Question about monitor

GameRoomKid

Well-known member

Donor 2012
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
6,912
Reaction score
412
Location
17021, Pennsylvania
I went to plug in my Speed Rumbler tonight, and the monitor has no pic. I can hear the game and play it, but no pic. What could it be. I honestly am scared to even mess with monitors. From the war stories I've heard, it gives me the creeps to even try and mess with one. Any ideas on what it might be?
 
I went to plug in my Speed Rumbler tonight, and the monitor has no pic. I can hear the game and play it, but no pic. What could it be. I honestly am scared to even mess with monitors. From the war stories I've heard, it gives me the creeps to even try and mess with one. Any ideas on what it might be?

You should read some more technical info and not horror stories of people shocking themselves from not reading into it ahead of time, or being stupid and careless.

But of course I was young and dumb with my first machine too and got shocked from the 4900. It only happens once, you will learn fast that way. But it is better to read a lot and educate yourself on what it is you are doing before digging in.
 
I went to plug in my Speed Rumbler tonight, and the monitor has no pic. I can hear the game and play it, but no pic. What could it be. I honestly am scared to even mess with monitors. From the war stories I've heard, it gives me the creeps to even try and mess with one. Any ideas on what it might be?

I read about "monitor cap kits" for a little over 2.5 years before I actually attempted one myself. I did a lot of extensive reading about discharging monitors and overall watching other techs do it (that helps in some ways, but doesn't in others). half the battle is learning how to discharge, and having the proper tools for doing it is the other half (and execution of course).

I built my own discharge tool, it's an alligator clip that came from a set I bought at Radio Shack and a redundant Craftsman flathead screwdriver I didn't really need for anything else. I cut one clip off, stripped the wire pretty long, wrapped it around the base of the flathead a few times, and wrapped it in electrical tape. now I have a discharge tool, made essentially from pretty common items. :)

points you need to consider: some monitors can kind of discharge themselves, others cannot. some keep pretty huge charges in the neckboard transistors, others do not. I hear about guys working on these ancient monitors on here all the time though, so I don't classify them as "volatile and dangerous" like Hantarex Polos.

if you want to know anything about discharging, you can find a wealth of information about working with CRTs on youtube or within a few google searches.

working on them is fairly basic. like a cap kit, all you're doing is removing old components and installing new ones. how you go about doing that is another story, but I've probably capped about 12 monitors now, the only ones I ever had any issues with were those Sanyo EZs, and that's because I had a bunch of co-workers around talking to me and distracting me. :p I largely did those without thinking at all... you'll know you fucked up when you have a cap left over, or a "missing" one. ;)

all in all, very easy stuff. I've swapped neck components and replaced flybacks, and I guess to my credit I resurrected a blown-up K7000.

I generally read various KLOV threads that look interesting in my spare time to pick up worthless information that can prove useful for when I run into a similar problem down the road.
 
As far as your problem goes, I would have to safely say that it is a loose connection, or a blown component on the board that has led to a blown fuse.

I would start by checking connections, then the fuse(s) with a multimeter; and if it is blown try replacing it, but it will most likely just blow it up again.

If it keeps blowing the fuse I would start with a full cap kit, and check all transistors on the way. As well as reflow any header pins or other bad looking solder. And I really wouldn't stop this step unit I found something with a dead short, or a visibly bad component that would be causing the initial problem.

Discharging is the easy part. It is absorbing all the technical info needed to get the job done that scared me when I first started.
 
Fisrst thing you want to do is let us know what kind of monitor it is. Then, check the basic fuses - see which ones (if any) are blown. Most monitors have two - one for the AC line, and one for the B+. Knowing which monitor it is, and what it's symptoms are, we can point you in the direction of replacing parts.

Some monitors can be brought back from totally dead with caps alone. Most other monitors usually need other parts, like flybacks or transistors.

If you want to learn more about monitors, I wrote a whole huge long sticky thread about them ;)

-Ian
 
Back
Top Bottom