Joust crazy screen but boots up and plays fine?

landsteam

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I was playing Joust and the screen went crazy, but the game still plays fine see the attached pictures. I tried it a while later and it was fine for about 30 seconds then back to crazy. Is this a monitor problem?
 

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It looks like a wiring issue to me. Unplug the video harness at both ends and reseat the video harness.

Yeah, I had something similar on a Defender when the ground wire to the monitor broke about halfway up the harness directly behind a cable guide. Took a while to find it...
 
I could be wrong but personally that looks like a PCB problem to me. Namely a ram problem or decoder chip problem on the main board. A video ground problem is going to change colors, it's not going to change shapes.
 
I could be wrong but personally that looks like a PCB problem to me. Namely a ram problem or decoder chip problem on the main board. A video ground problem is going to change colors, it's not going to change shapes.

Mine did. Gave me lines all across the screen. and screwed up the image some, but it still locked and could be played. I figured as you that I wouldn't have a pic like that without good wiring, so it must be a board issue. I even pulled the boards and took them to a friend's game where they tested fine, then pulled the monitor and tested it with another game and it was fine. When I was putting the monitor back in, I noticed the broken wire had fallen out from behind the cable guide. Reattached it and the pic cleared up.

It could be board related, but I'd check the easy stuff first...
 
I have seem to have fixed it. I noticed the the light was making a loud buzzing sound, so I removed the plug for the marqee light and the screen cleared right up. Weird I never had a problem like that before.
 
That is the probably ballast about to fry. Simple fix. I would replace the starter too, just to be safe.

Or you bumped the video cable and reattached the ground (not that that sort of thing has ever happened to me........:rolleyes:)

ken
 
The Joust started acting up again with the same problem, I guess the light wasn't the problem. What do I check now? I do hear alot of static when the game is on. How do you check if the monitor is grounded properly?
 
There is a black wire that goes from the connector on the CPU to the connector on the monitor chassis. Make sure you have continuity all the way through...
 
I tested all video wires and had good connectivity. I disconnected the speaker also and that didn't help. I also disconnected the video wire from the monitor and the screen still has static. Should the monitor just show a black screen with the video cable removed? The funny thing is sometimes the game will show a perfect picture for a while then get all static(interference) on it.
 
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