Tempest monitor issues :(

bongoben

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Just got home from driving through Minnesota's first snowfall (that was fun) where I picked up a Tempest. It worked great at Rick's (rainman154) place. We loaded it into the back of the van, I got home and unloaded it out into my garage, checked all the connections and powered it up. And this (see pics below) is all I get. Shut the game off, reseated any connections I could find and the neckboard and fired it up again and got the same thing. What happened between Rick's place and my garage that would have caused this? Help...

UPDATE!!! Crisis averted. I went back out to pull the monitor and pcb to bring those inside to lighten the load when I move the cab. Decided to give it one more shot so I turned the game on and got the same single line. Out of total curiosity I decided to wiggle the top wire harness connector on the game pcb and sure enough, the screen flipped to full screen. So it turns out that even though I disconnected and reconnected that connector a couple times it still wasn't sitting right. Needless to say I'll still be going over this entire game 100% to make sure everything is clear of flaws to lessen the chances of something else happening... but it's bound to happen anyway. Now... anyone want to stop by tonight to help carry this down to my basement? The last Atari cab (Dig Dug) I moved almost fell on top of me. If I'm not here tomorrow talk to my wife about buying my games. ;)
 

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Probably .. cold solder joints OR the horizontal transistors. If the garage is not heated and the game was cold..ie not room temp... then electronics can fail sometimes.
 
If the garage is not heated and the game was cold..ie not room temp... then electronics can fail sometimes.

I thought about that too but it went directly from my heated van into a garage that was probably about 45ish degrees. So not too terribly cold. But I'm guessing I'll have to pull the chassis and start searching. Disappointing.
 
Sometimes riding around in a vehicle can jar solder joints that were already about tofail. Maybe just try inspecting and touching up the joints on the chasis. With any luck that might be all you need.
 
Sometimes riding around in a vehicle can jar solder joints that were already about tofail. Maybe just try inspecting and touching up the joints on the chasis. With any luck that might be all you need.

Thanks, I hope so. The monitor is responding to the demo screen changes as I can see the line get longer and shorter and a little fatter (maybe about 1/5" at most) but it stays stuck in the middle of the screen. I'll load this game into my basement later tonight, let it get up to room temperature then the search will begin.
 
100 mile car ride = cracked solder joints.

Pull chassis, get a bright light, and a magnifying glass.

Have fun :)



p.s. Want buy a working 6100? :D J/K.
 
100 mile car ride = cracked solder joints.

Pull chassis, get a bright light, and a magnifying glass.

Have fun :)



p.s. Want buy a working 6100? :D J/K.

100 mile car ride through 2-3" of snow in MN. That was super fun. Total count of 15 cars in the ditch between leaving Eau Claire and getting back 5 hours later. Game will be moved to my basement tonight and I'll start the cracked solder joint search. Stupid vector monitors. :)

P.S. Nope. Wanna buy a Neo Geo 2-slot pcb? :)
 
Dude I feel really bad. Damn. It looks like it's the monitor though. I don't know much about monitors but it looks like the deflection is off. We'll get it fixed though, no worries. Sucks that you can't play it right now though!
 
AAAAAAND, it works. See the update on the original post. I love these 30 year old games.
 
Atari cabs weigh like 98 BAJILLION pounds. No weigh I'm helping you move that beast.

Yeah... at least now I have reinforced the staircase so it doesn't feel like it's going to collapse every step I go down. Let's see, I've had 3 Atari cabs since I started collecting. #1 was an Asteroids Deluxe that a buddy helped move down before I realized I could move cabs on my own. #2 was a Pole Position that I tried the slide down the stairs method with me supporting it from the bottom. I thought I was going to die with that one. #3 was the Dig Dug that I slipped and it dropped two stairs farther than I was going for, put two dents in the ceiling in the stairway from the corners of the cab, and then tipped back on top of me.

So now we have #4. I'm too anxious to wait until I can get someone over to help and my dad has a bad back so he's out. So that means it's all me.

I'm glad it's rolling man. Now beat my high score! LOl!

Yeah, about that... must find the manual to figure out how to reset those. :)
 
cold solder joints... for sure... oh wait.. guess it wasn't.
;-)

FYI - I rebuilt that very monitor a month ago so the deflection transistors have about 4 hours of run time on them.

Glad you got it working Ben
 
Well, the crap is back again.

I pulled the monitor, glass, & pcb to move the cab into the house and down the stairs. When I hooked it back up I got the single line again. Wiggled the wire harness and nothing happened the first few times. Put a little pressure on it and the image came up but it is shaky and the horizontal and vertical lines don't match. So... I'm going to pull the game pcb and check out the video section for cold solder joints... will also check all the pins on the harness. I'll give the chassis a once over too. It looks like the pins on the game pcb were "re-soldered" at some point but everything looks intact there. Might there be something up with the harness at the card-edge connector? My wife is napping so I think I have some time to start looking this over now. Need to grab a mirror too in order to get the x/y axis matched up once everything is working again.
 
Sounds like you usually get it 'resolved' by playing with the edge connector.
Maybe repinning the edge connector will fix it for good.
I had the monitor in my black widow for a week and it worked fine.
 
Sounds like you usually get it 'resolved' by playing with the edge connector.
Maybe repinning the edge connector will fix it for good.
I had the monitor in my black widow for a week and it worked fine.

That is the conclusion I had come to also... the I got a PM from Rick saying this and this message from you. So yeah. The monitor is coming in fine right now so I'm happy but sometime this holiday weekend I'll go through and re-pin the wires that go to the monitor. I love the game when it's working :)

Oh, one other question for the vector guru's. I'm starting to figure out the 8 pots on the Tempest board and how they affect the screen position, size, etc. But I'm still getting a bit of the hourglass shape (but as though the hourglass is laying on it's side since this monitor is vertical) and can't seem to get the middle on the top and bottom to go out far enough to sit even with the outside corners. I'll put a picture up as soon as I can find new batteries for the camera of what I mean. I haven't touched any of the pots on the monitor chassis or neck board but it looks like those only have to do with the color.

I guess what I'm trying to say is vector monitors are weird. :)
 
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