Maxtor 541DX and Fireball 3- OEM Drives used in Merit games?
September 24th, 2006, 18:58
I work in the amusement industry repairing coinop games. We have a lot of Merit countertop touchscreen games with custom versions of the notorious Maxtor Fireball 3 and 541DX drives. One firmware that comes to mind is VAM51JJ0.
How did Merit modify the BIOS ID string to come up as "Merit 0010" or similar instead of the standard descriptor? They did this to key the drives to the games, so when it goes bad you have to pay them $200 plus for new one instead of using an off the shelf drive. Then they just send another drive of the exact same model, and it goes bad after about a year. Doing this does not prevent piracy of the games, they have special security keys and custom boards in them anyway.
Is there anything I can do to fix these drives without breaking the bank? When they go bad, the BIOS detects them as Maxtor Athena or Maxtor Ares C64. I have about 10 of them piled up here waiting to be fixed. I think these are one type of drive that is worth more for the scrap metal
How did Merit modify the BIOS ID string to come up as "Merit 0010" or similar instead of the standard descriptor? They did this to key the drives to the games, so when it goes bad you have to pay them $200 plus for new one instead of using an off the shelf drive. Then they just send another drive of the exact same model, and it goes bad after about a year. Doing this does not prevent piracy of the games, they have special security keys and custom boards in them anyway.
Is there anything I can do to fix these drives without breaking the bank? When they go bad, the BIOS detects them as Maxtor Athena or Maxtor Ares C64. I have about 10 of them piled up here waiting to be fixed. I think these are one type of drive that is worth more for the scrap metal
September 25th, 2006, 1:42
u can fix these harddrives they have firmware problem that can be fixed by Pc3000 isa or pci
September 25th, 2006, 8:02
u can fix the drive "MAXTOR ATHENA" from salvation software..
http://www.salvationdata.com
download maxtor firmware repairer..
http://www.salvationdata.com
download maxtor firmware repairer..
September 25th, 2006, 9:34
Tried the Salvation Data utility, it just locks up after the third fix out of 4 or something like that. I don't have PC3000, and can't afford it at the moment.
September 25th, 2006, 15:32
Maxxarcade wrote:Tried the Salvation Data utility, it just locks up after the third fix out of 4 or something like that. I don't have PC3000, and can't afford it at the moment.
try HDD REPAIR
September 26th, 2006, 10:28
did u use that in safe mode the salvation utility . it works !
September 26th, 2006, 16:14
I did use safe mode, but had no luck. I'll try it again on a different computer sometime soon.
October 10th, 2006, 22:03
Is HDD REPAIR a freeware program? I can't find it anywhere. If it is freeware can someone send it to me or post a link?
I would LOVE to have PC3000 PCI, but it costs more than I make in a year
I would LOVE to have PC3000 PCI, but it costs more than I make in a year
October 10th, 2006, 22:08
Maxxarcade wrote:I would LOVE to have PC3000 PCI, but it costs more than I make in a year :shock:
change your job, dude
it sucks
October 11th, 2006, 10:36
HDD repair is free but illegal .
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