Hydro Thunder Help Needed

If you aren't getting beeps when turning it on, something is stopping the boot process. For sure get a PCI 2D card and keyboard in there as mentioned here and connect to a regular monitor so you can see if it's getting stopped in the BIOS (bad CMOS battery, etc.). While the game won't boot in this state, you can see if it's trying to (you'll see a screen about "transfering control to HYDRO.EXE"). If you can get it to that point, switch back to the 3D card and try to boot and see if it does/what beeps you get.

Also not sure a USB keyboard would work, probably need a PS2 one.

I do have a guide for getting any time-period (even into the late 2000s) PC to run the game, it's in this thread. It might still help you for setting up the original PC: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/th...how-to-run-on-a-modern-pc.513527/post-4617030
 
If you aren't getting beeps when turning it on, something is stopping the boot process. For sure get a PCI 2D card and keyboard in there as mentioned here and connect to a regular monitor so you can see if it's getting stopped in the BIOS (bad CMOS battery, etc.). While the game won't boot in this state, you can see if it's trying to (you'll see a screen about "transfering control to HYDRO.EXE"). If you can get it to that point, switch back to the 3D card and try to boot and see if it does/what beeps you get.

Also not sure a USB keyboard would work, probably need a PS2 one.

I do have a guide for getting any time-period (even into the late 2000s) PC to run the game, it's in this thread. It might still help you for setting up the original PC: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/th...how-to-run-on-a-modern-pc.513527/post-4617030
Thank you for the suggestion but I have already got this far and replied in regards to my troubleshooting (post #17). Maybe my issue was the USB keyboard. I will find an adapter to PS2.
 
Remove the RAM from the PC and see if it beeps. It should beep and complain if there is no RAM, but if it's still silent it's likely an issue with the motherboard or the CPU.
 
I got this game to boot. I ended up buying a untested mother board and diego pcb. Swapped them in one at a time with no change and the exact same behavior. So I knew the boards were probably not the issue. I ended up fooling around with the reset wire and the filter board. That was my problem. Filter board had bad connections and reset wire I believe was plugged in backwards. Monitor looks like shit and I haven't tested any controls but I got the proper beeps and boot sequence and video/audio.

VICTORY!
 
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