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Tell me why this wouldn't work: replacing arcade power supply with PC pwr suppl
Matt Berry:
A couple of things could be happening. First something may be grounding out, this could be a wire that is making a connection to ground or a componet has failed and is making the connection to ground. Check to make sure none of the wires have been damaged, or are exposed look for componets that smell funny or looked burnt. You can always disconnect wires and check the voltage when a new area is reconnected until you find the problem (make sure the common or "-" neg side stays connected. The second possibility is that the power supply can't supply the proper voltage when it is under load. Power supplies are pretty cheap with a little research. A computer power supply is a little more difficult to connect up. First off if it is a no name brand it probably won't provide stable power. I'd also look at the maximum amperage ratings on each rail. Computer power supplies (older) need to be under load when fired up or they will fry - You will also have to find the pinout for the MB plug so that you can connect a switch / Jumper to even get it to power up. All said you'd be better off buying a new power supply also remember if a componet failed or if something shorted out, it could have damaged your current power supply and when you put in the new one it could suffer the same fate :(
quarterback:
Thanks for the replies. I decided to take-the-plunge and was just coming back to report my success!
I used one (of many) old PC power supplies in my basement and some old speaker wire to rig this baby up. Not only does the power supply work, I can now confirm that the monitor works as well (which was the whole reason I was trying to do this in the first place)
So, now that I know I have a working 19" arcade monitor, I've got to figure out the rest of my setup. My plan at this point is to buy the JPAC and try to run my PC's VGA signal through it, although I'm not sure what the success rate is for that setup. I guess I need to figure out if my video card can output 15khz.
As far as tracking down the voltage-drop problem, it's probably not worth the effort since I'm not going to actually use this power supply for long. I just needed to get the game powered up so I could see if the monitor even worked.
paigeoliver:
Just spend the extra bucks and get an arcadevga. I have done it every which way, and can now say with confidence just to get the arcadevga and jpac don't waste your time with anything else. Matter of fact I now even reccomend JPACs to people who aren't even using arcade monitors. Using a JAMMA harness is a great way to wire things up.
You can see if a monitor works without a gameboard or power supply. Just unhook the power from the power supply and power up the cabinet and look for glow on the neck, if you have glow then the monitor works, although it might need a capping or other minor repair (which is easy).