and the secondary screen will have a 'out of service' displaying.

Other information:

• Has happened about 10-12 times in the past 3 months
• usually happens in the morning
• first few times it happened unplugging and replugging the Cat5 cable seemed to fix it
• i assumed bag plug so I replaced the cat5 cable plug
• still happening after the plug replacement, probably 5 times at least
• try everything from rebooting (primary machine only), jiggling, power on.off at modem
• will eventually come back up but have no idea what caused it to
• constant ringing noise from inside machine while the issue is occurring

What's frustrating is that it will come back on with no clear reason so I can't pinpoint it. One time will be after the modem reset and another after unplug/replug for the 8th time. I suspect that if I just did nothing it would be the same resolution. Sometimes after 10 minutes and sometimes after an hour. This makes me suspect that it could be on the Unitec side or something unrelated to physical connectivity.

We do have internet connectivity during these outages and power of course.

I have a call coming from Unitec tech support Wednesday so I hope I’m not down 2 days until resolution.

Anyone else had similar issues? Any other trouble-shooting tips?

Thanks

 

[Eric H]

Have you ever had the software updated? i was having some issues with payment screen freezing. initially Unitec thought it was an issue with the card reader and I had to install a new wire harness that had a grounding strap for the card reader. That didn't completely resolve the issue and they updated the software and I have not had an issue since, that was about 18 months ago.

 

[slash007]

I had similar issues. Wanted to pull my hair out. Finally paid to update the software and major issues went away. Since then very few issues and all go away with a reboot.

 

[D3Dubs]

Hi Eric, don't think there has been a software update. I'll check on the unitec site, pretty sure I recall this is a paid update. Thanks for the info. Slash, thank you too.

 

[getnbusy]

I don't know about the c start but I had a network problem with my WSII and pos last week. Similar circumstances and I about went crazy. If you suspect it is related to connectivity, try to reset in this manner.

- Unplug the cat 5 on both ends.

- Restart the modem. wait for all lights to ensure full restart

- plug cat 5 internet modem

- plug cat 5 into unitec modem.

worked like a champ. I thought I had reset my modem a half dozen times and it seemed to do nothing. I reset in the above manner and it worked immediately. I learned this from my internet provider Time Warner. worth a try anyways


-

 

[D3Dubs]

Thank you, will try this first thing in the morning.

 

[D3Dubs]

Update: Technician came out yesterday and they linked it back to the card reader. Something related to static from customers. The fix was removing a piece of the circuit board (RAM?) and rebooting. We have two new readers coming and this will hopefully fix the issue.

 

[Eric H]

We have two new readers coming and this will hopefully fix the issue.

Are they sending new readers or a new wire harness for the readers? When Unitec diagnosed a similar problem they sent new harnesses with a grounding strap. If it is a new harness be sure you are installing it with the correct polarity. I was told by Unitec that it could be installed either way but that turned out to be inaccurate.

 

[getnbusy]

it sounds like maybe they removed the voice board and pressed the reset button. Is this what happened ??

also are you changing card readers ? or replacing with exactly the same readers ?

I can understand maybe the harness, but why the readers ??

just curious

 

[D3Dubs]

Are they sending new readers or a new wire harness for the readers? When Unitec diagnosed a similar problem they sent new harnesses with a grounding strap. If it is a new harness be sure you are installing it with the correct polarity. I was told by Unitec that it could be installed either way but that turned out to be inaccurate.

Pretty sure they said new readers and not just the harness. Will keep an eye on polarity. Thanks.

 

[D3Dubs]

it sounds like maybe they removed the voice board and pressed the reset button. Is this what happened ??

also are you changing card readers ? or replacing with exactly the same readers ?

I can understand maybe the harness, but why the readers ??

just curious

It might have been the voice board. They removed the metal housing that protects the main board. Then removed one of the components on the board. I thought it was memory but could be a voice board...removed board, powered up, powered down, put board back in, powered up.

Good question on the readers, I thought similar when static was referenced. I'll let you know when the fix is done...if we make it through this blizzard .

 

[D3Dubs]

It might have been the voice board. They removed the metal housing that protects the main board. Then removed one of the components on the board. I thought it was memory but could be a voice board...removed board, powered up, powered down, put board back in, powered up.

Good question on the readers, I thought similar when static was referenced. I'll let you know when the fix is done...if we make it through this blizzard .

Quick update: the shipment came and it was just the wiring harness and not the actual readers. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Eric H]

Quick update: the shipment came and it was just the wiring harness and not the actual readers. Sorry for the confusion.

Be sure to install the harness with the correct polarity! The connectors on each end are the same. I called customer support and was told there was no polarity but that turned out to be inaccurate and I ruined the first harness. Hopefully your new harness comes with directions