jroberts86
New member
I have an arcade (stand-up) Tempest. It played great for a couple years but now has some problems and I am not sure what to try. A bit of an electronics noob, but I have worked on and fixed many pinball machines.
What it does varies a lot:
--turn on, screen black. start buttons flashing red. Nothing happens when start buttons pressed.
--turn on, screen comes on, bright, but upside down or inverted. after some time, it may change to normal view, or scrambled.
--sometimes the text is slanted up and to the right in the top right corner of the monitor
--sometimes the playfield (the geometric shape) is off to the left and very compact
--sometimes it actually plays, but not so much
--sometimes it seems to warm up, but not so much (I have been messing with it off and on for awhile--time to get serious).
I tried test mode, I get a partial white box with a bunch of square o's and ones intersecting them, but it does not look too coherent.
In the back I have tried to reseat connectors and boards with no effect. No obvious cracked solder joints but I need to look carefully.
The large boards on the lower right have a tag that says working, Feb 2004, recapped electrolytics, and the small square board right behind the monitor has a tag that says recapped and working 2003.
I have looked around the site, but it is a bit over whelming.
Any help on where to focus my effort is appreciated and also what real hazards to I need to think about from energized caps if I start pulling stuff out.
Thanks,
Jeff in Nor Cal
(PS any local who comes to help me trouble shoot and fix will be rewarded with fine wine from Entropy Cellars)
What it does varies a lot:
--turn on, screen black. start buttons flashing red. Nothing happens when start buttons pressed.
--turn on, screen comes on, bright, but upside down or inverted. after some time, it may change to normal view, or scrambled.
--sometimes the text is slanted up and to the right in the top right corner of the monitor
--sometimes the playfield (the geometric shape) is off to the left and very compact
--sometimes it actually plays, but not so much
--sometimes it seems to warm up, but not so much (I have been messing with it off and on for awhile--time to get serious).
I tried test mode, I get a partial white box with a bunch of square o's and ones intersecting them, but it does not look too coherent.
In the back I have tried to reseat connectors and boards with no effect. No obvious cracked solder joints but I need to look carefully.
The large boards on the lower right have a tag that says working, Feb 2004, recapped electrolytics, and the small square board right behind the monitor has a tag that says recapped and working 2003.
I have looked around the site, but it is a bit over whelming.
Any help on where to focus my effort is appreciated and also what real hazards to I need to think about from energized caps if I start pulling stuff out.
Thanks,
Jeff in Nor Cal
(PS any local who comes to help me trouble shoot and fix will be rewarded with fine wine from Entropy Cellars)

