Return to Q&A Database
neck board question
Question from Brian: Hi guys, thanks for all of your great videos. I have learned a lot from watching your YouTube videos and reading the blog posts. I have a Police Trainer arcade game and the red seems to have gone out on the monitor. Occasionally (rarely) the colors all come through, but mostly the red is non-existent. I believe that the issue is on the neck board, so I removed the neck board. It is a Wells Gardner K7000 series chassis. When I examined the contacts on the neck board, I don’t see any loose soldering joints, but it does look like there is some trace skip on the Q201 transistor, which just so happens to be for the red color. I have attached a photo for reference, but mostly I am wondering if that white line is even a trace or not. I have not yet removed the transistor, although I plan to remove it and replace it. I just wanted to check and see if I should/can repair that trace once I have the old transistor removed. Again, thanks a lot for all of your great videos and articles, you guys have helped TONS of people, and I really appreciate what I have learned. Brian
1 answer
Response from Jonathan: Brian,
Looking at your picture, the trace lines look pretty standard for a K7000 neck board. Our best guess is that the Q201 transistor is bad. Keep in mind that the Q1 transistor on the main chassis also helps regulate the color red so make sure you check it as well. Of course, you could have a cold/cracked solder joint causing problems as well. It’s a good idea to touch up the solder on any suspicious joints while you have the chassis out of the cabinet just to ensure that the connections are being made.
You might also want to make sure that the red video input wire that connects to the monitor chassis from the main PCB in your cabinet is making a good connection (i.e. the wire is not damaged/frayed and is connected properly on both ends). It’s also important to check that the pin on the monitor chassis where the red wire connects is properly attached to the board as well. These pins tend to come loose over time from unplugging/plugging in the monitor input connector. You might need to touch up the solder on this red pin in order to ensure that it’s connected properly.
Hope that helps. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
This question has been closed
