Galaxian Monitor or board probs!

higgibaby

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Ok, so I pickup up a Galaxian today, and I'm scratching my head trying to figure out the issue I'm having.

Now this is a seriously old cab, all original...so the screen has serious burn in that i was hoping to replace, but I want to make sure the board is good 1st, if its not the monitor. Problems are...

The screen is just black and green, Ive tried adjusting all the monitor pots to no avail...Then game has missing sprites, but I believe thats because you just can't see the sprites as the monitor is bad...

Or is it? Could the problem be with the board? Ive posted pics of the monitor and chassis...its a WG 19K4500, and if I wanted to say, put a K7000 in the there with a new monitor, is that as simple as just switching the whole chassis out like a normal K7000 cab?

Hope someone can help, then its off to the races to restore this bad boy...

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Pretty old!
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You may want to put up a picture of the working screen.

I've own a Galaxian with the K4500 monitor. I think it was Wells' first color monitor. I remember turning all the different knobs with little or no change. Everyone advised me to change out the monitor and don't bother to try and fix it.

I don't think you can just change out the chassis with a K7000 with this tube.
 
the easiest way to figure out what is going on is to plug a known good video signal into the monitor, or plug your board into a known good monitor. otherwise you could be chasing multiple issues.
 
You may want to put up a picture of the working screen.

I've own a Galaxian with the K4500 monitor. I think it was Wells' first color monitor. I remember turning all the different knobs with little or no change. Everyone advised me to change out the monitor and don't bother to try and fix it.

I don't think you can just change out the chassis with a K7000 with this tube.

Your right, I realized that this morning when I looked at my post, a screen pic of what I'm seeing would help...lol! I'll do that this afternoon. And I did what you mentioned, turned all the dials to no resolve, and I was thinking of putting a k7000 in as a replacement, but I'll keep trouble shooting Incase it's the board...
 
the easiest way to figure out what is going on is to plug a known good video signal into the monitor, or plug your board into a known good monitor. otherwise you could be chasing multiple issues.

Good point, I'll plug my tpg in there to see what I get, I'm just worried it's the board :(
 
I have one of the older Galaxians that also had the K4500 monitor. I ended up swapping in a K4900 since the original had a lot of burn. It takes a bit of work to get the monitor mounted and spaced correctly with the wooden frame.

Even if your k4500 monitor tests Ok with the TPG, your Galaxian board may still be fine. Check your voltages. The original fuse holders are almost always bad and loose tension and contact with the fuses. I would replace the fuse holders and then test voltage at the PCB prior to doing any troubleshooting on the PCB.
 
SO I managed to get the colors back, not great but at least there is some...its evident that this chassis and monitor need to be replaced, its super tired.

But I am noticing problems with the board, I had to switch on and off a few times, move the harness connector a little each time before it started to work to some level of playability. But the edge connector gets hot on the one side (image attached) and when I tested the voltage on the board its only getting max 3 volts...but I'm used to a switching power supply where you can adjust the voltage...this is old school and I'm not familiar...would getting it to 5v cause more issues? And looking at the images I posted, how do I adjust the voltage...

Wiy5NeOl.jpg

JbmiSwGl.jpg

msTy9y0l.jpg
 
SO I managed to get the colors back, not great but at least there is some...its evident that this chassis and monitor need to be replaced, its super tired.

But I am noticing problems with the board, I had to switch on and off a few times, move the harness connector a little each time before it started to work to some level of playability. But the edge connector gets hot on the one side (image attached) and when I tested the voltage on the board its only getting max 3 volts...but I'm used to a switching power supply where you can adjust the voltage...this is old school and I'm not familiar...would getting it to 5v cause more issues? And looking at the images I posted, how do I adjust the voltage...

Wiy5NeOl.jpg

JbmiSwGl.jpg

msTy9y0l.jpg

I threw in a 19K7901 into mine, no problem. Didn't have to mess with anything but swapping out the molex connector and figure out the Pinouts for the video signal connection. With Galaxian and PAC boards, the voltage regulators are built into the PCB itself. It just steps down the voltage coming off the transformer. My Galaxian wasn't booting when I got it as the board wasn't getting any power. I simply replaced the two larger caps sitting side by side that are located directly underneath the heat sink in the upper left hand corner of the board. That was all it needed. It booted right up, haven't had to touch the board for 10 years now. Try replacing those first, and replace the edge connector. Looks like the edge connection on your PCB is burned up as well.
 
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I threw in a 19K7901 into mine, no problem. Didn't have to mess with anything but swapping out the molex connector and figure out the Pinouts for the video signal connection. With Galaxian and PAC boards, the voltage regulators are built into the PCB itself. It just steps down the voltage coming off the transformer. My Galaxian wasn't booting when I got it as the board wasn't getting any power. I simply replaced the two larger caps sitting side by side that are located directly underneath the heat sink in the upper left hand corner of the board. That was all it needed. It booted right up, haven't had to touch the board for 10 years now. Try replacing those first, and replace the edge connector. Looks like the edge connection on your PCB is burned up as well.

Awesome, thanks for the advice, any idea on where you got those big caps for your board? The edge connector is seriously burned :( So do you happen to have any images of your cab with the 7000 in there? Im not entirely electrically inclined, I can do a few things but I'm not very clued up with say taking out the chassis and just throwing a new one in...it has 2 isolation transformers and a ton of fuses everywhere...scares me to death looking at it...lol
 
Awesome, thanks for the advice, any idea on where you got those big caps for your board? The edge connector is seriously burned :( So do you happen to have any images of your cab with the 7000 in there? Im not entirely electrically inclined, I can do a few things but I'm not very clued up with say taking out the chassis and just throwing a new one in...it has 2 isolation transformers and a ton of fuses everywhere...scares me to death looking at it...lol


My monitor is a 7901, manufactured in 93, different then the 7000. I didn't have to change the frame, wiring for the power or anything, just figure out the video connections is all. I would think a 7000 would be pretty much a drop in replacement as well, but since I don't own one, I can't confirm it. I have a CRT 19 inch vision pro in my PAC MAN that I bought new when you still could and that's a drop in replacement as well. Also that particular monitor doesn't need a separate transformer for power, it can just plug into an outlet which is nice. The caps I bought at mouser a long time ago, but there are cap kits like this today. https://www.arcadepartsandrepair.com/store/components/galaxian-game-pcb-105c-axial-cap-kit/ Also if you would rather just have someone repair the board for you, I can't say enough good things about Madrits, who works on PAC and Galaxian boards.
 
My monitor is a 7901, manufactured in 93, different then the 7000. I didn't have to change the frame, wiring for the power or anything, just figure out the video connections is all. I would think a 7000 would be pretty much a drop in replacement as well, but since I don't own one, I can't confirm it. I have a CRT 19 inch vision pro in my PAC MAN that I bought new when you still could and that's a drop in replacement as well. Also that particular monitor doesn't need a separate transformer for power, it can just plug into an outlet which is nice. The caps I bought at mouser a long time ago, but there are cap kits like this today. https://www.arcadepartsandrepair.com/store/components/galaxian-game-pcb-105c-axial-cap-kit/ Also if you would rather just have someone repair the board for you, I can't say enough good things about Madrits, who works on PAC and Galaxian boards.

Oh ok, gotcha...you mentioned it was a 7901, I missed that...lol! Im going to take a closer look today, its just so old compared to what I'm used to...ive pretty much got the 7000 down now with replacing, capping, and such...this beast is a different story! Do you know of anyone thats documented a K7000 drop in for a Galaxian or similar? And thank you for the recommendation, I just sent Madrits a message to see if he can help out, i appreciate that! And as an experiment, I will try that cap replacement to see if that has any joy, there is just so much burn in that a monitor replacement is necessary, I just don't want to do something stupid where I kill the machine altogether...(which I've done in the past...lol)
 
SO I managed to get the colors back, not great but at least there is some...its evident that this chassis and monitor need to be replaced, its super tired.

But I am noticing problems with the board, I had to switch on and off a few times, move the harness connector a little each time before it started to work to some level of playability. But the edge connector gets hot on the one side (image attached) and when I tested the voltage on the board its only getting max 3 volts...but I'm used to a switching power supply where you can adjust the voltage...this is old school and I'm not familiar...would getting it to 5v cause more issues? And looking at the images I posted, how do I adjust the voltage...

Wiy5NeOl.jpg

JbmiSwGl.jpg

msTy9y0l.jpg
That monitor doesn't look that bad, just put in some darker tinted plexi and cap the chassis and you will be good to go.

As for the harness, clean the edge connector with deoxit, you can replace the caps, but that burning is caused by interment contact.
 
That monitor doesn't look that bad, just put in some darker tinted plexi and cap the chassis and you will be good to go.

As for the harness, clean the edge connector with deoxit, you can replace the caps, but that burning is caused by interment contact.

Tighe! Hey, I love your vids BTW, I just replaced my vibration motor in my SHO using your vid...lol! I believe your wife did it? The monitor is pretty rough :( The convergence is off and doesn't want to align even after adjusting...and the burn is crazy lol!...ill attach an image in a sec.

Good call on the deoxit (something i bought while watching your vid) I totally forgot about that, so ill give it a clean...i just PM'd someone on possibly doing a PCB repair, I'm not schooled good enough to repair the edge connector...
 
Oh ok, gotcha...you mentioned it was a 7901, I missed that...lol! Im going to take a closer look today, its just so old compared to what I'm used to...ive pretty much got the 7000 down now with replacing, capping, and such...this beast is a different story! Do you know of anyone thats documented a K7000 drop in for a Galaxian or similar? And thank you for the recommendation, I just sent Madrits a message to see if he can help out, i appreciate that! And as an experiment, I will try that cap replacement to see if that has any joy, there is just so much burn in that a monitor replacement is necessary, I just don't want to do something stupid where I kill the machine altogether...(which I've done in the past...lol)

I don't know of anyone documenting that particular monitor in a Galaxian, but as long as the frame is compatible, and the voltage of the monitor is standard (my latest machine uses a 100volt monitor.. never seen that before) I would think it should be an easy swap, just have to play with your RGB/sync connections to get it to work is probably all you have to do. If your board is burned on the connection like that you should most certainly replace the edge connector of your wiring harness with this https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=CECT44TABS also replace your fuse blocks and fuses if you haven't already. Also the daughter card with the roms on the PCB is kinda flakey with this machine. I think some of your problems could be related to that as well. Good news is that I don't think your going to have to do much to get this up and running again.
 
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