Hi All,
I have an issue with a recent installation.
Scenario:
A small supermarket, with 2 new computerised tills running POS software and hardware and 2 old back office computers also running this POS software and one also with accounting software, all networked via a gigabit LAN.
The tills both have a combined scanner / scale and a programmable keyboard. Similar computers, though each has a different model motherboard ( due to needing more PCI slots in one ).
Both the tills ( and the back office computers ) have a UPS – a stand by type, which switches to battery if mains fail. They provide 3 battery backed up and 2 surge suppressed outlets. All POS equipment is run off these UPSs, though not all on battery backup.
Both tills run XP SP2, 500 MB RAM, 3GHz P4, MSI motherboards.
Problems.
One of the new till computers has now reset its BIOS, to factory default, twice in a few weeks. The problem here is that the default turns off the LAN and USB ports, rendering the machine virtually useless. ( I have not tried replacing the CMOS battery, as the computer is brand new, and because of other problems elsewhere, see below )
On the other till, the computer is behaving OK, but the scanner / scale has frozen, the programmable keyboard started producing multiple zeros, when the zero button was hit.
Unplugging both devices and re connecting ( i.e. forcing a reset ) fixed the problem, temporarily.
The scanner / scale at this second till then become very erratic, looking as if it was resetting itself every so often. Swapping the two scanner / scales seems to have fixed this. ( They were swapped because the original till with the problem is the one that is used the most, and I suspected a faulty unit, its working OK in the other location.)
The older back office computers have not had any bad symptoms reported, but then they don’t get used as much.