Troubleshooting a Verifone P400 (UK and Ireland)

This article is for Spektrix users in the UK and Ireland who use the Verifone P400 PIN Pad. It will help you troubleshoot issues you might encounter while using Verifone P400 PIN Pads (also known as card machines, Chip & PIN, Contactless, PDQ machines and PEDs/peds).

Before troubleshooting, make sure you are familiar with:

You can work through this article in order, or go to the section most relevant to your issue:

My PIN Pad doesn’t show in Device Manager
The Guardian software is blank when opening
TMS calls haven’t completed
I can't take Contactless payments over £30
I get an Error Processing Transaction message
I can’t see any transactions in MyOpayo (previously MySagePay)
My PIN Pad shows a ***TAMPER*** message

Before you troubleshoot, start with the following initial checks. These can often save you time.

Initial Checks

Is the PIN Pad’s USB cable connected to your PC?
Is the PIN Pad’s power lead connected to the mains?
Is the Box Office App running?
Has the PIN Pad been correctly added to the Box Office App?

Once you have completed these checks, next, check that the Spektrix Box Office App is running.

Check the Spektrix Box Office App is running

Your first step in troubleshooting is always to make sure the Spektrix Box Office App is running and connected. The icon is green when connected.

When hovering your mouse over the icon, it should show Connected to Spektrix as seen in the video below:

Note: this video uses Windows 10 Pro. Your screen layout may vary depending on which version of Windows you use.

If the Box Office App isn’t connected, please read Troubleshooting the Spektrix Box Office App before proceeding.

Check settings in the Box Office App and Local Settings in Spektrix

After checking that the Box Office App is running, make sure the PIN Pad is set up correctly in the Spektrix Box Office App and that the Guardian V14 checkbox is ticked. This enables Spektrix to send messages to the PIN Pad.

Check that the Terminal name in the App (shown above) matches the Chip and Pin Terminal name in Local Settings (shown below). You can check local settings by clicking Change Local Settings from the Spektrix control panel in your Spektrix system.

Once you have correctly configured the Spektrix Box Office App and Local Settings, the Box Office App will message the Guardian Software on your PC.

Guardian Software contains information/settings unique to your organisation, so that you can take payments on your PIN Pad.

The Guardian software will then message your PIN Pad. You will see a pop up box on your PC (which may be partially obscured) confirming the transaction information on the PIN Pad.

If you don’t see any pop-up screens from the Guardian software when taking a payment, it’s possible that the Box Office App is not running or not connected. Please read Troubleshooting the Spektrix Box Office App for more information.

Errors during installation

You may sometimes encounter issues when installing Verifone P400 drivers or configuring the Guardian software. Read the following information to resolve these issues:

Read this section to troubleshoot if the Device isn’t showing correctly in Device Manager.

Open Device Manager by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar, typing Device, then clicking Device Manager.

Scroll down to Ports (COM & LPT)

If you can see an entry in Device Manager that reads USB Serial Device (COM9) this means that the PIN Pad drivers haven’t been installed:
- Please read Setting up and Installing a Verifone P400 PIN Pad (UK and Ireland) for details on how to install the PIN Pad Drivers
- If you see an entry in Device Manager that shows either Mx Family POS Terminal or Verifone V,P Family USB UART device (COM9) with a yellow exclamation mark against the entry, this means the drivers haven’t installed correctly or have corrupted:
Follow these steps to resolve the issue:
1. Right click on Mx Family POS Terminal or Verifone V,P Family USB UART device and select Uninstall Device
2. Read Uninstalling Verifone P400 PIN Pad Drivers for further details on how to uninstall the PIN Pad Drivers
3. Read Setting up a Verifone P400 PIN Pad (UK and Ireland) for details on how to install the PIN Pad Drivers
Occasionally, the P400 drivers may not be compatible with the version of Windows your PC is running. In this case, please use AlternativeVerifoneDrivers to complete the installation.

Read this section to troubleshoot if the Guardian software is blank upon opening

If you see a blank screen when configuring the Guardian software with your details, make sure you have extracted the software download correctly.

The sagepay folder in the extracted software needs to be copied to the root of the C:Drive, the file path should show C:\sagepay once completed.

Uninstalling Verifone P400 PIN Pad Drivers

If you need to uninstall the PIN Pad drivers, for example if they are corrupted or haven’t installed correctly, you will need one of the following:

Administrator permissions on your PC; or
Access to your Administrator Password (ask your IT team); or
A member of your IT team to complete the uninstall on your behalf

TIP: During troubleshooting, you may see a Windows User Account Control screen pop up asking Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?

Click Yes to proceed with the uninstallation.

Follow these steps to proceed:

Open Device Manager by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar, typing Device, then clicking Device Manager
Look under the Ports section; you should see the PIN Pad listed against COM9, as an Mx Family POS Terminal
Right click on Mx Family POS Terminal and select Uninstall Device

Alternative method to uninstall PIN Pad Drivers

If you can’t see Mx Family POS Terminal or any devices listed against COM9 under Ports (COM & LPT) in Device Manager, please follow these steps:

Locate the Tools folder found at: C:\sagepay\guardian\VerfioneDrivers\VerifoneUnifiedDriverInstaller-5.0.4.0-B7\VerifoneUnifiedDriverInstaller-5.0.4.0-B7
Open the folder named 32 or 64, depending on whether your computer is 32 or 64 bit
Open the Tools folder
Double click the file named VerifoneUSBDriverUninstall
Wait for uninstall to complete and then reinstall the PIN Pad drivers using either Verifone Drivers or AlternateVerifoneDrivers. Full information can be found in Setting up a Verifone P400 PIN Pad (UK and Ireland)

Understanding and using error logs

Error logs are an important part of troubleshooting.

To be able to troubleshoot TMS calls and transaction errors from this point, you will need to view information contained within log files stored on your PC.

Error logs can be found at C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles:

You will normally look at two of these logs, GuardianServer.log and P2_zontalk.log. These are explained in the next section.

How do I know which log file to look at?

When troubleshooting, there are two things you will look for in log files:

The results of a TMS call
The results of a transaction

TIP: TMS calls ensure that your PIN Pad software is kept up to date with any changes such as increased contactless limits.

If you have run a TMS call through the Guardian software or a scheduled task, you can check whether it worked in the P2_Zontalk.log. This log also allows you to check the progress of the update or installation.

If you see an error when processing a transaction, you can check the GuardianServer.log. This contains full details of any transactions that have been processed.

To view an error log, open it from C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles and scroll down to the bottom of the file. This will show the latest entry and the status of the PIN Pad leading up to the error.

How can I tell if a TMS call has worked?

You can check if the TMS call has worked by viewing P2_Zontalk.log. Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

Look for the messages socket destroyed or connection closed at the bottom of the file.

This shows the TMS call has completed successfully:

Further up this log file you can see no download configured; this corresponds to a no download available message that might appear on the screen of the PIN Pad. This means there are no updates available. The TMS call will still apply any changes made from the Guardian software to the PIN Pad.

If you see an error Connection Attempt (1) failed after several attempts to connect to a particular port or IP address, then your firewall is blocking the TMS call from being run. Please contact your IT team for further assistance.

Errors when attempting transactions

Read this section to troubleshoot the most common transaction errors with PIN Pads. Click on the links below to understand why each error occurs and how to resolve the issue.

TIP: During troubleshooting, you may see a Windows User Account Control screen pop up asking Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?

Click Yes to proceed.

When you attempt a transaction, if incorrect information has been entered in the Guardian Software, you will see either Error Processing Transaction or Error Connecting to Server in the GuardianServer.log file.

You will need to open the GuardianServer.log from C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles to view the error.

Click on the links below to understand why each error occurs and what you can do to resolve the issue.

Read this section if you can’t take contactless payments above £30.

On 1st April 2020 the limit for contactless card payments increased from £30 to £45. It later increased to £100.

If you can’t take any contactless payments greater than £30, you’ll need to update your PIN Pad(s) to increase the limit to £100.

WARNING: Daily TMS calls must be run as a Scheduled Windows Task.

A Scheduled Windows Task runs a TMS call every day at a time when the PIN Pad isn’t being used but the computer is switched on. The PC must be logged in as the user running the Scheduled Task.

To schedule a TMS call, from Task Scheduler in the Windows Start menu, create a basic task to run this file C:\sagepay\guardian\config\tmscall.vbs

If you're not confident setting up a basic task in Windows, ask your IT Team to complete this for you.

This process needs to be carried on each PC a PIN Pad is connected to:
1. Run a Daily TMS call as a scheduled task every day.
2. After two consecutive days, go to C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles and look for a file called P2_zontalk.log.
3. Contact Support, attaching a copy of the P2_zontalk.log file with Contactless Limit Increase in the subject line.
4. Our Support team will forward your log file to Opayo to confirm the TMS calls have been run.
5. Once Opayo has seen two days of TMS calls, they’ll increase the contactless limit.
6. One of our Support team will get in touch to confirm the limit has been increased.
7. Finally, you’ll be asked to Run a TMS Call to update the PIN Pad with the increased limit.
WARNING: Opayo will check the P2_zontalk.log file to ensure TMS calls have been run for two consecutive days.

If TMS calls haven’t been run for this length of time, our Support team will get in touch to advise this and you’ll be asked to run TMS calls for a further two days, repeating the steps above.

Once completed, you’ll be able to take contactless card payments up to £100.

Read this section to troubleshoot Error processing Transaction Connection attempt failed messages.

You can check this error by viewing GuardianServer.log which you can find in C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles

Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

If you see an error message like the one below, this points to a connectivity issue where the relevant firewall exceptions on your PC have not been added.

Please ask your IT team to set the exceptions for Opayo IPs And Ports

Read this section to troubleshoot Error connecting to Server: Failed - Could not load file or assembly ‘cryptpp_m.dll’ or one of its dependencies messages.

You can check this error by viewing GuardianServer.log which you can find in C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles

Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

You should see a message that looks like this:

Failed - Could not load file or assembly ‘cryptpp_m.dll’ or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.

This message indicates that either the VC 2015 runtime redistributable is not installed. This file is needed to tell the Spektrix Box Office App to run as 32 bit. Please follow these steps to fix this error:
1. Stop the Spektrix Box Office App from running by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar, typing Task Manager, then clicking Task Manager
2. Look for BoxOfficeAppGui (32 bit), right click and then click End Task
3. From the C:\sagepay\guardian\VcRedistributable\32-bit folder, double click on the file named vc_redist.x86.exe
WARNING: The Spektrix Box Office App must run on the 32 bit version. Restart the app from:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Spektrix Ltd\LocalApp\Gui\BoxOfficeAppGui.exe and test again

Read this section to troubleshoot the Please check Client/Merchant/CardScheme/Currency combination and try again message.

You can check for this error by viewing the GuardianServer.log file. You’ll find this log in C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles.

Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

If you see an error message Please check Client/Merchant/CardScheme/Currency combination and try again, this indicates that the SagePay ID or PayRouterMerchantID may have been incorrectly entered.

You can resolve this by following these steps:
1. Run the Guardian software by double clicking on the file Integral.WinApp.GuardianConfiguration.exe found in C:\sagepay\guardian\bin\
2. Click on the Server Configuration tab
3. For SagepayLiveID, select PR142 from the dropdown list:
4. PayRouterMerchantID: Contact Support for confirmation of this ID, e.g. ADN-SPTX-ORGANISATIONNAME. This will be unique to your organisation.
5. Click Finish.
6. On the next screen, select Run TMS Call. The PIN Pad will now show the progress of the download:
7. Once completed, try processing another transaction.
On rare occasions, where SagePayLiveID and PayRouterMerchantID are correct, the issue may point to a configuration issue with Opayo. When you Contact Support, one of our team will contact Opayo on your behalf to resolve this.

Read this section to troubleshoot Error POS not configured for merchant/No POS available messages.

You can check this error by viewing GuardianServer.log which you can find in C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles

Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

If you see an error message POS[*] not configured for merchant/No POS available

[*] = POS1,2,3 etc

This indicates that the POS number entered in the Guardian Configuration Software hasn’t been issued by Opayo.

You can resolve this temporarily by changing the PayRouterClient ID to POS1 in Guardian Configuration Software as follows:
1. Run the Guardian software by double clicking on the file Integral.WinApp.GuardianConfiguration.exe found in C:\sagepay\guardian\bin\
2. Click on the Server Configuration tab
3. Change the POS number as shown in the following screen:
Once you’ve completed this, please Contact Support to request a new POS number.

Using POS1 temporarily on more than one PIN Pad won’t cause any issues, however when viewing transactions in My Sage Pay, you won’t be able to see which PIN Pad took the payment.

Once you have been advised that your new POS number is available to use, don’t forget to change this from POS1 to the new POS number.

Read this section to troubleshoot No POS[*] available, client not currently logged into Payrouter messages.

[*]= POS1,2,3 etc

You can check this error by viewing GuardianServer.log which you can find in C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles

Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

If you see this error message, please Contact Support who will check that the correct payment channels are set up within Spektrix

As a temporary measure, you can change the PayRouterClient ID to POS1 to accept payments in Guardian Configuration Software as follows:
1. Run the Guardian software by double clicking on the file Integral.WinApp.GuardianConfiguration.exe found in C:\sagepay\guardian\bin\
2. Click on the Server Configuration tab
3. Change the POS number as shown in the following screen:
Using POS1 temporarily on more than one PIN Pad won’t cause any issues, however when viewing transactions in My Sage Pay, you won’t be able to see which PIN Pad took the payment.

Once resolved, don’t forget to change the POS number back to its previous setting.

Read this section to troubleshoot Failed opening COM Port COM9 messages.

You can check this error by viewing P2_Zontalk.log which you can find in C:\sagepay\guardian\logfiles

Scroll down to the bottom of the log file to view the latest entries.

If you see the Failed opening COM Port COM9 error below, this means either the PIN Pad isn’t plugged in, the driver has become corrupted, or hasn’t installed correctly.

Follow these steps:
- Check that the PIN Pad is connected to a USB port on your PC
- Check that the Power lead is plugged into mains power and that the other end of the lead is connected to the short cable leading from the USB.
If the PIN Pad is plugged in to the PC and mains power, next, check the following:
- Open Device Manager by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar, typing Device, then clicking Device Manager
- Under the Ports section, you should see the PIN Pad listed against COM9, as an Mx Family POS Terminal
- If you can see an entry in Device Manager that reads USB Serial Device (COM9), this means that the PIN Pad drivers haven’t been installed
  
  Please read Setting up a Verifone P400 PIN Pad (UK and Ireland) for details on how to install the PIN Pad Drivers
- If you can see an entry in Device Manager that shows either Mx Family POS Terminal or Verifone V,P Family USB UART device (COM9) with a yellow exclamation mark against the entry, this means the drivers haven’t installed correctly or have become corrupted
Follow these steps to resolve the issue:
- Right click on Mx Family POS Terminal or or Verifone V,P Family USB UART device and select Uninstall Device
- Please read Setting up a Verifone P400 PIN Pad (UK and Ireland) for details on how to install the PIN Pad Drivers.
Occasionally, the P400 drivers may not be compatible with the version of Windows your PC is running. Please use AlternativeVerifoneDrivers to complete the installation.

For more help with error logs, check Understanding and using error logs.

Chip and Pin transactions aren’t showing in My Opayo (formerly My SagePay)

PIN Pad transactions are visible in My SagePay the day after they’ve been processed. If transactions still haven’t appeared the next day, this might mean that the security permissions are set incorrectly for the sagepay folder on the PC.

All users who log into a PC connected to a PIN Pad must be able to read from and write to the sagepay folder in order for transactions to appear in My SagePay.

Follow these steps to resolve the issue:

Locate the folder at C:\sagepay
Review the Setting Permissions section of our article Setting up a Verifone P400 PIN Pad (UK and Ireland)

Once you’ve checked these settings, if Chip and Pin transactions still aren’t appearing in My SagePay, please Contact Support who will contact Opayo on your behalf to investigate further.

PIN Pad displays a TAMPER message

Verifone P400 PIN Pads have a security feature designed to disable the device in the event of any security threat.

If you see a **TAMPER** message on your PIN Pad screen, this suggests the PIN Pad has either been dropped or damaged. .

This security feature cannot be reversed. If your device displays the message **TAMPER**, the PIN Pad will no longer work and must be replaced. To purchase a new PIN Pad, read Ordering a PIN Pad (UK and Ireland) for further information.

You should now have all the information needed to troubleshoot your P400 PIN Pad.

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