Just picked up Battlezone

[rotten03]

I just picked up an old Battlezone cab. Its in decent shape. Needs a little work. But it worked pretty much flawlessly and the price was right. So I loaded it up in my SUV and when I got home the monitor won't come on. If I thump it on the side near the monitor (the monitor is mounted horizontally and is reflected onto a mirror) it will flicker on then go right back off. I'm nervous around arcade monitors and dont want to get zapped. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of places to look. Obviously it shorting out somewhere, but where do I look and can I get shocked? I like to fix things myself so I'd rather not hire someone, plus I live in the middle of nowhere. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[8bitnintendogames]

I am no pro, and scared crapless of getting shocked, but whenever I have monitor problems, the past few times it has been my ground cord from the monitor. As I remember it was arcing onto my board... to make a long story short I found out the hard way by getting shocked.

[shawnbo42]

Sounds like you might have a loose connection there or a bad solder joint. First thing to do is read up on monitors. There's several posts around here about how to SAFELY discharge one BEFORE working on the board. (Hmmm, now where are those posts again?....shuffle,shuffle). One obvious thing to do is just do a visual. Take the back door off the cabinet, and just look. Don't touch, until you know what you're doing. (At least, a little). Getting shocked by a monitor is no fun, worse, it can potentially kill you, so be careful. But doing a visual is ok, just look for a loose connection.
If you happen to find something, discharge the tube first (can't sat THAT enough times). After that step is done, the monitor is more or less safe to touch, re-connect whatever's loose, and you should be back in business. If you have a loose solder connection, it's a little more work, but if you're handy, you can do it no problem. Anyways, read up first on how to safely discharge a monitor BEFORE you do ANYTHING!!! Hope this'll help you out at least a little.

[Brian Deuel]

I just picked up an old Battlezone cab. Its in decent shape. Needs a little work. But it worked pretty much flawlessly and the price was right. So I loaded it up in my SUV and when I got home the monitor won't come on. If I thump it on the side near the monitor (the monitor is mounted horizontally and is reflected onto a mirror) it will flicker on then go right back off. I'm nervous around arcade monitors and dont want to get zapped. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of places to look. Obviously it shorting out somewhere, but where do I look and can I get shocked? I like to fix things myself so I'd rather not hire someone, plus I live in the middle of nowhere. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Check the large white molex connector going into the underside of the monitor (it's actually the rear, but the way it's mounted in BZ, it would be on the underside). Make sure it's making a good connection. If you're afraid to touch the connector with the power on, just wiggle the wires off the harness leading into the connector. If you still get intermittent power to the monitor this way, turn the machine off and check the pins inside the connector. Sometimes they'll spread apart and won't make good contact. If you get NO power even by shaking the harness or wiggling the connector, I'd pull the monitor and check for cold solder joints and loose wires on the chassis.

Be sure to discharge the tube before messing with anything around the anode (i.e. the "suction cup"). A screwdriver with some lampcord wrapped around it, and a roachclip on the end of the cord connected to the metal chassis will do it. After a few discharges, it really becomes no big deal to discharge a monitor.

[rotten03]

I was looking around inside of it a few minutes ago and didn't notice anything obvious. But it usually isn't. :) I'll check the connector to the tube (and stay away from the anode) between the round white connector is what looks like a vacuum tube. Its glass and glows. Maybe that is loose. Who knows. It amazes me that I tested it and it worked fine and by the time I get home it doesn't. Thought I had a good deal. ha!

[rotten03]

I found a great guide for vector monitors. It says that its possible my contrast pot is loose and is causing the screen to go out. Says my contrast pot is located on the "deflection board" where in the world do I find the deflection board?

[rotten03]

I tried fiddling with the contrast/brightness. Moving the brightness knob makes an occasional line pop up on the screen. But no real picture. Also the "spot killer" light is always on. Should that go off after a few seconds?

[98PaceCar]

I tried fiddling with the contrast/brightness. Moving the brightness knob makes an occasional line pop up on the screen. But no real picture. Also the "spot killer" light is always on. Should that go off after a few seconds?

If the spot killer is staying lit, it's more than likely a board issue of some sort. Can still be a monitor issue though. Those are known for cold solder joints.

I'd suggest reseating all the connectors at the board and anything along the way to the monitor. It's very possible something got rattled loose when you moved it.

[rotten03]

Thanks for all of the tips. I went through all of the connections. Checked over the components on the deflection board. Then I noticed the aux pcb wasnt lit up. Turns out the cable going to the power supply has a loose connection. I wiggled it and it started right up. Thanks guys!