CAPS V2 Build Problem Jetway Motherboard Power

[jnoneiliv1]

Help! I'm building a CAPS V2 server. I bought all the components some time ago when CAPS 2 was current. So, I have the CA spec'd Jetway motherboard and the SOTM USB PCI card.

 

The Jetway motherboard gets power by way of a 12 volt external switching supply plugged into a barrel connector on the motherboard. Both the SSD hard drive and the SOTM PCI card get their power from the motherboard. There is one 4 pin Molex connection on the motherboard that is connected to the SATA SSD drive and the USB card. I think it would be correct to say the motherboard sees the DC power connections as loads in parrallel. I believe all of this is standard CAPS 2 setup, same model number of the motherboard, same model of SOTM card, but the SSD is not the same spec.

 

I can get the system to power up through POST with either the USB card connected to power, OR the SSD SATA drive, but not both. I've pulled the USB card out of the PCI slot, and just connected the 4 pin power. But, with both connected the Led light on the power button will just momentarily light up, a click from the motherboard, and then nothing. I need to unplug the power supply and plug it back in to restart the system successfully with either the driver or the USB card connected, but not both.

 

I can only guess that the motherboard power supply does not like seeing the lower resistance load of both devices? But, this arrangement of power should be the standard CAPS V2 design. I believe it is the power cable that came with the motherboard that has 2 SATA connectors, one of which has an adapter for the 4 pin connector to the USB card.

 

I'm stuck.

 

Jamie

[stuarth]

Hi Jamie

I also have a CAPS v2 with Jetway m-board which I'm still using, and this has exactly the same problem you describe. PC would not boot when the SOtM card was powered from the internal PC power. I'm told this is due to the Jetway boards inability to provide that initial surge of current that is needed to power all connected devices at boot. Solution: power the USB card with 12v from an external source. This can be the same power source that runs the PC split into two via a Y connector, though you'll want to disconnect power to the USB card when PC shuts down. And you will need a hole in the case to get the power in.

Messy. I think CAPS v3 used a better choice of board!

Hope that helps.

Stuart

[jnoneiliv1]

Thanks Stuart. It really helps knowing I'm not the only one. The initial rush idea makes sense, I think the board has some voltage trip limits and it might be seeing a drop it thinks is like a short. I knew folks had modded this with separate power. I was hoping for some more immediate gratification. But I've got another cas that has a typical pc psi with lots of plugs. I was real close to using it but I couldn't figure out how to get the front panel switch to start both power sources.

 

Cheers,

 

Jamie

[jnoneiliv1]

This begs the question of how necessary is the SOTM USB card given the problems it is creating with this motherboard. I was really looking forward to a nice, simple, quiet box as music server. One power cord, low power, no fan, could stay on all the time, there's no spinning hard drive, headless, etc. Now to need to use a separate power supply for the card could be overkill for me. I'm still curious as to how Chris could have made the first build if a couple of us can't get the motherboard to power on with the SOTM card connected and the SOTM card wasn't cheap, but maybe there's plenty of value in this nice, quiet, low power motherboard with a clean OS, Win 7, and a good player software. There will be no other devices plugged into the motherboard usb bus, running headless. These little atom processors are pretty cool.

 

Jamie

[stuarth]

I am using the server without the SOtM card at present partly because the Streacom case I'm using now does not allow for a PCI card. This is an interim measure until I build a new server possibly with a Celeron J1900.

 

Incidentally I also have the Intel main board Chris used in the CAPS v1 build and this has no problems booting with the card in the slot, powered from the boards 'internal' power. This indicates the card is not the problem.

 

After reading reviews of renderers such as the Auralic Aries the idea of a server/NAS outside of music room feeding an optimised streaming device attached to the DAC appeals to me. Sorry, off topic there!

[jnoneiliv1]

Not off topic at all. Thanks for sharing.

 

I've ordered a pico psu and another 12v switcher supply. I'll just jump the power on wires from the pico's atx bundle to keep the pico on all the time. I have all my music on a nas. Wish it was in another room, or better yet buried in a bunker. It works fine but it's noisy.

 

It was pretty cool loading windows to the capsv2 jetway. No fan, silent as a mouse. Can't wait to try out the little headless monster.

 

Jamie

[jnoneiliv1]

Pico PSU to the rescue. Here's a pic of the Pico PSU. It is shown with the power on pin jumped to ground. It will always be on when plugged into the 12 volt source. This will be connected to the SOTM card. If I can avoid being lazy I'll wire a switch into the jumper and put it onto the CAPS 2 case so I can switch on the power to the SOTM card. I'm not sure it's really necessary though.

 

Jamie

[jnoneiliv1]

Well, I installed the PICO PSU and I could get the system to boot with the PCI card installed, but I cannot get Windows to load. It gets through POST fine and the Bios appears to recognize the PCI card and assign an interrupt etc., but Windows just hangs at the first splash screen.

 

I think I'm about done trying to get the SOTM card to work, for now. I'm not the only one who's had problem with the card and there is no support for it. SOTM has dropped all reference to the PCI version from their website, only the PCIe version is still made. So, this starts to feel a little too much DIY, grope in teh dark, for me. Nothing wrong with that, I just don't have that kind of time unless it's necessary.

 

I still think building a dedicated headless music server with the Jetway board to mostly CAPS 2 design is a worthwhile excercise. Just building the system without the PCI card is a snap. The board appears quite happy running Win7 although it does have a little mechanical noise as reported elsewhere by others. I don't think it's worth worrying about though.

 

Jamie

[stuarth]

I think I'm about done trying to get the SOTM card to work, for now.

 

Jamie, if you do wish to use the SOtM PCI card in a music server there are some newer mainboards which do support the old 'legacy' PCI cards.

 

For example: GIGABYTE - Motherboard - CPU Onboard - GA-J1900N-D3V (rev. 1.x)

Quad core Celeron, but only 10W with passively cooled CPU.

 

Posts on the Jplay forum suggest other people have used this platform successfully as a music server. Given that it uses a standard ATX power connector, you could use that picoPSU of yours to power it, too.