Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael
Knowing where to start when your monitor goes out can be a valuable time saver when repairing arcade games. In this post, our resident monitor repair guy Michael will give us some quick tips on how to troubleshoot some common issues.
Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael
There is not a whole lot of difference between an arcade monitor and a regular tv. The same electronic principles used in arcade monitors are also used in televisions. Knowing how to repair arcade monitors can help in repairing not just older televisions but newer televisions as well.
If your arcade monitor won’t come on, a good place to start is in the power supply. Follow the power cord from the connector to the chassis. This should lead you to the primary power supply. Check to see if there is a fuse around this area. If so, check the fuse to see if it is bad or good. If the fuse is bad, replacing it might not solve your problem. There is always a reason why a fuse blows. Check the surrounding components and make sure that they are not shorted to ground before replacing the fuse. You can refer to our article on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter for more information on fuses.
We have already talked about how dangerous arcade monitors can be in our Safely Discharge An Arcade Monitor post, however, this point can not be reiterated enough. Please be careful around the suction cup as it contains an anode that goes to the monitor tube. The wire coming out of the suction cup is attached to the flyback. A flyback can put out a large amount of volts depending on the chassis. If you suspect flyback trouble, the first thing to check is the HOT (Horizontal Output Transistor) with a standard multimeter to see if it’s shorted. If it is shorted, that’s a good indication that you have a bad flyback. If you hear a hissing noise around the flyback that might indicate that the casing is cracked. If upon futher examination you find that the casing is in fact cracked, replace the flyback.
Another good thing to know is that while cap kits can be helpful they will not fix everything. Some signs that might you need a cap kit include washed out colors, vertical drop, and/or lines across the top of the screen. A bad electrolytic capacitor will often swell or bulge at the top or leak out of the bottom, however, they can still be bad even if they don’t look bad. It’s a good idea to go ahead and replace all the caps if you are going to do one. A cap kit is easy to do and cap kits are pretty inexpensive.
If your monitor only displays a thin horizontal line in the middle, check the IC (Integrated Circuit) that powers the vertical to see if it is good and to see if it is getting power. You can check it with a standard multimeter.
You don’t need expensive tools to work on monitors. A good soldering iron and a multimeter will allow you to troubleshoot the majority of arcade monitor problems. ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meters also help as they allow you to check capacitors in circuit so you don’t have to desolder and remove them to see if they are bad.
Well, good luck in the future with all of your arcade monitor troubleshooting. If you have any questions for Michael, please feel free to post them in the comments section below.
i have a problem with my xevious monitor
there is a double image of the game flickering ontop of the first image
what could cause this and were should i start looking ?
i can send you a pic of it
im just starting up and any advice yould be great thx
We received a question on YouTube about a Centipede arcade machine with no picture on the monitor but was getting the correct voltage from the isolation transformer. Here was our response:
When you move arcade games it’s easy for a connector to come loose. The first thing we would do after checking the power going to the monitor would be the video input cable coming from the PCB. Make sure the edge connector on the PCB is secure. You might even want to unplug it and plug it back in to get a fresh connection. Follow the wires that go from the PCB edge connector to the monitor chassis and make sure that connector is plugged in good as well.
If you have checked both the monitor power cord and the video input cable, you might check for a glow on the neck of the monitor. Turn on your arcade game and turn off all the lights to see if the neck glows. If you don’t see a glow, then you could have a problem with your chassis.
It’s also important to make sure that your board is getting the correct voltage. If the problem is just in your monitor, you should still hear the game play through your speakers. If you don’t hear the game, you could have a problem with your board and not necessarily your monitor.
Hello. I have a Midway Skins game. It was working fine except the top 1″ or so of the screen was skewed to where you could read the top text. Anyway, I took the back off for the first time a noticed a black wire that was connected but not woth tape. I touched it and it came apart. I had the game on so I turned it off immediately. I fastened it together and turned the game back on. Now I had gotten skewing and the actual piture broken in segments. I did like you said and unplugged the connector from the pcb and from the neck circuit board and plugged them back in. Now it has a light red solid screen that has lines through it but it is steady and no movement? Can you help? Thanks, Gary
Gary,
This sounds like quite a dilemma but don’t despair, there is hope. First thing you want to do is check your power supply voltages going to the PCB. You can watch our video on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply for more information. Also, does your game have sound when you turn it on? You can try coining it up if it does not have sound in the attract mode. If you have sound, your board is probably fine and it’s probably your monitor. Otherwise, you might have a board problem. If you have some pictures please send them to us as they would be very helpful for troubleshooting.
Thanks for your question and please let us know if there is anything else we can do.
Hey Guys. I recently had the flyback replaced on my NBA Jam monitor because of some serious arcing. That issues has been corrected but now I have a distortion at the top of the screen. I believe I have tried all of the tuning controls but cannot decrease the distortion. I have an electrical engineer neighbor who has offered to help but we need direction. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time.
Here is a screen shot.
http://www.ratpig.com/downloads/NBA_Jam_monitor.jpg
Dirk,
This is a pretty common issue with arcade monitors. Typically the problem resides in the vertical section of the chassis. This is located around the vertical IC chip which is mounted to a heatsink that is typically near the flyback. Try checking capacitors in this section with an ESR meter and replacing any that are bad. Also, check the round orange disc caps in this area as they can cause this problem as well. If you have problems finding the vertical section, please send us a picture of your chassis and we’ll help you locate it.
Please let us know if you need any more assistance and good luck with your repair!
I just purchased a “Toobin” video game. Right now. The screen is very dim and has a greenish hue. I can’t brighten it up with the brightness knob. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Well guys, it happened, my kids were playing my arcade game and the monitor all of a sudden went black, nothing at all. I watched your vid and then checked the fuse, which was fine, and power coming out of the isolation transformer all the way to the monitor itself and that was fine also. I did not see any orange glow on the monitor itself, and I checked that in pitch darkness. Would the H O T be my next check? and how to do that? Thanks for all the great tips and videos.
Brian
Hey guys, I have an arcade game that seems to work fine, but the color is off. I have tried all of the adjustments, but it doesn’t get better. From what I can tell, there is no green (the colors look either very blue or very red). Any ideas of what could cause this and how to fix?
Thanks
Phil,
Check for loose solder joints around the pins on the chassis where the video wires come in from the game PCB. You might also want to check the connector on these same wires. If both look to be in good shape then it could be a transistor or potentiometer on your neck board. Try reflowing the solder around these parts or replacing them.
Thank you for your question and let us know if we can help you further.
Rusty,
First place we would start is with the adjustment knobs on the neck board. Play with these adjustments to see if you can get the result you want. Also, remember that most monitors have an adjustment for brightness on the chassis. Make sure this is turned up as well. If you do not have any success with the adjustments, a cap kit is highly recommended.
Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.
Brian,
Yes, the HOT would definitely be the next thing to check. Start off by doing a visible inspection making note of any cracks or burn marks that you see. If everything looks good then you need to do some checks with your multimeter. Check out this article for more information on testing your flyback and HOT: http://ezinearticles.com/?Testing-Flyback-Transformer—How-to-Test-and-When-to-Replace-It&id=41597.
Thanks for watching and let us know if there is anything else we can do to help you.
I have Midway skins game that worked great until I turned it on last week….The monitor was blank but the sound was running in the background….The monitor works during test runnning, but not with the game…Any thoughts???
I also just purchased a Toobin’ My problem is that everything seems to have a yellow hue. There is no white. I just recapped the monitor and it still didn’t fix it. I have tried the rgb adjustments on the neck board. It appears that the blue cutoff adjustment doesn’t do much and there doesn’t seem to be much blue in the monitor. What would you recommend? I will try to reflow the solder on the neckboard pots. Anything else?
Jeff,
If reflowing the solder on the neckboard does not solve your issues with the blue cutoff, you might try replacing the pot entirely. If you do that and it still doesn’t look right then you might have a problem with your tube. At this point, you might try a tube rejuvinator. If you don’t have one, most local TV repair shops have one that they use from time to time. Keep in mind, however, that a tube rejuvinator is a short term fix for a long term problem and eventually you’ll need to replace your tube entirely.
Thanks for your question and good luck with your project.
Mike,
Sounds like you have some problems with your Midway Skins board. Since Midway Skins is a JAMMA game, we would suggest swapping out the board for another JAMMA game to see if it comes up. This will verify if it’s the board or your monitor. If the monitor comes up with the other board plugged in, you have a problem with your Midway Skins board. Since Midway Skins also has a hard drive, you might trying replacing the hard drive first instead of the full board. These hard drives are usually available on eBay. Here’s a link for one: http://tr.im/DI1K. Of course, if you can find a good deal on the entire board set you might go that route.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to assist you and good luck.
reflowing the solder on the pot didn’t work. I will try replacing the pot next.
I have a Nanao M8-26S (I think that’s the number.) that I just swapped from med. resolution to Standard Resolution. I now have some horizontal lines at the top of the monitor that I didn’t have before. I’ve tried every adjustment and the only way I can get them to go away is to shrink the vertical size. Of course that squooshes (never really tried to spell that before, hmm.) everything. Any suggestions? I’ve also noticed that the monitor occasionally gets darker then back to normal. I really hate cap kits, so if you have a better suggestion I would appreciate it.
Jeff
I recently purchased a Pole Position arcade game. The individual I spoke to said the monitor would occasionally have white lines that would come on to the monitor, but you could still see the image. When I picked up the arcade it worked fine and then all of a sudden the image became skewed and it started rotating vertically and horizontally. I played with the horizontal tilt and vertical tilt and was able to slow it down, but the image is still moving. Sound works and you can play through the game but it is hard to avoid hitting other cars and signs as the image keeps moving. Is this the monitor going out or a problem with the video card. It has a 19 inch monitor in it. It is my understanding that replacement monitors can be switched in to take care of this problem. Is this true? If so, would you recommend using a CRT like the one that is in it, or upgrading to an LCD monitor replacement? Also, How difficult is it to replace the monitor? Is it a lengthy repair, or just unhooking a few cables, removing the old monitor and putting in the new one and rehooking a few cables? Have you ever dealt with LAX rotating machines? I have one that is having an issue with the buttons not working. Thanks, Will.
Jeff,
I hate to tell you this but this problem is typically caused by a bad cap. You could purchase an ESR meter to help you determine which caps are bad and just replace those. We have an analog ESR meter we got from MCM Electronics that was about $60. It is a big time saver, however, it’s really only worth the price if you plan on working on a lot of monitors.
Thanks for your question and let us know how your repair goes.
Will,
Before we begin diagnosing this problem, we will say that in this case a picture or video would be very helpful. Just going on what you described, however, it sounds like the problem could be related to the video ROM on the Pole Position board. Dick Millikan is pretty well known for his ability to repair Pole Position problems if this is indeed the cause of your issue. If the problem is related to your board, a new monitor would not help. If you plan on keeping this game for several years, it is always a good idea to put a new monitor in it. We always recommend a CRT over a LCD to preserve the look and feel of the original game.
As far as replacing a monitor goes, it is not too difficult at all. This usually consists of removing four bolts from the front of the monitor, a video connector coming from the board and the power connector. It is recommended you have at least 2 people when attempting this repair. In our experience, it usually takes us under an hour to fully replace a monitor.
We really haven’t dealt with LAX rotating machines and we’re really not sure what one even looks like. With that being said, most buttons work on the same principles that we discuss in our video on Wiring A Push Button. Please send us some pictures so we can assist you further on this issue.
Thanks for your questions and please let us know how your repairs are going.
I have a Ghost and Gobblins with a Hantarex MTC900 that the top of the play screen is in the middle of the screen. I have replaced the pot that adjusts the vertical positioning. Any idea where to begin? The monitor has been recapped by someone before.
Thanks,
R
Randel,
It sounds like you are having a problem in your vertical IC chip on your monitor chassis. This problem is fairly common and is pretty easy to fix. You want to start off by finding the vertical section of your monitor chassis. There is usually a yellow wire that comes off of your tube and connects to the chassis, the vertical section should be located somewhere around that yellow wire. In the vertical section, there should be an IC chip. Sounds like this chip has failed and has caused your problem. Replace this and that should fix your problem. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can send just the chassis off to us and for a small fee we will replace this chip for you.
We have also featured your question on episode 1 of our Q&A podcast. Look for it to be posted on our website soon. Thank you for your question and good luck with this and all of your future projects.
I have a Leathal Enforcers II game (1994) that has had very little use as I bought it from the orginal owner a year ago and it sat in his living room all that time. No problems until last night. A week ago I pluged in a Leathal Enforcers I board which I got on ebay. I used it for one game and it worked fine except the audio was out on one of the speaker (speaker works on L.E. II) When I turned on the game last night, I heard an odd sound and it turns out on the monitor I am getting about a one blue inch arc…loud and crackling. I unplugged the board completely and when I turned back on the power it still was arcing? Any thoughts? Alan
More info on the location of the arcing… if you follow the wire with the suction cup (on the monitor) to where it meets or is connected to the chasis… that component is what is arching.
Thanks… Alan
Alan,
Well the first thing we would do is unplug just our monitor from our power supply and try to turn the game on. Hopefully you will start to hear board sounds. If you do, that tells us that your board is still working and that just your monitor was damaged. The arcing that you see is probably related to the flyback, however, it is hard to be sure without taking a look at the monitor chassis. If you’re not that familiar with working on arcade monitors we would suggest sending it to us for repair. Please let us know if this is the route you want to go or if you would like us to continue helping you troubleshoot this problem.
We have also featured your question on episode 2 of our Q&A podcast. Look for it to be posted on our website soon. Thank you for your question and good luck with this repair.
I purchased a great looking Donkey Kong cabinet from ebay for our family Christmas present. It came via FedEx freight. We have had it for 3 days now, never even took it off of the pallet yet, just pushed the pallet back against the garage wall and plugged it in. It worked great the first day, last night I noticed about a 5 inch semi-circle of washed out color at the top of the screen. The graphics were there, but the colors were sort of faded. This morning, the monitor is black. The top light board is lit and fine, but the monitor is black and pushing buttons does not bring sound. We unplugged it, counted to ten, plugged it back, nothing came on except the lit graphic at the top of the arcade machine. We are heartbroken!
The ebay listing said: This game works 100%. The picture is perfect on this newly rebuilt original Sanyo 20ez monitor. It is sharp, vibrant, bright, and beautiful. The buttons are brand new and the joystick is original. All controls work.
The light fixture has been replaced with a new one. The T-molding is also new.
To me, this meant a good machine with plenty of play time.
Any ideas? Much appreciated!
Update:
We had the machine plugged into the garage outlet continuously since it arrived (3 days). It snowed last night (first white Christmas in Dallas for over 80 years). Though it was in the upper 20′s outside during the coldest part, the garage was cold but not really cold (no need to wear a coat or anything).
It appears the machine is making sounds and playing games when buttons are pushed, but the monitor is completely black.
I have been looking on the internet and apparently monitors do not like cold, BUT it wasn’t too terribly cold in the garage, though the machine was placed next to an outside-facing wall (brick/wood exterior). Any chance that as the temp warms outside the monitor will come back to us?
I just can’t imagine something so simple destroying our game like that overnight.
Hello, I just purchased a cocktail sized Centipede. The gentleman I purchased it from has owned it for some time and had no issues with it. However after getting it home, I let it warm up at his suggestion for two hours at room temperature. We were able to play for about an hour and a half before the screen started scrolling and flickering. It reset itself to the start screen and continued to scroll. If you shut it off for a short period of time, say 30 minutes and turn it back on you cant quite get through one whole game before it begins to flicker and scroll. Seems to only happen when warm, so I took the back panel off and pulled the service button so the game would stay on and put a fan behind it to cool it and it made no difference. Checked all connections and everything seems to be attached securely. There is no discoloration to the screen, and the sounds works as it should. It was transported on its left side for the two hour ride to my brothers home and again moved the next day for 15 minutes to my fathers home where it sat on its side overnight in 20 degree temperatures as it was a Christmas gift yesterday. I don’t know if this gives you any ideas as to what may be wrong but I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance. -Amanda
Also it is an original cabinet, Atari 1980. The Serial number on the back is 02018 and the Video # is AM 883329 Again thank you-
Katie,
First off, we apologize for not getting back to you sooner. We took a short vacation over the Christmas and New Years holidays and are just now getting around to answering our questions. Before trying to troubleshoot this issue, we would first try and contact the seller to see if they could help us. Many times eBay sellers are more than willing to work out a deal on issues such as these.
With that being said, this really sounds like a monitor issue. First thing we would check is to make sure the monitor is plugged it from the bottom of the cabinet and is getting power. If the game is getting sounds but you don’t see anything, we call this symptom “playing blind.” When games are playing blind it’s a pretty good indication that your monitor is the problem. We would also check to make sure that the wires going from the PCB/Board to the monitor are making a good connection. Try these troubleshooting tips out and let us know if it fixes your problem.
We have also featured your question on episode 3 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issue. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
Amanda,
Sounds like you might be having a couple of issues here. The screen flipping issue is probably related to your arcade monitor and can usually be fixed with a simple adjustment. We recommend checking out our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information on how to adjust the hold on your monitor. The game resetting issue, however, is probably related to your power supply. Check out our post on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply to help you see if you are getting the correct voltage. Your power supply might be older than the one in the video so it might be a good idea to refer to the manual on this game if you have it.
We have also featured your question on episode 3 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issue. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
On the left side on my street fighter 2 upright I have vertical lines of discoloration. It’s not too annoying once you start playing but I want to put in in my office and I want it to look good. Someone said it needed new gas in it? I didn’t quite understand that. I’ve adjusted color settings and things but I can’t get the vertical lines to go away. They are about 1 inch wide and are just discolored (lighter) than the rest of the screen. Thank you for any advice.
Hi I hope you guys can point me in the right direction.
I have a Tekken 2 arcade game thats having monitor issues.It seems to come on for maybe 3 seconds and immediatly shuts off.I know its coming on because the neck lights up and then goes off,but everything else functions as it should.
Also have a space invaders game that seems to not boot at all.Screen has wierd objects on it ,have no sound.I tried cleaning connections to the board but still no luck.Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Jim
Have a golden tee box it/jamma box that will turn on and start to play , can’t get the screen to center, wont go down to the last 4 inches of screen or so vertically . Then once it warms up the screen starts to wave and fade to white. Seems like that might be heat related as once cooled down again it functions as normal except the bottom of the screen. The dials on the adjustment board for the monitor wont let adjustment go any future.
I thought you might be able to get around the adjustment by changing the dial position while powered off but that didn’t help. Any ideas about the fade to white/wave would be nice. The picture can kind of come back but never to the same quality more of a hazy white.
Thanks
Kyle,
This sounds a lot like a bad cap on your monitor chassis probably located in the horizontal or power sections. We would recommend doing a cap kit on the monitor. Please check out our post on Installing A Cap Kit for more information. If you need some help identifying your monitor, please send some pictures to us at questions@arcaderepairtips.com and we’ll help you out.
We have also featured your question on episode 4 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issue. Thank you for your question and let us know if you have any others in the future.
I’ve just bought a new cocktail table with the 60-in-1 board on it for my home. I had trouble with it at first and was sent new parts under warranty–monitor and chassis were replaced and ultimately the jamma board had to be replaced because it had shorted out. It was not secured to the bottom of the table, but lose inside and the tech thinks it might have touched metal and blown itself out. But now it’s working (whew. knock wood). I want to know the best way to preserve it’s working status.. Would you recommend turning it off at the end of each day or leaving it on? It does cycle through the games, so is burn in still a factor? Also, it retains the high scores, but the initials we enter into individual games are all wiped clean when we turn it off and back on–will that always happen? Thanks in advance!
I have a San Francisco Rush that the monitor goes fuzzy/blurry within a few minutes of turning it on. Before I remove the monitor board to send it in for repair, is there anything else I should check first?
Jim,
On the Tekken 2, we would suggest unplugging your board, turning on the cabinet and see if the monitor shuts off without the board hooked up. Try turning the brightness and contrast up so that your monitor has a white screen. This should allow you to easily identify if the monitor goes off. If your monitor goes off then you are definitely having a monitor issue. Try a cap kit on the monitor chassis if the monitor is faulty. Otherwise you might start looking at the board, power supply or wiring for your problem.
On the Space Invaders, the weird objects that you are seeing on your screen are caused by board issues. Check out Alex Yeckley’s page at http://www.elektronforge.com/. Alex specializes in Space Invaders boards. He has some information on his site that might help you out with your issue. He will also repair your board if you cannot figure it out on your own.
We have also featured your question on episode 5 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your issues. Thank you for your questions and keep us updated on your repairs.
E,
First off, we would really like to see some pictures of your monitor screen and chassis as this would help us troubleshoot this issue better. That being said, it definitely sounds like you are having a monitor issue. The cause of your issue could be cold solder joints. You might try reflowing the solder to see if it helps your issues at all. We would also recommend a cap kit as this could be caused by a faulty cap. Please see our post on Installing A Cap Kit for more information. If your monitor is a Wells Gardner monitor, you can try calling them directly. Check out there website at http://www.wellsgardner.com for their contact information.
We have also featured your question on episode 5 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on this issue. Thank you for your questions and good luck with your repair.
SJ,
We typically recommend turning off your machines when you are not using them. If you do turn them on, however, we would let them run for a bit before turning them off. The start up can be pretty hard on an arcade game and leaving it running for a bit before turning them off can help. Also, moving games can cause issues so try to avoid this when possible. Screen burn should not be an issue with the attract mode going on your board.
As far as the high scores go, some arcade games hold high scores and some don’t. If the original game on the 60-In-1 board supported high score saves then it should work on the 60-In-1 board and vice-versa. There might also be some test mode settings you can adjust to get this to work as well. Check your 60-In-1 board manual for more information on the test mode.
We have also featured your question on episode 5 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your questions. Thank you for your questions and enjoy playing your cocktail cabinet.
Hello –
Great web site.
Not sure if you can help.
I have a Cherry Master, I bought it broke and realized that an eprom was not in correct. When I got it home, I pulled the eprom and then put back in. It fired up and worked for about a month.
Now – since it stopped again, the monitor is black, when it powers on, The bill collector will sound off but nothing else happens. I do notice that sometimes when I click the reset on the mother board that some of the buttons will flash. I have to turn off to stop the flashing. I first thought that my monitor had gone bad but I would think that all else would sound and play if that was the issue.
Any advise would be appreciated.
Donnie
Hello,
I bought a centipede game a few years ago. The screen now is blue when I turn it on and nothing else happens. Any idea what this means? Thanks!!
(continued)… Here are more details: the centipede game is an original stand up coin operated game. It is kept in my basement where the dehumidifier runs off and on all year. It worked good for about a year, the only thing weird before it’s world went blue was random letters would show up on the screen. This is my first stand up arcade game and am clueless as how the insides work. I do have a manual. My son is now old enough that he wants to play it, so I figured I should get it fixed. Thanks again!
Brad,
Before sending your San Francisco Rush monitor off for repair you might try seeing adjusting the focus after the monitor warms up helps the fuzzy/blurry image that you are getting. Please see our post on Adjusting An Arcade Monitor for more information. Also, you might try taking your tube to a TV repair man to see if he can test it for you. If this problem is being caused by a bad tube he should be able to tell.
We have also featured your question on episode 6 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck repairing your San Francisco Rush.
Hello, I have a Midway Pigskin 621 game that I cannot get the monitor to stop scrolling vertically on. I have replaced the main board,the power supply and tried to adjust the v-hold with no help. I can almost get it to hold but it either scrolls up or down. The game works great other than this! Any help?
My Pigskin game also looks to have a Vision Pro by Happ Controls 49-1329-VP2 monito installed
Guys,
i have a Nanao MS-2931 tri-res monitor that shows no picture.
the monitor powers on and i see glow coming from neck. If i feed the chassis a 31khz signal through the db15 connector i hear the monitor click as it changes resolution, remove the feed, it clicks again. So the monitor is responsive to power/input but still no picture whatsoever.
please give me some tips to help troubleshoot problem as im a complete newbie to this. i do have a multimeter on hand and im great with soldering. thanks! keep the videos coming
Brian,
Sounds like you are having some board issues. You could try physically inspecting the board to see if there are any chips that need to be resocketed. If you are comfortable around a soldering iron, you could also try reflowing the solder on the board. If you continue to have problems after that, we would recommend either sending it off for repair or getting another board altogether. If you are interested in getting your board repair, please let us know and we’ll try to help you out with that.
We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your status.
Adam,
This sounds like it could be a related to a couple of different areas. We would probably start off by replacing the vertical hold potentiometer on your monitor chassis. We had a similar problem with a Super Mario Bros and it turned out to be a bad potentiometer. Replacing a potentiometer is pretty much the same process as replacing a capacitor and is a good starting place for this problem. If that doesn’t work you might want to check the sync wires going to your monitor chassis from your board. If these wires are not making a good connection it can also cause problems such as this.
We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on the status of this issue.
Hoffman,
We had a very similar problem with a Tokyo Cop that had a Nanao monitor in it. Our problem turned out to be the filter capacitor that was located right in the middle of the chassis. You might check this cap before moving on to other troubleshooting. Of course, we always recommend doing a full cap kit if this monitor is older and hasn’t had one in a while. Please see our post on Installing A Cap Kit for more information. If you install the cap kit and you are still having problems, then your flyback is probably the culprit.
We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and please keep us updated on your status with this issue.
Donnie,
While we are not too familiar with Cherry Master games in particular, they are pretty similar to a regular arcade game. This really sounds like a problem with your board. You could try reflowing the solder on the board especially around that eprom chip you were having the problems with. You might also check to make sure that the harness is making a good connection with the board. The good news is that Cherry Master boards are usually pretty reasonable on eBay. Please let us know if you continue to have issues and if we can assist you further.
We have also featured your question on episode 7 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
I have a Roadblasters Arcade Game that has a 19″ Wells Gardner, I think its a K7000 series. The monitor turns on fine and then shuts off after a couple seconds. After turning it on and off many times, it will stay on just fine. I checked the B+ voltage and it is reading 170 VDC – 180 VDC. The large capacitor is bulged on top and the flyback casing on the board looks as though it has started leaking. What do I need to replace? Thanks a lot! -John
I have a NEO GEO I picked up with a dead WG7000. I replaced the Power and bought a full Bob Roberts Rebuld kit. Relaced all Caps and flyback including the 31130 and 1398. (not sure what the are but I replaced them anyway) I an kind of new to monitor repair and not very good with a multi-meter yet but I did check the 4 Diodes in the power section as shown in your video and no beeps on any so seems to be good? I check some of the (gray diodes?)the same way and R90, r98 do give me a tone. Are these bad. Anyways still no glow on the tube neck and I seem to be the same place as I started. Thanks Aaron
Hey guys.
Just a quick question for you. Less than a month ago, I purchased a Midway arcade machine (NFL Blitz 2000 Gold Edition) from an auction in Toronto, Canada.
Anyways, the machine is working fine for now. However, if I turn it off, when I turn it back on, I have to reset all of my preferences (ie. game audio, game difficulty, the “free play” option) and I lose all of my high scores and my standings for season mode.
Having said that, I’m OK with leaving the machine on all the time, but I’m wondering if doing so will cause its components to wear out sooner. The on/off switch at the top seems pretty delicate and I’m afraid that turning it on and off regularly will eventually burn out the monitor (just like a light bulb will eventually burn out if you flip the light switch too often).
Let me know which option is better for making the machine last longer and also whether there is a way to save my options even when I do turn it off. Maybe I just haven’t figured it out yet.
Thanks.
Hi
I have a 20″ samsung picture tube running on a Kortek KT-20 monitor chassis. The chassis seems to be ok, but I can see high voltage arcing around the yoke. Have you seen this before, do I need a new picture tube? Can I use a TV CRT in it’s place and just plug my existing yoke board to it?
Thanks
Hi,
I did a stupid thing… I have a SME-FDL5 (Tandberg) monitor in my cab. I was connecting the speaker wires from the cab to the monitor and I let a speaker wire fall. It draped along the metal shroud on the neck board and now I get no picture. Also, connected to the metal shroud are wires coming from the degaussing coils. I hear small a squeal coming from the speaker amp area and on the ir board, the power led reamins lit but I cannot power it up. Normally when I press the power button I hear the “dong” from the degaussing at startup but now I get nothing…
Where should I look first?
BTW, this is an awesome website!
Thanks,
Darrell Marcum
John W,
We definitely recommend replacing that bulging capacitor and the leaking flyback. While you’re working on your chassis, it’s probably be a good time to replace some of the other parts as well. Bob Roberts sells WG K7000 Series Repair Kit that contains the flyback, HOT, fuse and cap kit for a very reasonable price. You can find out more information about this kit at http://www.therealbobroberts.net/parts.html#flyback. Try installing this kit on your chassis and let us know how it turns out.
We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
Aaron,
Sounds like you have replaced most of the parts that we recommend replacing. This really narrows the problem down to the power supply section of your chassis. Of course, make sure that you are getting power into the monitor from the isolation transformer or power supply. If you are getting power then look on the chassis where the power come in. See if you can identify any problems around this section. We would also like to see some pictures of your chassis so that we might help you troubleshoot this further.
We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
Rob,
NFL Blitz boards usually have a battery on the board that it uses to save your settings. It sounds like this battery is bad and needs to be replaced. This battery is usually located in the middle of the board. We recommend removing this battery and taking it to your local electronics store to see if they have a replacement. After your replace this battery it should save your settings.
As far as leaving your arcade machines on goes, we tend to lean towards turning them off when you’re not using them. As you said, the components are only made to last so long and when you have power going to them you are taking away from their life expectancy. Turning your game off will also save on your electric bill which is always a good thing with summer coming up.
We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your repair.
Kurt,
First off, we are not big fans of the Kortek monitors as we have had problems in the past with their reliability. That being said, however, it does sound like you need a new tube. There is a really good article on 8liners.com that talks about using different tubes with different monitor chassis. You can find the article at http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html. Please check out this article for more details on replacing tubes. We are also curious as to what arcade game this monitor is in. Give us a shout back and let us know.
We have also featured your question on episode 10 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
Hey guys,
To make a long story short, I purchased an NBA Jam arcade today and had to use a friends truck to move it. The machine was covered with a tarp, however during the move it began to rain and some water managed to get inside.
Upon arrival to my house, I opened the back and didn’t see any water at first glance. So…we fired it on and it played flawlessly for about 3-4 minutes, then the screen went black. Music and sounds still worked perfect, just no picture.
Could the water have cause a short in the wiring? How long should I leave the machine unplugged before trying to turn it on again?
Or what is the worst case scenario?
thanks,
Robert
Darrell,
First off, don’t feel too bad as we’ve definitely done stupid things very similar to this. These things can happen to anyone so hopefully you’re not being too hard on yourself. With that being said, this could be many things. We’re going to start at the power supply and make sure that we are getting power to the monitor. This is to make sure we didn’t blow it up when the wires touched the tube. If the power supply is good then we would try and locate the fuse on the chassis to see if it is blown. Then we would move to the flyback and Horizontal Output Transistor (or HOT). Check both of these to see if they are good and replace as needed. If you get this far and it still won’t come on please contact us again and give us the details of the steps you have taken to this point.
We have also featured your question on episode 11 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.
Robert,
Yes, this problem could have been caused by your cabinet getting wet. It sounds like your monitor has gone out which could have been caused by a number of things. If this problem was caused by the cabinet getting wet then you might be in luck. We recommend checking the fuses around both your power supply at the bottom of your cabinet and your monitor chassis. Please see our post on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter for more information. Also, make sure that there is power going up to the monitor. It could be that the power wires going to your monitor came loose during the move.
If all of your fuses are good and you seem to be getting power up to your monitor then we need to take a closer look at your monitor chassis. The symptoms you are experiencing could be caused by a bad HOT (or Horizontal Output Transistor) or a bad flyback. Worse case scenario would involve replacing the majority of parts on your monitor chassis or getting a new one altogether.
We have also featured your question on episode 12 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
Hello,
I currenty just brought home a Donkey Kong Jr. Machine. I was told that there was something wrong with it when I purchased it. When I turn it on, there is a thin white line on the monitor. I can hear nosies for game play and all..just can’t see what it is going on. The third knob in the pic seems loose. Any ideas? Thank you for your help.
http://i50.tinypic.com/2mer4ap.jpg
Hello! I am working on my first machine, I am new to most repairs,I bought a Virtual Fighter Machine, Everything works except I can not brighten the screen i can see an image at max brightness it seems , From what it looks like you suggest replacing the caps. any ideas i suppose? (Sorry for being so brief!) Oh and thank god for your warning on the discharge on the monitor.
Billy,
You definitely need to get a pot for your brightness adjustment as this can cause a lot of crazy issues. You can buy a pot from Bob Roberts (http://www.therealbobroberts.net/pots.html). While you’re replacing that pot, it would be a good idea to do a cap kit and refresh the solder around the vertical and horizontal IC chips on your chassis. The horizontal collapse that you are describing is going to be related to one of these parts. You should be able to get a cap kit for the Sanyo EZ monitor that’s in your cabinet from Bob Roberts as well. Take your time and keep us updated on your progress.
We have also featured your question on episode 13 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your future repairs.
Brian,
Make sure that you are adjusting all of the pots brightness and not just one. There are typically three pots that control what most people consider brightness on a monitor. There should be two pots on the chassis or on a remote board that are called brightness and contrast. Make sure that you are adjusting both of these and not just one. The other pot for brightness is located on the flyback which is what the anode (or suction cup looking thing that attaches to the tube) is connected to. You will probably find two pots when you look at your flyback. The other pot is for focus so it should be pretty easy to tell which pot does what just by adjusting them a bit. Play with these three pots and see if you can get your desired picture. If you still can not get it to look the way you want it to then you should probably look into a cap kit at that point.
We have also featured your question on episode 13 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and good luck with your future repairs.
I have a cherry master monitor that squeals like a whining when I turn it on..I flip the power a few times and kinda quiets down and the monitor comes on. The picture is very nice just the noise is driving me NUTS..Any suggestions..Thanks
I just recently got a Street Fighter 3 Arcade. The monitor only displays one thin line (horizontal) in the middle of the screen. It seems to be updating, so it is playing different images. Any idea how I can fix this?
I just did a cap kit on a WG 7xxx monitor that had a wavy black vertical line running up teh left side of the monitor. The cap kit fixed that problem but placed a horizontal lighter section across the top 2inches or so of the screen. Everything is still visible in that light area, it is just lighter than the rest of the image. Any thoughts?
Josh,
Sounds like the flyback on your monitor could be going out. You might look at it to see if you can find any cracks or holes in the casing. If you find some visible problems with your flyback then you’ll need to replace it. You will need to know what kind of monitor it is before you can replace it. Check out the What’s My Monitor page on Bob Roberts site to help you identify the brand and model of the monitor you have. You should also be able to buy the replacement flyback from his site as well.
We have also featured your question on episode 15 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.
Aaron,
A thin horizontal line is usually indicative of a problem with the vertical section of your monitor chassis. More than likely one of the solder joints somewhere in this section is cold or broken. You should probably take out your monitor chassis and check all of the solder points to make sure that everything is making a good connection. You especially want to check around the chips on the board to make sure that all of the pins are soldered correctly. Check our our post on More Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael for more information.
We have also featured your question on episode 15 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.
Steve,
It could be that one of the caps that you used to install the cap kit was bad or that you accidentally installed an incorrect cap somewhere. We would recommend going back over the cap map you got with your cap kit and double checking the voltages, polarities and microfarad of each cap to make sure that everything is correct. This problem definitely still sounds like a cap issue and can probably be fixed with just a closer look at your chassis.
We have also featured your question on episode 15 of our Q&A podcast. Please listen to it for more of our thoughts on your question. Thank you for your question and keep us updated on your progress.