Tempest plays Blind

jerryme

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I got a Tempest today and when I picked it up it was completely dead. I now have it working but it plays blind. The monitor has neck glow but nothing is on the screen. Any idea where to start? I am not to familiar with vector games. Any idea what might be wrong? Let me know. PEACE Bart
 
Thanks for the reply. None of the fuses are popped. The monitor does make a chattering sound. It still has neck glow also. The LED on the monitor board is lit. Any help is appreciated. Thank You. BART
 
You should start by measuring all your voltages on the test points of the board. +5 +5Digital, +-15, and the 6.8, then the ac voltages on your x and y out of the board. They should be running about 1-3 volts ac. If you hear chatter you most likely have at least one working. The other may be dead which is why you have no video.


Have you put it in test mode?
 
Do a search on this one because this is a very common occurrence.

and you will find pages and pages and pages of material. Follow Talon's advice first. If you don't know where to start, download the 6100 FAQ from ionpool.net. Read thoroughly. I would bet that the board set is not putting out one of the correct signals even though it plays blind. (a very common occurrence) or there is definitely something on the deflection board that requires replacement. See if you can find somebody local with another working game to test your board set in. If you find the board set is bad, send it to Talon to fix. DO NOT TRY to fix it yourself unless you are familiar with board repair. IT is NOT the same as doing a cap kit.

Then go back and read the pages and pages and pages of material. That is the only way you get good at fixing these things.
 
Thanks for the reply. None of the fuses are popped. The monitor does make a chattering sound. It still has neck glow also. The LED on the monitor board is lit. Any help is appreciated. Thank You. BART

Spot killer is on. Means there's a problem with the video signal, or a problem with your deflection board's ability to display it.

Easiest way to narrow this down now is to add a known working pcb or monitor to the equation. But, if you don't have that option, try this:

crank up the screen control on the flyback. You will get a white dot in the center of the screen, and hopefully be able to see the game's graphics faintly behind the white dot. Tell us what you see.

BTW - don't leave the screen control up for very long - you could burn your screen. Overriding the spot killer circuit by turning up the fly is OK for troubleshooting, but don't leave it on for more than a few seconds.
 
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