This episode of the podcast was recorded live using BlogTalkRadio on Sunday, March 7 at 7 PM EST. For more information on our live podcasts, please visit our BlogTalkRadio site at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/arcaderepairtips. When we are live you can talk to us on the air at (347) 633-9045. On this episode, Tim, Jerry and I answered your questions regarding…

• An Asteroids with sound but no screen
• A Galaga with smoke coming out of it
• A Tron with a garbled screen
• An Elvira pinball with a bad score readout
• A Cherry Master with some various issues
• A Donkey Kong with monitor troubles
• An arcade monitor with a long warmup period
• A Centipede game with a blue screen
• A Cut The Cheese with some problems
• A Midway Pigskin 621 with a scrolling screen
• A Sega Bass Fishing with monitor issues
• A Super Offroad 3 with a slave memory issue
• A Tekken 3 with monitor troubles
• A Sega Turbo with a thin horizontal line
• A Smash TV with a fuzzy, dull looking monitor
• A Pole Position with a garbled screen
• A Neo Geo with a screen width problem
• And a cabinet with an exploding monitor

We also went over some listener progress updates as well as whether we prefer LCD or CRT arcade monitors. Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below. As always, you can contact us when we are off the air by email at questions@arcaderepairtips.com or by calling our voicemail line at (972) 8AR-TIPS or (972) 827-8477. Enjoy!

Special thanks goes to [velvet] once again for allowing us to use their music in our content. Please check out their website at http://www.enjoyvelvet.com/ for more information.

We would also like to thank artist 486 on 8bitcollective.com for his 8-bit rendition of Sweet Child O’ Mine. You can check out more of 486’s work on his page.

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The majority of problems you will encounter with arcade monitors will involve working with the monitor chassis. In order to properly work on or repair a monitor chassis, we must be able to remove it from our arcade cabinet. In this post, we will discuss how to remove and install a monitor chassis from an arcade monitor so that we can make any necessary repairs to it.

Removing And Installing A Monitor Chassis

Before you begin, we recommend unplugging or turning off the power to your arcade game. As we’ve talked about in previous posts, monitors hold an extremely high amount of voltage which can be very dangerous to you should you come in contact with it. Always be safe and take the time to make sure that your arcade game is unplugged when working with the monitor.

On that same note, the first thing we are going to do when attempting to remove a monitor chassis is to disconnect the power wires going to it. Most games use a Molex connector between the power supply and the monitor chassis which allows for a clean and easy disconnect. If your monitor chassis doesn’t have this Molex connector, you might need to cut the wires in order to remove the chassis. If you end up cutting the wires, you might consider installing a Molex connector to make it easier on you in the future. Please see our post on Installing A Molex Connector for more information.

Once we have disconnected power from the arcade monitor, we can remove the anode cup from the tube. Removing the anode cup is very similar to discharging the monitor. The main difference is that instead of just sticking the screwdriver up underneath the anode cup and waiting for a pop, we are going to use the screwdriver to push the prongs of the anode cup together so that we can remove it from the tube. For more information on this please see our post on how to Safely Discharge An Arcade Monitor.

Now that we have removed the anode cup from the tube, we can move on to unplugging the neck board. The neck board is connected to the very back end of the tube. It is usually a square circuit board and has wires connected from it to the main chassis. It might also have a ground wire attached to it from the monitor tube. If it does, make sure that you cut or unplug this wire before trying to remove it. The neck board should come off pretty easy with just a light amount of force. Sometimes you might find that someone used silicon or another adhesive to keep the neck board in place. It is best to remove this before trying to remove the neck board.

With the neck board unplugged, we can now locate and unplug the degaussing coil and yoke wires from the monitor chassis. The degaussing coil runs around the monitor tube and plugs into the monitor chassis via a two prong connector. The yoke wires come off the monitor tube and attach to the chassis via a four prong connector. The connector for the yoke wires is usually keyed with a wider space between one of the outside pins and the rest to make it easy to hook up. If your monitor chassis has two places where the yoke wires can plug in, make sure to remember which set of pins you removed it from. Locate and unplug both sets of connectors.

Next, we are going to located and detach the video wires coming from the board or PCB. These wires are responsible for making sure that your monitor gets the image the board is sending it. Sometime these wires might be split into multiple connectors. Make sure that you notice how these connectors are plugged in before attempting to remove them. Locate this connector and remove it from your chassis.

After all of these steps have been completed, you should be able to unscrew the chassis from the mounting bracket and remove it from your arcade cabinet. If your ground wire was not attached to your neck board like we talked about earlier, make sure that you detach it from the chassis before attempting removal. With your chassis removed, you can now take steps to repair it or send it off.

Installing the chassis back into your arcade cabinet is as easy as doing these steps in reverse. One item to note is that your neck board is keyed and only goes one way. Make sure that you look at both the back of the tube and the neck board so that you can line them up correctly to each other. If you have any questions or suggestions about this post, please leave them in the comments section below.

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Please give us some feedback on the QA Podcast by answering the poll question above. Also, please let us know what time would be good for our live episodes of the podcast as well as any other suggestions you may have by leaving it in the comments section of the post. Thank you for your feedback!

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This episode of the podcast was recorded live using BlogTalkRadio on Saturday, February 20 at 2 PM EST. As this was our first live podcast, please pardon our dust as we work out the kinks. For more information on our live podcasts, please visit our BlogTalkRadio site at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/arcaderepairtips. When we are live you can talk to us on the air at (347) 633-9045. On this episode, Tim and I answered your questions regarding…

• A Golden Tee Complete double image monitor issue
• A Spy Hunter board issue
• A Ms. Pac Man cocktail with a resetting issue
• A Donkey Kong cocktail with a negative colors issue
• A San Francisco Rush with a fuzzy / blurry screen
• A Shinobi with with no sound or screen
• A Big Buck Hunter monitor not displaying the color red
• A Popeye without a ground prong
• A P.O.W. not working with a JAMMA extension
• A Mat Mania not displaying the correct colors
• And some CPS-2 related questions.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below. You can also contact us by email at questions@arcaderepairtips.com or call our voicemail line at (972) 8AR-TIPS or (972) 827-8477.

Special thanks goes to [velvet] once again for allowing us to use their music in our content. Please check out their website at http://www.enjoyvelvet.com/ for more information.

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There is only so much troubleshooting that we can do from outside an arcade game. In order to fix the majority of arcade game issues, we must be able to access the parts inside the cabinet. In this post, we’ll discuss how to open an arcade cabinet so we can fix any problems that might be plaguing our game.

Opening An Arcade Cabinet

You never know what to expect when trying to open an arcade cabinet. Some of the games we’ve seen have had everything from frayed wires to malfunctioning power supplies. This is why we recommend unplugging or turning off your game as a safety precaution. Some arcade games have a safety switch on the door that will automatically turn the power off, however, the previous owner of the game might have disengaged it. Do not take chances! Turn the power off to the game and restore it once you have opened the cabinet and located any potential hazards inside.

First, we want to unlatch our control panel so that we can gain access to our arcade controls. You can gain access to the control panel latches on most arcade cabinets through the service door. Insert your hand into the service door and reach up to the far left and right sides of the control panel. You should feel some latches. These latches hold up the control panel and prevent it from falling down during normal play sessions. You should be able to flip them down to release the tension on the latch. If you release the tension on both latches but the control panel still doesn’t release, check near the top center of the control panel to see if there is a third latch located there. Once you have released all the latches, the control panel should fall or come out giving you access to the arcade controls.

With the control panel folded down or pulled out of the cabinet, you should be able to access the monitor bezel and screen. This is very handy in case you need to replace the bezel or clean the screen. When you take off the bezel, you might notice some bolts that are going into the wood and the monitor frame. These bolts are used for mounting the monitor. If you wanted to remove the monitor, you could unscrew these bolts and pull the monitor out of the front of the cabinet. If you are going to attempt this, make sure that you follow our instructions on Safely Discharging An Arcade Monitor so that you know it is safe to pull out.

Next, we’ll focus on opening up the back of the cabinet. You can remove the back door of an arcade cabinet by either using the key, unscrewing a screw that’s holding it in or drilling out the lock. For more information on drilling out locks please see our post on Replacing A Coin Door Lock. Once we have opened the back door, we should now have access to all of the internal parts of an arcade cabinet. You will usually find the power supply and isolation transformer at the bottom of the cabinet, the PCB or board mounted on the side of the cabinet and the monitor located near the top of the cabinet. There is usually a button located just inside the service door. This button is typically a test mode or service credit button. This can be really handy if you are trying to troubleshoot your game.

Being able to open an arcade cabinet is one of the first steps in learning how to repair an arcade game. While not all arcade cabinets are arranged the same way, the overwhelming majority of them contain the same parts that we have described in this post. Please post any questions or suggestions you might have in the comments section below.

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In this episode of the podcast, Tim and I along with our special guest Jeff Rothe answer some of your questions regarding…

• A Wizard of Wor board resetting issue
• A Tekken 2 machine with a monitor that shuts off
• A Super Basketball with a board problem
• A Golden Tee vertical size issue
• A Lethal Enforcers producing screeching sound
• A Super Pac Man with a choppy / doubled screen
• A Spy Hunter cockpit with control issues
• A Radical Bikers that randomly goes into test mode
• And a Street Fighter II with bleeding colors

We also go over some listener progress updates, tips for keeping your games in working order and advice when going to an arcade auction. Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below. As always, you can contact us by email at questions@arcaderepairtips.com or call our voicemail line at (972) 8AR-TIPS or (972) 827-8477. Enjoy!

Jeff Rothe is the proprietor of CoinOpSpace.com and RotheBlog.com. Both of these sites are excellent sources for arcade collecting information. We encourage all of you to visit these sites and get involved with the communities they provide.

Special thanks goes to [velvet] once again for allowing us to use their music in our content. Please check out their website at http://www.enjoyvelvet.com/ for more information.

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Sometimes when you move a game you might find that your monitor has some areas of discoloration or that your once bright colors now appear somewhat washed out. This might be due in part to some unwanted magnetic fields interfering with your screen. In this post, we’ll discuss how to use a degaussing coil to solve the issues caused by these fields.

Using A Degaussing Coil

Before we get started, let’s talk about what a degaussing coil does. The job of the degaussing coil is to demagnetize the shadow mask which is similar to a metal mesh plate located inside your tube. The holes in this plate are aligned to ensure that the electrons from the red, green and blue cathode guns reach the same colored phosphors on the monitor. Should this plate become magnetized, the color and focus of your screen can suffer. Hopefully by demagnetizing the shadow mask you can solve some of the discoloration and focus problems you might be having. Please see our links below for more information on purchasing a degaussing coil.

Buy a Degaussing Coil (CRTs Less Than 19″) from Amazon.com now!

Buy a Degaussing Coil from Arcade Shop now!

Once you have purchased a degaussing coil, you can begin the process of degaussing your monitor. First off, make sure that you have the degaussing coil plugged in and that the power to your arcade game is on. Take the degaussing coil and hold it to the center of your monitor screen. Press the button to active the degaussing coil and move it in small circles across the front of your monitor. Slowly begin to widen the circles as you back away from the monitor. As you do this you will notice the degaussing effect on the monitor start to dwindle. Keep repeating the circles until the coil has no effect on the monitor then release the button. You have now completed the process of degaussing your monitor.

At this point, you might want to check your screen to see if it made a difference in your picture. We sometimes repeat this process if we didn’t get the desired effect the first time. Remember that this process can be used for any CRT based screen not just arcade monitors. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about degaussing a monitor please leave them below.

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In this episode of the podcast, Tim and I along with our special guest Michael answer some of your questions regarding a stubborn G07 monitor issue, a Tekken 2 machine with no picture or sound, a Marvel vs. Capcom arcade game found in a dumpster, a Space Duel monitor issue, some monitor discoloration problems and an Off Road Challenge that likes to reset. We also go over some progress updates from those of you who have written us on our previous episodes. Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below. You can also contact us by email at questions@arcaderepairtips.com or call our voicemail line at (972) 8AR-TIPS or (972) 827-8477. Enjoy!

Michael owns his own shop called Affordable Electronic Repair located in Sulphur Springs, TX. You can check out his website (or lack there of) at http://www.tvrepaironline.com/. He also has an email link on there in case you want to get in contact with him directly.

Special thanks goes to [velvet] once again for allowing us to use their music in our content. Please check out their website at http://www.enjoyvelvet.com/ for more information.

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When a monitor just has a black screen, it’s a pretty good indication that it’s not getting power. The typical places to start with this kind of issue would be the power cord and the HOT, but lets say that you’ve checked them and they are not your problem. Where do you go from here? In this post, we will discuss how to check diodes on your monitor chassis to make sure that they are in working order.

Checking Diodes On An Arcade Monitor

The diodes we are talking about are located in the power supply section of your monitor chassis. There are usually about 4 or so located right in a row in this section. Examine your monitor chassis and see if you can find them. In the video, ours were located near a large capacitor. Once you have located these diodes, you can check to see if they are shorted or not.

Before we begin, you might want to refer back to our post on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter to get familiar with the diode test settings on a multimeter.

The process of checking a diode is very similar to checking a fuse except that the indicators are reversed. When we checked fuses, we wanted our meter to generate a long beeping sound or a 0 (ZERO) ohm reading. If our meter reads this while we are checking a diode, this indicates that it is shorted and is not working properly. Shorted diodes can be caused by many things including hooking up power to an arcade monitor that requires an isolation transformer. Always be sure that you are using an isolation transformer on monitors that require it.

If you find a shorted diode, you need to replace it. Desolder it from your board using your desoldering iron or solder wick and solder the new one into place. Always make sure that you replace the shorted diode with another one that has the stripes oriented exactly like the original diode. Also, be sure that all of your power wiring to your monitor is correct before turning it back on. Doing this will save you from damaging another diode and having to repeat this process over again. Once you have replaced these shorted diodes you are finished with this part of your repair.

Sometimes a black monitor screen can mean more than just a power cord or HOT issue. Knowing to check your diodes before moving on to more complex repairs can save you lots of time and effort. Please feel free to leave any questions or suggestions in the comments section below.

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In this episode of the podcast, Tim, Jerry and I discuss identifying and troubleshooting monitors in some Neo Geo arcade games, a black monitor on a Donkey Kong Christmas present and some monitor and resetting issues with a centipede cocktail. We also go over some progress updates from those of you who have written us on our previous episodes. Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below or call our new voicemail line at (972) 8AR-TIPS or (972) 827-8477. Enjoy!

Be sure to check our friend and current Wizard of Wor world record holder Doug Lowry’s site at http://wizard-of-wor-fan.blogspot.com/. Also, if you live in or around California and are looking for arcade games check out the Captain’s Auction Warehouse at http://captainsauction.wordpress.com/.

Special thanks goes to [velvet] once again for allowing us to use their music in our content. Please check out their website at http://www.enjoyvelvet.com/ for more information.

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