Atari Asteroids Arcade with 1/2 monitor working?

houseofpower

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Would 1/2 the monitor working be a monitor issue or board issue? Thinking about picking this game up but want to see if it is an easy fix. I have a new 19 inch monitor if that is the issue. Any help? thanks
 
Cold solder joints on the video header pins most likely. Asteroids uses a b&w vector monitor, not a standard 19", just so you know.
 
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Can't it also be cold solder joints on the trannies attached to the frame?

Sure. But the 3 that I have had with this issue were always the solder joints on headers. You could hit the side of the cab which would cause the monitor to show a full pic which got shakier as time went on.
 
Even if it's not cold solder joints, you can probably just shotgun it with a kit from Bob Roberts which I believe is about $20...Includes the big frame-mounted "bottle cap" transistors as well IIRC. If you know how to solder, install is pretty easy and takes maybe an hour or two if you're taking your time.

Last one I fixed--which had no deflection--was just some cold solder joints and one bad fuse...It's been running fine for something like 4 months.
 
Yeah, very likely to be cold joints on the header pins or the chassis transistor mounts. It's a very easy fix if you can handle a soldering iron without burning PCBs to shit.

I haven't done a lot, but I've done G07 & K7000 rasters, V2000 & G05 B&W vectors, and K6100 vectors, and the B&W stuff was the easiest to work on. There just isn't that much to them.
 
Had the same issue on the one I bought "fully working". Resoldered all headers on the deflection board fixed it.
 
Asteroids monitor

Ok, I picked up the game today. The inside looks new. I was totally blown away.

Now the monitor is not doing what I was told. The screen is full again but the asteroids seem larger than I remembered including the enemy ship. The hero ship can not be seen but there a bright dot in center of screen. There are also dots traveling inside the moving asteroids.

I don't know what I am doing with this, where do I start?
 

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Ok, I picked up the game today. The inside looks new. I was totally blown away.

Now the monitor is not doing what I was told. The screen is full again but the asteroids seem larger than I remembered including the enemy ship. The hero ship can not be seen but there a bright dot in center of screen. There are also dots traveling inside the moving asteroids.

I don't know what I am doing with this, where do I start?

Dots are because the brightness / contrast on the monitor is turned up to high. Run it like that for too long and you'll burn a hole in the phosphor coating on the face of the tube that will leave a permanent black dead spot.

Run the self-test by flipping the switch located just inside the coin door and report what you see. Reboot with the switch in test position and report what you hear. Adjust the size of the image using the tiny knobs on the PCB near where the wire plug in.

Congrats! Love the Asteroids!
 
If the monitor was doing the 1/2 screen but is not now you have some bad solder connections so would recommend redoing the headers. Mine was doing several different things and all was fixed by reflowing the deflection board headers and painting a thin coat of solder onto the main PCB pins to tighten up the connector. When in test mode make sure the image is 1/4" or so in from the edges. If not, adjust so it is. Larger than that is apparently bad for some of the circuits.
 
test mode

I think the test mode is ok. I adjusted the green knob and took the brightness out as much as possible. But there is still dots but not as bright. The ships seem very large. Plus when the ufo attacks you can sometimes only see the bullets and not the ship. There are also some long lines floating on screen in all directions. I can now play and see hero ship. Asteroids seem large also. ( I have not played this game in 20 years so maybe I don't know what Im looking for? )
 

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Your monitor's high voltage is low. (That's what causes an over-deflected, large image, such as yours). Might take a look at the HV diode 1st.
 
Your monitor's high voltage is low. (That's what causes an over-deflected, large image, such as yours). Might take a look at the HV diode 1st.

Certainly possible, although if it looks that way right from the beginning and is stable (ie, doesn't get worse as it warms up) then it could be a PCB problem, or a monitor deflection board problem... or both!
 
I think the test mode is ok. I adjusted the green knob and took the brightness out as much as possible. But there is still dots but not as bright. The ships seem very large. Plus when the ufo attacks you can sometimes only see the bullets and not the ship. There are also some long lines floating on screen in all directions. I can now play and see hero ship. Asteroids seem large also. ( I have not played this game in 20 years so maybe I don't know what Im looking for? )

From the looks of the picture, you have it adjusted too large. Unless you have it cropped, hard to tell, I can't see the edge of the monitor.
 
Have you adjusted x and y on the game board? Turn them all the way down if you can. Also--is it just me or is your linearity off?

If you see random lines everywhere then your brightness is too high. If you only see bullets and other bright things then the contrast is too low.
 
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