Star Castle Vector monitor bright horizontal line

rucinskj

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i have a star castle that displays a bright horizontal line across the screen and the 47ohm resistor next to the plug where the vertical transistors plug in gets burning hot. I have swapped out the transistors with new ones and same thing. also checked for continuity for shorts and there are none. i did everything else in the troublsehooting guide but cant figure this one out. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks! John
 
I spent quite a bit of time replacing blowing transistors and diodes before finding out the power supply was the problem. Not saying that is the case, but if you have an issue there, your fixes won't stay fixed...
 
Shudder. Reminds me of a Star Castle I worked on once. Kept doing exactly that - burning up those resistors. There was a short in the circuit - one of the transistors was blown and shorted. And I'd replace the transistor, checked every single active component in the circuit, hooked it back up and it just blew the transistor again and started to burn the resistor. I tried replacing more and more of the parts in the circuit, but since the transistors were like five bucks each, I threw in the towel after I'd fried a few. That, and the guy that owned the game wanted it back - I just had to say I couldn't figure it out. Still bugs me that I wasn't able to track it down.

-Ian
 
Star Castle

Im going to have to get an oscilliscope and try it out. Luckily i have 2 boards i can work with. Might end up sending it to Cinelabs. Ian, this machine didnt happen to owned by a man named Jeff that knew Larry with all the games?
 
Yup. That's the one.

And it gets about a 1/4" shorter every time you move it, as it leaves a trail of particle board crumbs behind it.

-Ian
 
Star castle

LOL yeah this things been to about 5 people that couldnt/didnt want to fix it according to Fred. I think i may be his 6th if its not fixed in the next couple of weeks.
 
Im going to have to get an oscilliscope and try it out. Luckily i have 2 boards i can work with. Might end up sending it to Cinelabs. Ian, this machine didnt happen to owned by a man named Jeff that knew Larry with all the games?

For a second here i thought this was the machine that i'm trying to help Larry's buddy Freddy with lol.

Funny sounds like everyone know's Arcade Larry up here in the Capitol District :D

Good luck with your machine, i'll be watching this thread for interesting tidbits, wish i could be some help but i know little to nothing about these old Vectors.
 
Thats too funny. i was just over at Freddys House Fixing A couple monitors for him. Great guys both him and larry. Fred does amazing woodworking, he built me a couple of consoles, one for a sit down and one for a stand up. Both came out great.
 
Thats too funny. i was just over at Freddys House Fixing A couple monitors for him. Great guys both him and larry. Fred does amazing woodworking, he built me a couple of consoles, one for a sit down and one for a stand up. Both came out great.

i agree, larry cracks me up. I've only met Freddy once but i just had a control panel box made up by him for a very decent price. he's actually working on or will be working on (if he doesn't already have them) a cloned Spider-Man and NBA Jam control panel. He does amazing work, his measurements are spot on and everything that was originally there he replicates.

attached a pic of the box he made me :D
 

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You should have him build you a Killer Instinct cabinet. i know theres websites with all the dimensions Fred would need. it would be brand new and I have a local friend Wayne Wheeler from AJ signs that can reproduce all the sideart and control panels. He did Freds truck with the vinyl graphics for his business.
 
hmm that is an idea, but i think it would be easier/cheaper to just buy a MK2 cab and convert that as they are exactly the same minus the side art and red instead of black t molding (atleast that's what i've gathered).

the art idea tho i'll definitely PM you sometime about, i've been looking for someone local that can do some nice vinyl work (i've got a ton of artwork stockpiled on this PC for such a instance :D ).

Not that i don't think freddy could do it as his wood skillz are definitely all that :D
 
Thats true. Ill keep my eyes peeled im goin this saturday to pick up 10 games 5 pole positions, Gauntlet, Space Invaders, Pac Man cabinet, Capcom Bowling and a sit down racer and the guy has a whole other barn with 50 games i havent seen yet. hes letting them go real cheap, there may be a killer instinct or mk2 in there. What kind of artwork? You dont happen to have any Pole position, Space invaders or Guantlet do ya?
 
It's mainly Mortal Kombat art, along with some Marvel Vs. Capcom, Simpsons, AvP, Smash TV, KI, nba jam, rolling thunder ect....

Definitely hit me with a PM if you see a KI, MK2/3 or Smash TV.

I can keep my eye out for the art your looking for if you want, just let me know what pieces you want (marquee/bezel/instruction card/sideart ect.
 
So getting back on topic what happens is the vertical transistors heat up then the power supply blows the breaker. I checked voltages to monitor board and its fine, I swapped out the DAC-80 same problem. Its weird because i have 2 monitor boards and they both do the same exact thing. You think it may be the tube causing the problem or the HV unit?
 
or the power supply? The cocktail monitor that I spent an extreme amount of time fixing turned to to be fixed every time and kept failing because of the power supply in the cab. I eventually figured this out by taking the monitor to a friend's working Star Castle and the monitor worked good with his game. Once the power supply was fixed, it stopped blowing the monitor....
 
What did you have replaced on the power supply? What kind whas it? I have 2 different power supplies for this thing made by 2 different manufacturers. I have a Data Power Supply and a Xentec Power supply. Thanks a bunch.
John
 
I gave up on it thinking it was monitor related. I gave the cab to a friend who eventually used his working upright to determine it was the PS, then fixed it. I don't know what he did to fix it...
 
Crap. Anybody on here know? Im gonna end up replacing every component on it. hehe
 
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