Berzerk "interesting" issue (not even really a problem but curious)

vintagegamer

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Berzerk "interesting" issue (not even really a problem but curious)

I have owned my Berzerk since Memorial Day weekend of this year, and I love it. Not only do I love the game itself, I love the fact that it has an extensive KLOV history (at least 4 KLOVers have owned it prior to me).

Every now and again (not enough to annoy me, but enough for me to just want to understand what is happening), I'll power up the machine, it will look fine on the screen, and if I go into the main part of the house for a bit and come out, sometimes the video will turn into a single horizontal line in the middle of the screen. Now here's where it gets odd: if I walk over to the machine, and very very lightly touch the cab side or the mounting bolts that hold the tube and bracket in place, the game goes right back to normal. I'd love to say that the cause is because it missed me, and my touch brought it back, but I know that's definitely not the case here in the real world. :)

What does it sound like to everyone? Grounding maybe? Or the slight vibration of the machine bumps the monitor chassis back into a working form? Again, I barely even have to touch the machine and it resolves the issue instantly. And as far as I can remember, after that one instance, the game will be fine for the rest of the time that it is powered on.. So, as you can imagine, I just had to present this to the Elders here for review :)
 
The "single horizontal line" means you're losing vertical deflection. A classic symptom of a cold solder joint. Pull the monitor chassis and carefully inspect the solder joints on the underside of the yoke connector. If it's a G07, check the solder joints on the components in the 400's, especially FR401. I've seen lots of cold solder joints on this one. Best bet, go through and resolder the yoke header and anything else that looks suspect.

-Ian
 
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Thanks guys- For now I'll leave sleeping dogs lie, mainly because I'm not the soldering God you guys are here (some of my soldering work ends up looking like statues that should be in a museum). If/when it gets more prominent, I will definitely do as you have suggested.
 
is this game still working? I am just curious as this came up with another video type problem with a Galaxian.
 
I dunno, I don't think he was that wrong by posting in here. Depending on other message boards you've been a member of, some encourage bumping or adding to existing threads. I always try to be helpful if older threads of mine get bumped.
 
I dunno, I don't think he was that wrong by posting in here. Depending on other message boards you've been a member of, some encourage bumping or adding to existing threads. I always try to be helpful if older threads of mine get bumped.

Yeah, but it gets confusing when people try to add questions to old threads, asking about a completely different game.

Especially when it's a thread like this, where the problem is a cold solder joint that the OP never felt like fixing :D

-Ian
 
Yeah I agree. The OP was reeealllllyyyy lazy. My dog (if I had one) could fix a cold solder joint. In it's sleep.

DIRTBAG! LOL

The reason I haven't messed with this yet is bc the monitor chassis is a type I've never seen before. It's not a G07, it's got all of these funky daughter boards in it and I'm afraid if I pull the thing 10 other things are going to break. I can rework a cold solder joint people, gimme a break already! :D
 
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