OEM Sega Virtua Fighter, Grey Screen

Lios

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My friend picked up an original Virtua Fighter cab, which was working prior to a 6 hour haul through 105+ degree heat and a three day escapade of figuring out how to get the beast up three flights of stairs, with only 3 people and no special equipment.

After getting it back together upstairs (we had removed the monitor, pcb cage, Plexiglas and other misc) and plugging it in, we got a pop and smelled the smoke, though the machine didn't shut off (I wasted no time in unplugging it of course). After discharging the monitor and removing the chassis, I slapped myself for being stupid. I should have checked the ballast for the light before plugging it back up.

One removed florescent lamp + burnt out light later, it turns on, we get sound, albeit very scratchy and distorted, and a gray rectangle where game should be. A fresh set of caps, a lot of joint re-flow, and misc cleaning afterwards, I now have a very stable, very crisp gray rectangle instead of a slightly curved and moving one.

Now all of the adjustments on the front panel behave exactly as expected, I can move the rectangle up down, right left, make it wider, narrower in both vertical and horizontal directions, the RGB gain dials all affect the tint of the gray, and I can lose and re-lock the vertical and horizontal hold. The screen and focus controls also do what they should. I've powered it on with the rgbhv signals disconnected from the pcb cage, and it warms up to a black screen, as expected.

The game sounds like it plays blind (or rather, shrouded by a gray cover), insert a coin and you hear it credit, it also responds to pressing start and such. The audio is terrible, but I suspect that is due to a dirty 20+ year old pot, I compared the startup sounds in mame and it all sounds like it's working besides the video.

At this point, I have ruled out the monitor as the issue, and I am looking at the pcb cage and wiring/connections. I have already replaced the de-third pronged plug with a ATX power cable I hacked off the end and wired in. I've also cdisassembled the pcb cage and pcbs to clean, also reseating all socketed ics.

So far, no further progress. The only thing I have not checked is what the power supply is actually pumping out to everything, as I do not have a multimeter handy right now. I believe the coin door lights are wired correctly, but they do not light up. While it's possible they are burnt out, or not wired correctly still (some of the wired at the coin door have signs of repair/hacking), it makes me wonder if there might be some issues with the Peter Chou switching psu.

Anyone have similar issues in the past with Virtua Fighter/Sega Model 1 hardware?
 
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