What is this POS??? The Par EverServ M7700!!

We finally have a POS on the bench. No... it's not a 'piece of sh*t', it's a Point of Sale system from Par! In this video we will go over the Par EverServ 7000 M7700 POS from 2014. I think it was pretty neat to come across this in the wild. Let's do an overview and see if it will work!

[@jpoke89]

Some other folks may have already said some of the stuff I'm going to say, so I'm sorry if it's repetitive. The name for this type of system is a terminal. Even though they aren't terminals in the traditional computing sense, they've kept that name since first generation point of sale did use actual terminals. Also, very commonly in legacy POS, the terminals don't work or don't work correctly without a back office server. The touch screen is a pretty standard screen for POS, and the calibration utility is made by 3M for ELO. That blue LED device is the UareU fingerprint reader. There should be a test utility on the terminal, and it shows you your own fingerprint, it's neat! The MSR (MagStripe Reader) is used mostly for authentication these days, but it used to be possible to accept credit cards using it. Since the start of the EMV (chip card) transition in 2016, the use of MSRs has been phased out in favor of external, encrypted pinpads. The first two RJ45 serial connections are just RS232 electrically, they're just in the RJ45 formfactor because it's more compact. Other models of POS terminal use RJ12 ports for the same reason. The next two RJ45 serial ports are powered. The data lines will confirm to RS232 spec, but some of the normally unused pins, or pins normally used for ground are energized. These traditionally were used for some barcode scanners or printers that needed more power than the bus can provide. Do be careful, though, the serial ports are dumb! If you plug something into them and power is enabled, it will indiscriminately push voltage into it and burn it out if it's not designed for it, or you plug the device into the port providing the wrong voltage. Voltage controls are usually done in BIOS, and are often off by default to prevent sadness, but do be sure before plugging anything into them. The DVI connector is used for a more advanced customer facing display. The one you have is called a line display, and is just a serial device at its heart that can display up to two lines of data. Be careful with this DVI port, it may provide voltage for special single-cable displays that would fry a normal display. It may also carry USB data on normally unused pins for a touch screen. I don't know that this terminal has those features, but just be wary before plugging your favorite monitor into it. The red and green PoweredUSB ports are most commonly used on POS devices and in industrial machines. In POS, it's used most commonly for barcode scanners, biometrics, credit card pinpads, and printers. But I have also seen customer facing displays use the port to get power and touch screen data signals, but these are often proprietary. The cash drawer ports are special, and can sometimes drive two drawers per port. They're effectively connected to switched circuits on the inside, and their entire purpose is to provide 12 or 24 volts DC to the pins for a moment to cause the latch in the drawer to open. It's insanely simple. The breakout near the bottom of the I/O panel is likely used for a CF card port. Many POS terminals don't require much, and use CF cards to boot into a basic OS that communicates with the back office server. Micros POS calls them "personality cards". The reason that particular terminal has (or should have if it doesn't) RAID1 is because Subway uses their FOH (Front of House) terminals as back office computers as well. This is also why it has Windows 7 pro instead of embedded, which is normal for terminals like that. Hopefully some of that info was helpful. 😄

[@TheRetroRecall]

I can't express enough appreciation for this post. This is exactly the kind of support I look for on this channel - that's how we all learn. I will definitely be pinning this comment for all to see and learn. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this - I just wish I could locate the technical document for this. I will definitely have a more cautious approach now before plugging anything into those ports. Thank you again!

[@jpoke89]

@@TheRetroRecall Unfortunately, technical docs and drivers are usually locked behind reseller portals, and I do not know anyone at Par anymore who can get me that kind of stuff. I've been out of the industry for a number of years now. Sorry man.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Listen, the knowledge you shared is a start and is much appreciated. If you think of anything else, please feel free to add additional commentary!

[@jaytitus902]

This was the first POS that I supported. It launched a group of several great paying gig jobs. PAR Tech was a DOD contractor but the owner had friends who owned McDonald's restaurants. They were still using calculator type registers with pictures of food on them. PAR was able to set them up with an amazing POS. Other McD owners wanted them too. So PAR was manufacturing and supporting McDs for some time. By the time I got there McD kicked PAR to the curb and I was supporting Subway. Later I was supporting Quiznos in downtown Denver. That job lasted exactly 30 days and Quiznos went bankrupt. PAR Tech support was in North Boulder CO.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for sharing this!

[@Otakunopodcast]

That machine plays UT2004 surprisingly well considering it is using the Intel integrated graphics. In my mind I am visualizing a bunch of subway employees loading it up on the PoS systems and playing deathmatches against each other after closing hours or during the day if they're bored and there aren't any customers ;-)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahaha yes!!!!!!!!!

[@randomgamingin144p]

the integrated graphics are roughly equivalent to a GeForce 210 so it makes sense

[@kopspijker3515]

Having played Portal 2 on a Eary 2011 macbook pro with same generation of processor i can confirm this. (Yes under mac os).

[@Flakie02]

Ngl an UT2004 sleepover party from back in the day sounds pretty fun right about now.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah I agree!!!

[@lauram5905]

That weird card reader on the side is also a fingerprint scanner, I think. Since you're in Canada too, you'll be interested to know that Dollarama recently switched to using them for their self checkout machines, so cashiers can do a sort of 2FA with their pin as well (presumably for security)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you! I was wondering where it was considering it had the operational drivers installed in device manager.

[@craigmurray4746]

Powershell can export the drivers, use this command - Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination d:\drivers and it should dump all the drivers to a folder, with subfolders for each driver.

[@kopspijker3515]

Did not know that. Will be trying that later this week on a scratchbox to try out. Thank you!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, I was also not aware! Love this community.

[@MIJ-Tech]

I worked at Subway both before and after college and remember using this type of system in my latter tenure. I remember using fingerprint readers to login with my employee user ID. My prior time at Subway we were using some model of Dell Optiplex that my boss actually commissioned me to upgrade (across several of his stores) to speed up the GUI. I still have the graphics cards I pulled in my collection today (3 x ATi Rage 128 Pro, low profile).

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha nice!

[@snekulcire]

FYI, make sure to always read manuals on POS systems before plugging in accessories/monitors. I’ve seen power sent on unexpected places. One was 24volts on random VGA pins that are usually connected to ground.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Valid call out. I have brochure but just located the manual. I'll read through as in my next video we will see if we can upgrade the components, OS etc.

[@JessicaFEREM]

unspeakable crimes of technology

[@TheRetroRecall]

Destroying it by way of powered data connections?

[@brett9000]

I worked at a subway in 2011 and they had a older version of one of these machines and I always wanted to put command and conquer or UT on a usb stick and see if I could get it to run on the system as we had access to the desktop it was running windows xp.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah that's neat - and you totally should have lol.

[@joshwalker4834]

Another great video from TRR! Great content, thanks for sharing!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@anthonyblacker8471]

I just wanted to say that the terminal has pretty impressive specs to be able to play Unreal Tournament as seamlessly as it did.. graphics looked great, that is a little monster hidden behind a POS touchscreen! Nice find.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I agree - I thought it was so funny to play UT on a POS haha!

[@tookeydookey]

POSReady2009 is a lightweight flavor of Windows XP. I installed it into an HP Thin Client I used to have and enjoyed it! This machine in general is something unique for sure! I about predicted that Win7 was on here but I thought it was 64-bit. Also whoever had it had good taste if they used the classic theme haha😉👌

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha for sure. It felt weird but fun to play UT2004 on it lol

[@abunk8691]

AIO style PCs even POS ones like you shown in the video have always intrigued me with how they crammed all the hardware behind the display and the cooling required for that. I'll probably be looking out for some form of an AIO PC in the future for use as something like a jukebox. Having a touch screen would probably work nicely for my intended purpose. Though failing that a laptop is always an option.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I was thinking the same, considering this machine was from 10 years ago. Good luck on your project!

[@christopherdecorte1599]

From the calibration software it looks like micro touch from 3m you can still download from their website its a dominant touch screen technology still even the serial version is used in about 60 percent of slot machines.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, I'll take a look!

[@BilisNegra]

26:59 That "the way it's meant to be played" motto is so much (humorously) on point here! 😆

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahahaha that's why I left it in the edit lol.

[@johnmay4803]

hi pal fantastic vid as always and its good 2 see you back

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you and glad you enjoyed!!

[@maxtornogood]

It's good you clarify the different interpretations of P.O.S. Anyone not familiar with Point Of Sale is gonna assume the less appropriate abbreviation, heh. I do enjoy a delicious Subway sandwich, we have them in Australia!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahha indeed and awesome!!

[@NerdiestPerson]

Nice overview! It's always nice seeing this kind of hardware outside of its natural habitat. And running FPSs for no particular reason. Some receipt printers will take the "CD" cable as an input as well, so it seems most likely to me that the CD1 and CD2 ports are intended more for receipt printer + cash drawer. I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but I believe there usually isn't much communication actually going on between the POS and the cash drawer (at least not enough to require a second connector); I believe it's pretty much just a 12V impulse down one of the wires to open the latching mechanism. Which isn't particularly secure, but since you could just pick the lock or force it open easily enough, I feel like cash drawers are really more about slowing down a would-be thief than actually stopping them forever.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the info. I love when other have addional input. Makes me think differently about the subject.

[@waize]

I really like industrial computers. I have a such a computer built into a 23" touch display, but pretty lacking hardware. It has a 1.6ghz Atom and max 2gb ram.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yeah I mean for industrial use or commercial use many don't need to have a lot of power.

[@totallybonkers76]

Yeah, I first thought "piece of S***T" at first glance too 🙂

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lol!

[@Starcat128]

I have a newer POS that I put a SSD in and running Windows 10 and the touchscreen actually works

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha that's amazing. I find the hardware quite cool.

[@gondorianslayer4250]

Windows 10? So it can run modern stuff???? Geez.

[@fwingebritson]

I have several POS units that are fun as "retro machines." They aren't as new as this one, and I am surprised this one did not come with windows 7 embedded, or newer. Yes, you can use Linux on them, although I would recommend Linux embedded or freertos if you want to take full advantage of the hardware. Otherwise, most any ol' OS will do. The 24 volt (orange) USB is usually used for printers. However, while I do have a few printers that came with them, I had a hard time finding any other peripherals that used either the 12, or 24 volt USB's

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the added info. It is definitely a neat machine and I'm looking forward to restoring it. I think the other device using those ports that deliver power would have barcode readers.

[@belchy94]

I remember at work we manage to get one that run windows 2000 to play games on it. I think these could make great to play classic games like doom or could possibly be a great lan party system

[@TheRetroRecall]

I think so too, playing games on it feels wrong somehow lol!

[@michaelperugini4199]

calibration is not specific to PAR, I believe ELO was probably the first company to use that calibration software ( I think it was designed by 3M) press and hold on the corner/center. ELO been doing that for years

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks! Someone also just mentioned that it is available for download on 3m site.

[@stevef6392]

Oh my. Playing UT2004 on a POS is a feeling I am familiar with. And unfortunately, my POS didn't have a wad of cash in it to help me upgrade to something better.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lol! So I wasn't the only one!

[@Eremon1]

Throw a couple of SATA SSDs and some more RAM and you got yourself an interesting little unit. Could make a decent retro system.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed. SSD would make a huge difference.

[@jdmcs]

The 12V power out is possibly for a receipt printer, or maybe speakers. I also find it interesting that there are not 1, but 2 cash drawer ports (CD1 and CD2).

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks and yes curious why there would be two when only one is required.

[@Richiecandylover]

​@TheRetroRecall Some fast food places especially in drive thurs have coin dispensers attached so I think it would of been that! Would of loved to seen the subway training programme 😀😀

[@frozendude707]

I would say it's pretty useful, I have been to a few places where they accept and post prices in more than one currency, notably border towns and ports.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I loaded it up before the video and there was quite a bit of identifying information unfortunately.

[@jjohnson71958]

micro atx motherboard.. i've picked thru some of them and scored the notebook sata drive from 2

[@JaapGinder]

Soooooo, you was born in 2016? LOL! Strange to see a special port for a cash drawer, because is could be combined with USB or serial. A cash drawer only needs one signal: OPEN. Some cash printers (the Epson TM series e.g.) even have a cash drawer connection, so that after printing the receipt, a signal for opening the cash drawer can be given. But, when not having a printer, a separate connector is usefull. You mentioned that hand scanners cpuld be connected to the 12V or even 24V connectors. Even in 2016 there were handscanners on USB. (old ones used serial).

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lol, the date, :). I don't know enough about these systems to comment on what was required. I do think that it had quite a large selection of ports for sure! I mention the scanner as greater minds than who had experience with hese indicated that in previous videos which features that port (the Dell N series). Thanks for this added insight, I appreciate it!

[@alisharifian535]

Speaking of date coincidents, my laptop is built on 26th of January 2013 and the Hp Laserjet is built on the same day in 2001.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha neat!

[@ytguy2010]

The Core i5-2390T is a dual core CPU with Hyper-threading.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the clarity, hence the 4 x cpu listing in the device mgr.

[@PiercedJedi]

lol to play games on a P.O.S. :D love it Wonder what if anything you'll end up being able to do with this

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha after a few upgrades, win10? Full internet? Linux? More games!

[@inversion66]

I wonder what the original cost of it was. Doing a quick look on Google indicates besides the actual cost of buying or renting the equipment you often have to pay a license fee for the software you're going to use, and for it to be installed at your business.

[@TheRetroRecall]

There's a lot on the system I need to find. It would be great to get a clean image as well as the full documentation. I do see a world however where they would rent and license the unit - more $$ at the end of the day for PAR.

[@frozendude707]

When researching POS for my former business I noticed there were three types of vendors, system vendors, software houses, and turn-key. If you are rolling your own software you can contact a system vendor and order some systems directly, usually a minimum order of 5. You can also subscribe (there is usually no buying outright, you buy per year) for software without hardware from both the developer directly and turn-key providers. And lastly you can select a software from a turn-key provider, and then choose from the hardware they provide that is supported by the software, and optionals like service contracts, rolling hardware upgrades etc. If you are wondering; my family went with a "quaint" POS software called Quadriga EuroShop with two optional modules for 5 years, and a receipt printer and cash drawer, rented card payment terminal from the bank and did the rest our selves, enough for a mom'n'pop-shop, except for the darn bugs in that POS POS software that seems to be made with Delphi.

[@mackjsm7105]

LOL POS?? lol I get it Great vid!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lmao!!!!

[@DaarkCloud]

I'm jealous!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah it was definitely a fun experience.

[@JessicaFEREM]

One of those things that are absolutely worthless but you have to experience because it's not common for the everyday person to get their hands on, like a reciept printer or ATM

[@TheRetroRecall]

Exactly lol

[@SectorfiveYT]

I'd take the CPU and ram from it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Orrrrrrr upgrade it and see how much fun we can have lol

[@SinaFarhat]

Nice! :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@nbrown5907]

You are going to get Doom running on it that is the only thing that matters anymore lol.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lmao- yes! I thought about it. There was just something really funny about running games on a POS.

[@daw7563]

There is a software to extract all 3d party drivers so you can use them after a reinstall, but I can't recall it's name.

[@TheRetroRecall]

If you remember it, please let me know. It will definitely be helpful.

[@frozendude707]

You can do it manually too, if you find the right file in C:\Windows\System32\INF, that file will tell you what files are associated with that driver. Also if you open Device Manager and show hidden devices, you can right-click a device and choose properties, in that dialogue in driver details you have a list of files that the driver uses.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Appreciate you!

[@Takeshi.Nakagawa]

Wasn’t the card reader on the side for the cards from the employees for the cash register?

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nope, the POS software (which I couldn't show due to personal / business info) had an interface for the employee to log in. Now I suppose it was possible, however the brochure states it was for accepting payment.

[@marksmith9566]

Try Macriun Reflect to capture drive images and port to USB flash or Hard Drive.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's the exact software I use, it works great.

[@kopspijker3515]

@@TheRetroRecall Couple of alternatives: Building backup and restore in Windows can be used to make a disk image that can later be restored with the corresponding install cd. Disk2VHD from sysinternals(actually Microsoft) can create a VHD(X) image as well that can later be mounted for inspection. Even works on Windows XP and from Win PE environments. (Free to use in commercial environments as well).

[@luketorkelson3647]

is it possible to upgrade the components inside?

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's going to be part 2!

[@auugh64]

pretty sure this POS could run anything more modern with a proper egpu going out from the wifi card

[@TheRetroRecall]

Interesting. I never thought of that option .

[@craigmurray4746]

I cannot say for sure, but that Wi-Fi card slot is likely to be mini-PCIE - I am not sure if you can get some sort of breakout converter and cable to go to an eGPU housing? Regardless though it will be damned slow as the link will have like 1 PCIE lane only.

[@christiangomez2496]

The CD1 and CD2 ports are most likely serial over RJ sockets

[@TheRetroRecall]

Possibly, however it has also been pointed out that the RJ45 ports further to the left were serial to RJ.

[@frozendude707]

Nope, CD connections are real simple, two wires are connected directly to a solenoid that takes around 15V for a fraction of a second to open the drawer, and the other two are an optional sensor (on/off, like a microswitch). I have had to fix a cash drawer some years ago.

[@christiangomez2496]

@@TheRetroRecall Well, that is a good point and observation. Though they might be extra serial ports since from what I heard about PC-based POS machines most often have the cash drawer connected by RS-232.

[@christiangomez2496]

@@frozendude707 Oh, thanks for the correction. I didn't know that was a thing. Though maybe it depends on the system itself.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Totally cool, that's what this community is about - supporting and educating each other!

[@gondorianslayer4250]

so it runs way better than most pcs at the time? if it can run unreal, it can run duke 3d, blood, doom, doom 3, halo ce, age of mytholgoy, starcraft, age of empires, quake.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yup. So fun running games on a business grade point of sale system lol.

[@gondorianslayer4250]

​@@TheRetroRecallhaha

[@MrRoySebastian]

Now this one is game powerful performance by 4 quad i5, that is big amount for play game and streaming! Why don't you cloning HDD into SSD from AcePOS, HDD is too slow not good. SSD is needed a fast as Game load and boot by windows, even so can install by windows 10. Cause that PC is 64-BIT so then you upgrade windows 11 for unsupported hardware! 😁 This is explained i think okey, i don't want requests for this! 👍🏻😁

[@TheRetroRecall]

All good! I think an upgrade video on this computer would be cool! I just need to make sure the components I choose won't get damaged due to voltages etc. More research is required first as this is some unique hardware.

[@EastAngliaUK]

nice spec pc looks much older

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes for sure. Time to get it all cleaned up!

[@TheToylander]

Found a similar unit and turned it into a mp3 jukebox .

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha nice!

[@ManKurdeico]

Try instal windows 11 or windows 8.1 on this pos PC

[@TheRetroRecall]

Not sure if Windows 11 would install due to. The CPU limitations without the required tweaking. I would say Linux or Windows 10.

[@stonent]

Hey that's my birthday also.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Happy same birthday coming up!!!

[@marksmith9566]

MSATA WiFi possible?

[@TheRetroRecall]

I am not sure, I'd have to test it out.

[@kopspijker3515]

Having worked in a store and being observant in others :). The magnetic card reader on the side is used for employee badged to logon, or to authenticate on self service kiosks. Barcode scanners show up as a keyboard and "type in" the barcode. Sometimes with an enter key at the end. Though that can be programmed. Serial interfaces are common for interfacing with LCD line display's, payment terminal's and even with receipt printers. USB is now getting used for that. Wouldn't surprise me if it shows up as a USB serial adapter. Looks like the touchscreen is a serial device as well. Judging by the name. Try setting it to show devices by connection. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these remains in the back office to function as the local "server" for the one's in the store. 2 disks in mirroring would be useful for that. Windows embedded for POS is something that exists for well... POS systems. Something I more or less expected to be installed on this instead of full install Windows 7 installation.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the breakdown. The brochure had me thinking it was for accepting payment as the POS software has an employee punch in screen already.

[@kopspijker3515]

@@TheRetroRecall Could still be used for that. The old fashioned swipe&sign method with creditcards. Though where i live(The Netherlands) that was never an option to begin with. Debitcards are the populair way if electronic payment options and a large amount of stores don't even accept creditcards. And these always needed a pin number to be entered same for creditcards. (And paying with your phone is also a debitcard transaction.) Exceptions are very small transaction at toll booths, where the operator takes the risk on that a transaction bounces later for granted for a better traffic flow.

[@jeevesmcqueeves]

we share a birthday!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Happy shared upcoming birthday!!

[@jeevesmcqueeves]

thanks, you too!

[@davel4030]

Every POS I've used was a legit POS💩 I guess they don't care about the user experience when they know the company needs to buy it anyways.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure, and I guess some were rentals as well, so they knew they would be traded out.

[@vancegosselin]

POS 😂 hilarious, but not what ppl think

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahaha exactly :)

[@2xtreem4u]

it could have been a POS POS 😀

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lmao, I was going to make that joke but I figured one POS Joke was enough lol!

[@ardeleanianis]

all your vid's are extra (for 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 times) . keep up the good work :)

[@ardeleanianis]

fun fact: i install windows 2000 on a.... del latitude d630 .

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha thanks!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Really, how is it working?

[@ardeleanianis]

@@TheRetroRecall well i find an archive page so i think: hmmm can i put windows 2000 on a dell latitude d630???? turns out i can put windows 2000 in a delll latitude d630 1 i need to go to the dell web page and.... ther is drivers for windows2000 so i install it and it workted no crashes no errors in setup on nothing

[@therobb5738]

I have Win10 with 6 gigs of RAM and a 250GB SSD on a Latitude D630, it's my favorite laptop!!