My Customer's Defender

rikitheshadow

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Donor 2011
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Pretty much my first Video Arcade repair since I started advertising on CL about my on site repair services. So anyway, guy has a dead Defender, hasn't been working in a year and he's finally decided to have someone come and look at it. I can't recall when he said he obtained it, but someone has obviously touched this before because it has a switching power supply.....a hack job once again. They wired it along side the original harness, they just twisted all the wires together and screwed them down, they bypassed the still functional transformer for the monitor, and they had jumpered the fuse before the line filter with just a wire.......but it didn't matter because they weren't using it. The power cord was just straight hooked up to the switching PSU and yet everytime you pugged this thing in it threw the GFCI outlet breakers.................

So anyways, spent my time re-wiring and cleaning the mess and re-routing the AC to the transformer for the monitor (in the lovely heat of a garage)......didn't have enough terminal connectors, but I had 3 which was enough for the AC line in....I'll fix the harness later. Plugged her in, didn't throw the breaker, but i got nothing but the Marquee lamp to turn on. Monitor is dead, and so is the game board.....assuming that because we have no sound and nothing to test video with. So we are going to send the Defender board out for repairs soon and possibly work on getting a new monitor because that monitor just looks......euggghhhhh right now.

Overall the cabinet's integrity is really nice, not perfect but it has a good CP & CPO, fairly decent marquee, and bezel, and a fully assembled and clean coin mech & door with service switches. The cabinet's sideart is completely intact too and original assuming....

LOL told him if this adds up in repairs and he'd rather something else, if we can get it fixed up it could still fetch a high price considering condition quality of the art and CPO stuffs....

Excuse the picture quality, only had my phone....

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1) If he bypassed the iso for the monitor power, then that's why the monitor doesn't work. Probably blew the VR and rectifying diodes at least.

2) Defender REALLY doesn't like the switchers. I've had nothing but trouble trying to get them to work properly.

3) No offense, but if you can't test video without a working monitor (you don't have any games of your own?), can't fix the monitor (do it first before testing the boards so you can see if anything is happening), and have to send boards out for repair without even proper testing (with known good power, harness and monitor) - then you really shouldn't be accepting jobs. If you CAN fix the monitor and power supply, then do so before going further. And ask questions here before shipping stuff off. I've seen several people I know try to do what you're doing, and I always end up having to help them fix stuff because they got into stuff they couldn't handle on their own....
 
3) No offense, but if you can't test video without a working monitor (you don't have any games of your own?), can't fix the monitor (do it first before testing the boards so you can see if anything is happening), and have to send boards out for repair without even proper testing (with known good power, harness and monitor) - then you really shouldn't be accepting jobs. If you CAN fix the monitor and power supply, then do so before going further. And ask questions here before shipping stuff off. I've seen several people I know try to do what you're doing, and I always end up having to help them fix stuff because they got into stuff they couldn't handle on their own....

Have to agree with Mod. If you're gonna offer your repair skills as a business you should have the ability to fix all parts or at least have a resource to do so. I wouldn't even consider shipping the boards for repair until they have been connected to a working test rig and confirmed bad. Otherwise you are potentially costing your customer money he shouldn't have to pay.
 
No, it's bad I've tested it. In his cabinet, and on my workbench at home. I made a quick test rig with a Switching PSU, the ROM board is running through a few things I know because the LEDs are cycling, but we have no audio or video. I ran checks on my monitors at home.

This guy never touched anything. He doesn't really know anything about it. He would just would like to have it fixed and the monitor as well without having to buy a new one.

I do not suggest sending out anything for repairs unless I know it's beyond my knowledge, I know thats not going to be a big help for my customer, but I'm offering my assistance to get things back up and running. I do not send or do anything without their approval. A lot of my customers have no idea about what should be or what is or how should it be like with any of the electronics inside the cabinets. I'm doing most of this at my expense (except for parts), I don't charge a butt load to come out there. In fact I offer free diagnostics and estimates and I don't charge anything unless it's fixed.
 
No, it's bad I've tested it. In his cabinet, and on my workbench at home. I made a quick test rig with a Switching PSU, the ROM board is running through a few things I know because the LEDs are cycling, but we have no audio or video. I ran checks on my monitors at home.

If you had mentioned that in your initial post, I wouldn't have said anything...
 
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