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Question from Corey: Hi there! I’m a complete novice when it comes to arcade machines. I’ve got 4 and figured I should learn how to repair myself instead of pay 75 an hour! With that being said, I have an issue that I would like to address and I’d love it if you would be able to give me some direction! I have an Area 51 Site 4 machine that was sold to me. The guy didn’t know where the fuses were and assumed it was dead. So I swapped out a clearly burnt fuse next to the power supply and voila, everything worked and sounded great (fans to light guns to coin mech, all great). Now, however, I see no power to the screen. There is no background noise (which there typically is that runs in the background without quarters). Any ideas here? The last time it was working I had adjusted the screen height and it seems right after I powered it off and on again it was like this. Thanks for any insight! I’m just puzzled why I have no monitor and no sound. Corey
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Response from Jonathan: Corey,
We have a saying here at Arcade Repair Tips: ASAP (Always Start At Power). We recommend starting off this repair by making sure that your power supply is working properly. More specifically, use a multimeter to make sure that the correct voltage is getting to the board. Check out our post on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply for more information.
Now, it could be that your Area 51 Site 4 has an ATX style power supply in it which is a little different that the one we talking about in our post. In this case, you will need to check the power at the output connector instead of the screw contacts. On these ATX style power supplies, the red wire is typically your +5 VDC and the yellow wire is typically your +12 VDC. All you need to do is unplug the connector from the game, turn the game on, insert one probe into the pin where there’s a black (or ground) wire and insert the other probe into the pin of the voltage you want to check. If the voltage is low, you should be able to adjust the power supply up/down as needed using the knob on the power supply. Keep in mind that if you cannot get the +5 and +12 both in range (typically within a tenth of a volt) then you may need to replace the power supply.
Since you’re new at arcade repair, we highly recommend checking out all of the posts (along with the videos) on our web site to get a better overall idea of the process. You might also listen to our Arcade Repair Tips Q&A Podcast. On this podcast, we go through and answer some of the questions that we receive from our website. We always get a LOT of questions on power supplies and some of our answers might just help you out with your particular issue. We also sell DVDs that have additional videos that you won’t find on our YouTube page or website. You can check those out at our online store.
Hope that helps. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
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