Hello everyone,
I have a Asteroids cabinet that is playing blind. As far as I can tell all game feature work including sounds/buttons. Self-Test mode does not display anything on the screen. The red LED on the game board is lit while the system is on. The red LED on the pale board next to the monitor (parallel to the side of the cab) is NOT lit. I checked video X and Y voltages off the game board and they were hovering around 3.6v. I have a oscilloscope, but only one lead so I can't test both outputs using the oscilloscope as a temporary screen. The neck on the back of the display glows a "healthy" orange. When viewing the front of the display you can occasionally see little tiny flits of static, which may not even exist. I checked the "5.5V" clip on the Regulator/Audio PCB and it seemed to be stable at 5.56VDC. I've checked all the fuses I could find.
This Asteroids has been in storage for several years but I was playing it when it actually 'went out'. I'm not sure if this description makes sense but I was in the middle of a game and the monitor faded away and my impression was that as everything was fading all the asteroids were moving away from the center of the screen. This was 5 years ago but that what I remember.
Everything I've found online points to an issue with the high voltage. My father (who has since passed and used to repair coin-op in the 80s), did say at the time that he thought it was the high voltage. I did see on the "ASTEROIDS Troubleshooting Encyclopedia" the following:
Problem: Game played but nothing on the screen except for a general glow that varied as the game was played blind, X and Y outputs were erratic
Fix: 7915CT voltage regulator at VR2 was bad – replaced
There doesn't seem to be a glow on the front, but there is on the neck, maybe this is the glow described in the "problem" section? I think not because the tube end of the monitor does not vary at all. I've heard other solutions including replacing the "Big Blue" cap in the bottom of the cab. Everything I've heard about this solution says that only usually fixes issues if you aren't getting DC on the system boards, which I am on the audio PCB.
I don't know which monitor or board rev or anything I have at this point. I can take a look at those tonight. I can tell you that this is production #6606 and has the sticker on the bottom center of the monitor. I have all kinds of tools and have a mild background in digital electronics. I am a little wary of looking at the high voltage circuits without knowing exactly what I'm doing.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
I have a Asteroids cabinet that is playing blind. As far as I can tell all game feature work including sounds/buttons. Self-Test mode does not display anything on the screen. The red LED on the game board is lit while the system is on. The red LED on the pale board next to the monitor (parallel to the side of the cab) is NOT lit. I checked video X and Y voltages off the game board and they were hovering around 3.6v. I have a oscilloscope, but only one lead so I can't test both outputs using the oscilloscope as a temporary screen. The neck on the back of the display glows a "healthy" orange. When viewing the front of the display you can occasionally see little tiny flits of static, which may not even exist. I checked the "5.5V" clip on the Regulator/Audio PCB and it seemed to be stable at 5.56VDC. I've checked all the fuses I could find.
This Asteroids has been in storage for several years but I was playing it when it actually 'went out'. I'm not sure if this description makes sense but I was in the middle of a game and the monitor faded away and my impression was that as everything was fading all the asteroids were moving away from the center of the screen. This was 5 years ago but that what I remember.
Everything I've found online points to an issue with the high voltage. My father (who has since passed and used to repair coin-op in the 80s), did say at the time that he thought it was the high voltage. I did see on the "ASTEROIDS Troubleshooting Encyclopedia" the following:
Problem: Game played but nothing on the screen except for a general glow that varied as the game was played blind, X and Y outputs were erratic
Fix: 7915CT voltage regulator at VR2 was bad – replaced
There doesn't seem to be a glow on the front, but there is on the neck, maybe this is the glow described in the "problem" section? I think not because the tube end of the monitor does not vary at all. I've heard other solutions including replacing the "Big Blue" cap in the bottom of the cab. Everything I've heard about this solution says that only usually fixes issues if you aren't getting DC on the system boards, which I am on the audio PCB.
I don't know which monitor or board rev or anything I have at this point. I can take a look at those tonight. I can tell you that this is production #6606 and has the sticker on the bottom center of the monitor. I have all kinds of tools and have a mild background in digital electronics. I am a little wary of looking at the high voltage circuits without knowing exactly what I'm doing.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

