Blown fuse on cabinet?

[Jakobud]

Okay I posted a few days ago about a Astron Belt cabinet (converted to Choplifter) that might be able to to get a deal on.  The place trying to sell it to me doesnt know anything about arcade games.  When I powered this thing on, the screen was all garbled and messed up.  Not sure what the problem was there.  But on top of this, after about 3 minutes, the machine would just turn off.  Does anyone have any suspicions as to why it would do this?  The guy there told me that the arcade cabinet blew a fuse, thats why it doesnt work right.  I really dont believe the guy.  Does this sound right?  Wouldn't the game not even turn on in the first place if the fuse was blown?  Do arcade cabinet's even have fuses?  I'm just trying to tell if the guy is trying to rip me off or what.

[missioncontrol]

Yes they have fuses but I doubt that is the problem in this case.......

[fredster]

When you said it just "shuts off", do you mean it lost power all over?

[Will]

my cabinet has fuses connected to the isolation transformer.

[Flinkly]

just a logical opinion, but if the guy knows that the cab doesn't work cause of a blown fuse, then why wouldn't he spend the 2 dollars max it would cost to buy a new fuse and replace it?  then the cab would "work" like he says and he could sell it for more.  i think the guy isn't telling the truth, at least about the blown fuse.  and like others have said, fuses don't blow, then fix themselves, then blow the next time.  it's a bigger problem.

that aside, if it's 50 dollars he wants for the stuff, you could probably make your money back from selling stuff, worse case scenario.  if he wants 100 or more, it's all up to you.