Please help save my beloved VECTREX..

H2oBuffalo

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Hi everybody,

Long time viewer, first time poster.

After some 27 years my Vectrex,s screen no longer works. I have looked at many other posts and could not find a solution. So I thought I would ask here.

The logic board still works fine. You can play all games but the monitor has no light whatsoever. I am familiar with the "white dot failure" but I do not see that. there is a slight static field to the screen like all crts but no picture. Does anybody know if I have any chance of repair? It is the crown jewel of my collection and I really want to save it. I don't know much about X-Y monitor repair but would appreciate any advice or ideas.

Thanks.

Brendan
 
Cap it... redo any cracked solder joints... then report back.
 
of course those posts assume you even know how to begin to cap a monitor. Perhaps some tuts or links would help our man here. (I have none to share or I would post them).
 
Do you hear deflection chatter? Heh... and do you have the normal Vectrex Buzz, or did it magically get quiet ;) . Have you tried turning up the brightness (the knob on the back), and if so, does all the way up make any sort of dot, pattern, etc?

DogP
 
Thanks

Woo hoo! I knew that I came to the right place.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Yes I still have my monitor buzz sound pulsing in the background noise.

I have never installed a cap kit but I solder quite well. I was hoping somebody here has fixed one with the same problem.
*all normal functions.
* no picture
*no White dot
I thought the cap kit was for the White dot failure?

Is that all I need?

Thanks.

H2oBuffalo
 
Cap kit can be for any problem, though not necessarily likely to fix it. Usually caps cause "ugly" problems, like waviness, shakes, inconsistent brightness, etc... but they can go bad and cause complete failure. But it sounds like you've still got deflection, which I'd think would be the more difficult problem.

So, turning the brightness all the way up doesn't do anything? If so, when you pop the back off, check for neck glow.

Just be careful doing a cap kit... I don't think the traces are even attached to the PCB... if you look at them wrong, they lift :p . Also, while you're in there, I HIGHLY recommend doing the buzz mod (w/ the coax cable). I did that to mine, and it's SO MUCH better.

DogP
 
Thanks for the repair manual link.

I printed the manual!

There must have been a lot of sharp repair guys out there if that manual was all they had to work with ;).

The troubleshooting section is a bit short on problems.

Guess they planned on replacing the whole unit if it got more complicated.

sigh...,


That test chart would probably help a lot of folks, including me.

Does anybody have a copy they could post.

H2oBuffalo
 
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