Probably gonna have to do a cap kit on Die Hard, any advise?

Umortal377

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Probably gonna have to do a cap kit on Die Hard, any advise?

Bought a Die hard today. Game made it home fine and worked. Moved it to the spot in the game room I wanted it. Now I just get a horizontal line across the screen in the middle. I need to do a cap kit right?

It looks to be a Wells Gardner chassis. Dont know the specific type yet. I have a discharge tool I made when I used to take the chassis out of my mortal kombat to take it to be repaired. Looks to be a tight spot to get the chassis out of, but I think I can get it out.

I would consider my soldering skills to be average or so so. I have fixed one or two capacitors/resistors before, but not in tight spots like a chassis. Since my skill level is not the best, should I attempt it myself, or have someone else repair it? The guy I had repair my last one didnt charge much I think. He repaired 2 of them for $75.
 
2 for $75 is a good deal, though it's not that hard and you should consider doing it
if you have a decent iron.

you should pull the monitor out, don't try pulling the chassis. I usually take pictures of hte chassis while everything is connected in case I forget where something goes, and I usually put a piece of paper stuck to my wires to remember where they go as well. I am pretty thorough in that regard.

someone else will chime in regarding if you definitely need a cap kit or not. if it was working and just went to a line, it may just need an adjustment.
 
have fixed one or two

if you take the chassis out you wont have to take the monitor out.

make sure you discharge the monitor before taking the chassis out.

try reflowing the cold solder joints on the vertical deflection IC chip first before you start replacing things. while in there, reflow all the cold solder joints that you see and retest.
 
I will say I thought I smelt an electical burn type smell as well.

So everyone agree it is probably a cap kit issue?
 
Is there anyone other then doing a cap kit I should do first? I would think not since I smelt an electronic burnt smell and its a horizontal line.
 
Is there anyone other then doing a cap kit I should do first? I would think not since I smelt an electronic burnt smell and its a horizontal line.

probably not the problem, but another area to check is that the V-size pot on your remote board isn't on the fritz. I'd try "wiping" that pot to see if it changes at all. the Polo in my KI used to do this... I actually removed the remote harness and plugged the adjustment board directly into the chassis. never could figure out what the deal was with that harness, but it's ok now.

yeah, sometimes if you wiggled the wires a certain way, it would exhibit the same thing as a vertical collapse, or as if the adjust board wasn't plugged in at all.

besides that, I'd check for cold solder in key spots like where caps diodes or transistors are. I usually do that on the monitors I've recapped just for precaution, especially the last few WG ones, because I don't know where they came from (the ones with the bad hacks especially). if it looks ugly, I just reflow it. if it's really bad I just suck the old solder out and put new solder in.

not sure what level expertise you are at soldering, I'm no master at it myself, but I happen to think I'm pretty good at simple stuff like caps or installing get well kits on ticket dispenser boards. if anything it's excellent practice.
 
+1 on checking the pots on the remote board
that was exactly what was wrong with my die hard
i had cracked the pot on the remote board it would fire up with a line acros the screen and click constantly

doing a cap kit is a easy thing to do i used to be daunted by the task of doing them but after my first one i cant see why i was ever overwelmed

as for removing the monitor vs just pulling the chassis
if this is a dedicated sega stv cab there is almost no way to just remove the chassis
there is only a 1 foot by 1 and a half foot hole to axcess the monitor adjustments on the back

you must remove the monitor
and in m opinion removing the monitor will be your hardest task
4 screws on the back side (usually stuck to hell due to the plastic shrinking)
then open up the cp and remove 2 more screws where the bezl meets the under side of the cp

unhook the speaker wires

then 4 screws to actually remove the monitor (have fun trying to wrestle the monitor out and over that huge cp as well i think i pulled every muscle in my back doing that lol )


probably not the problem, but another area to check is that the V-size pot on your remote board isn't on the fritz. I'd try "wiping" that pot to see if it changes at all. the Polo in my KI used to do this... I actually removed the remote harness and plugged the adjustment board directly into the chassis. never could figure out what the deal was with that harness, but it's ok now.

yeah, sometimes if you wiggled the wires a certain way, it would exhibit the same thing as a vertical collapse, or as if the adjust board wasn't plugged in at all.

besides that, I'd check for cold solder in key spots like where caps diodes or transistors are. I usually do that on the monitors I've recapped just for precaution, especially the last few WG ones, because I don't know where they came from (the ones with the bad hacks especially). if it looks ugly, I just reflow it. if it's really bad I just suck the old solder out and put new solder in.

not sure what level expertise you are at soldering, I'm no master at it myself, but I happen to think I'm pretty good at simple stuff like caps or installing get well kits on ticket dispenser boards. if anything it's excellent practice.
 
I got the chassis out. Wasnt a big deal like I thought. I was able to unscrew it from the little panel they give you on the back of the cabinet. Then I just slid it to the side and took it out the back door where the jamma board is.

Didn't get any sort of pop at all with the screwdriver and clips. But I didnt get that on the other game I did it on. I just make sure to not power on the game for a day or two prior to taking the chassis out.

But I started a new post under Monitor help since I put this on the wrong spot on here. Now I need to identify the chassis and see if I should try the cap kit.
 
Wrong forum area for this. It should be in the monitors section.
 
The horizontal output transistor could of gone out.... sounds like horizontal collapse... checking the pot first is a good idea...

-Mike
 
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