Response from Jonathan: Larry,

It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on without inspecting the cabinet. It could be the board, power supply or the monitor. Before we discuss how to repair the game, let’s see if we can give you a good estimate of the costs associated with getting it up and running. If all of the parts above are bad (i.e. the worst case scenario), you’re probably looking around $550 to replace them. To break it down: a replacement MK2 board runs around $200 on eBay, a monitor repair will probably be around $300 (again, this is a worst case scenario price) and a new switching power supply will be around $50 or so. Now, whether or not this qualifies for the term “money pit” is completely up to you.

Let’s say that you do end up buying this cabinet. Here are some tips that might help you get it running:

• Monitor – If the monitor actually has a “not connected” message on the screen then there’s a good chance that it’s working properly which would eliminate it from the list. At this point, you might check the wiring between your MK2 board and monitor chassis to make sure it’s properly connected. If the monitor is just blank (but you can hear the game playing), you will want to check out our post on Troubleshooting Games That Are Playing Blind for help with that issue.
• Power supply – This would probably be the next item to check. Make sure that it’s putting out good voltage to the board. Check out our post on Checking And Replacing A Power Supply for more information.
• Board/PCB – If the power supply is working then your board would be the last piece to the puzzle. At this point, you will need to make sure it’s connected properly and making a good connection to your harness. You can send off your board for repair (we have a list of people who do it on our resources page) but you might be better off just getting a new one depending on the issue.

Well, hopefully that gives you a good idea about the repair costs and process. One more thing: you might use this email to help you negotiate the price down on the game. If the seller knows it might take $550 to get it working he might come down on the price. Anyways, thank you for your question and good luck with this project (if you do end up buying it).