Sinistar Cockpit Restoration - Monitor Question...

[sihnstarr]

Greetings Programs!

I own one of the big monster Sinistar Cockpits and am slowly but surely restoring her to her glory. Now, what I am having is monitor troubles.

I sent away the monitor chassis and flyback to Eldorado Games, here in Missouri and they put a new cap kit, flyback transformer and repaired some other issues last year. It worked great up until this year when the monitor, upon power up, looks fine but, then when you have been playing a game for about five minutes goes crazy. The picture destabilizes and looks like the graphics have been multiplied and stretched out and layed over each other.

Now, I've hooked up the game board set up to another test monitor I have and the picture does not go crazy on that so, it has to be something with the monitor.

I contacted Suzo/Happ about a replacement monitor and they recommended a LCD screen product they have to replace the CRT. The LCD comes with an adapter that takes the Molex and converts it to your standard monitor connector.

My questions are:

1. Are there viable CRT replacements out there for the Wells Gardner K4900 series?
2. Would any of you get the LCD to replace the Wells Gardner K4900?
3. Any ideas on fixes for the existing monitor chassis from the problem I described? Or should I recap, replace the flyback transformer again?

Thank you in advance.

Sihn Starr Rossi

[RayB]

Sounds like a bad solder joint somewhere. What happens is the parts heat up and then the bad solder joint loses proper contact and it causes faults. In your case, it could be as simple as the soldering of the connector pin that takes the "sync" signal. Those often fail considering how old they are and they have a connector/wires attached causing physical stress to the pins. Fixing that is as easy as melting the solder, or melting + sucking it away and flowing in some new solder around that pin. ($10 soldering iron, some solder and your time)

Post some photos though. It's easier for the experts here to diagnose.

[SirPeale]

Whatever you do, don't replace the screen with one of those LCD jobbies.  Not for a classic like that.  They're good for 48-in-1 conversions and the like, but lots of people who have "upgraded" their monitor to an LCD aren't happy.

[sihnstarr]

Sounds like a bad solder joint somewhere. What happens is the parts heat up and then the bad solder joint loses proper contact and it causes faults. In your case, it could be as simple as the soldering of the connector pin that takes the "sync" signal. Those often fail considering how old they are and they have a connector/wires attached causing physical stress to the pins. Fixing that is as easy as melting the solder, or melting + sucking it away and flowing in some new solder around that pin. ($10 soldering iron, some solder and your time)

Post some photos though. It's easier for the experts here to diagnose.

I will go under the hood, pull out the chassis and take some photos to post. I can also take some video of what the screen does on power up and post it too.

[sihnstarr]

Whatever you do, don't replace the screen with one of those LCD jobbies.  Not for a classic like that.  They're good for 48-in-1 conversions and the like, but lots of people who have "upgraded" their monitor to an LCD aren't happy.

Good to know, especially for what Suzo/Happ is charging for the LCD "upgrade". I want to keep all my games as original as possible.

[RayB]

I will go under the hood, pull out the chassis and take some photos to post. I can also take some video of what the screen does on power up and post it too.

Photos of the SCREEN with the garbled graphics first.