Centipede question, might not be monitor?

cwales

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No, I don't get a Centipede, I wish I did. But anyhow some guy comes in yesterday saying he has one at home and the monitor fades out after about 10 minutes of it being on. He said when he moved the wire that connects the monitor to the board it sometimes comes back on but fades again. I told him it was maybe caps and such, maybe it's header pins with bad solder if moving the wire helps... I told him how to discharge it to discharge it to check the solder on the pins.

So today he had his wife bring it in (?). I don't really know why.. But he did. So I figured I'd hook it up to joust and watch it fade, but it's been on an hour without fading. Can it be the power supply or something else?

I wonder if this guy expects to be charged for this? I do have parts all over one of the tables in the back but this is a video game store, not some repair shop. Anyhow, I figure I can give him advice. Any ideas if it's not doing the same thing for me? Should I tell him it's ruined but I'll buy the machine for parts for $50? :) I wouldn't really do that.
 
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What did he bring in? The whole game or the monitor? Sounds like he may have loose pins in his power connector...
 
I'd jiggle the crap out of the power cable and video cable to see if you could reproduce the issue. (cold solder joints)
But other than that, it may be a bad connecter/cable in the machine itself. Could be a faulty fuse holder in the cabinet, etc.
Really, once you get a monitor that's rock solid on a test bench all you can do is throw it back in the machine it came from and go from there.

And you weren't clear (or they weren't) whether it "played blind" when it "faded out".
Monitor problem <-------> Game pcb problem ?
Just something else to maybe ask about.
 
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