Dark moving line on G07 after cap kit

Crowquill

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Was helping a friend out who just bought his first game (Ms. Pac). There was no picture, but the game would play blind. I pulled the chassis and finally got around to putting in the cap kit.

Plugged it all back up tonight, and after tweaking some knobs we have a good looking picture! Unfortunately there's also a 1/2-inch dark vertical band that moves from right to left (up to down if it were horizontal mounted). There's also a buzz in the speaker. I'm guessing grounding issue, but I thought someone might have a suggestion where to start looking.

I'm also not ruling out an issue with my soldering job but I double-checked it and everything looked fine as far as I can tell.

He'd sent off the Ms Pac PCB to have it checked out/repaired and it came back with a clean bill of health as-is. I also don't remember the speaker buzz when I checked it out the first time. I tried to get a picture/video, but as luck would have it that's when my phone's battery died.

Luckily it's a surprisingly clean cab on the inside with nice, neat factory wiring.
 
This is a pretty common problem on Pacs, check the fuse holders and the edge connector.

-Ian
thats where i would start , fuses and fuse holder,edge connector,if you wiggle the connector it might go awayu alittle but not fix it. maybe recap the pcb .bob has a cap kit for pacman pcb's
 
thats where i would start , fuses and fuse holder,edge connector,if you wiggle the connector it might go awayu alittle but not fix it. maybe recap the pcb .bob has a cap kit for pacman pcb's

I've personally never had to recap a Pac board, but it couldn't hurt.

If you can wiggle the edge connector and make it better, then an "ugly kludge fix" is to clamp some of those big black binder clips onto the harness connector, really squeezing it to the board. Clean the connector on the Pac board real good first with isopropyl alcohol.

Clamping on the edge connector shouldn't really be a permanent fix, but it works well enough for temporary. Beware that a bad harness connector, making poor contact with the board will eventually result in burnt/damaged fingers on the board. The bad connection at the power lines generates heat, which eventually causes the PCB to get all scorched.

But new fuse holders are usually in order for Pacs - Bally used some really crummy ones. The edge connector is a well known weakness too - it's just a lot more work to replace, especially if you don't have a crimp tool and aren't familiar with that sort of connector. I believe Bob Roberts even has a "Pac-fix" kit that includes an edge connector, fuse holders and fuses.

-Ian
 
Just to clarify...we're talking about the edge connector and fuses on the Pac-man PCB, right? I assumed it was something with the monitor itself.

One interesting twist is that in the six months since he bought it (and I pulled the chassis), he ended up with a second Ms. Pac. Cabinet's really beat and the PCB is horribly charred on the edge connector, but it has what looks like a nearly new Happ monitor in it. He wants to swap it into the better cabinet with the working PCB. I've already put this much effort into the G07, so I'm determined to get it sorted out. Besides, I'll probably end up with the junk cabinet and the G07.

I'll check them out next time I head over there. Being finals week at school I won't have time to check it out until at least next weekend.

Thanks, guys!
 
Just to clarify...we're talking about the edge connector and fuses on the Pac-man PCB, right? I assumed it was something with the monitor itself.

No, I doubt it's in the monitor. Fuses are mounted on the bottom of the cabinet. The edge connector is the one that plugs into the PCB. Both sides (board fingers and wiring harness connector) need to be checked. If the board is badly burnt, there are ways to fix it:
http://www.therealbobroberts.net/pace.html

-Ian
 
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