Ms. Pacman - very subtle wave on monitor

[Finalheaven]

Hi everyone,

I recently moved 1,500 miles and I brought my Ms. Pacman machine with me. Luckily, it's still up and running.

At first, I had a slight problem with the marquee light turning on, but I repaired the fluorescent tube starter, and it works fine now (opening it up revealed a wire had come loose).

While everything works fine (marquee light, coin door lights, coin switches, monitor and sound), I have one very slight issue. In the bottom left corner and the top left corner of the screen, I notice a slight wave. I wouldn't call it a hum bar, as when playing the game, I don't see the wave travel vertically across the screen. It just seems to be a very subtle waviness in those two aforementioned corners. I thought of degaussing, but I can tell by the noise it makes when turning it on that it's a self-degaussing monitor.

I checked the fuse box, fuses, power connector, but nothing seems to change it.

Any thoughts? I could ignore it, but I'm sure many can relate, it's hard to go from perfect to anything less than. And it was perfect before I had left Boston.

Thanks very much.

[opt2not]

Do you know what model the monitor is? I'd be willing to bet a cap kit would probably fix it.

[Finalheaven]

From what I can gather, a sticker on the chassis says "Electrohome 19" Color Monitor M051-00092-0000"

Another sticker on the far end of the chassis says "C.R.T. Type 19VMJP22/19VMNP22"

There are no other indicator marks on the CRT or neckboard itself. 2 EPROMS and a few capacitors on the main PCB aside, The entire cabinet consists of the original parts. If you want to see pictures, you can check my older thread, "1981 Ms. Pacman Restoration."

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

[opt2not]

It's most likely a Electrohome GO7-CBO. Pac stand-ups had either the 19" G07, or the Wells-Gardner K4600.

Also, with any repair or restoration, be sure to read the Manual and Troubleshooting guides first, just so you know your way around the insides better.  KLOV has links to the manuals.

You can get a capacitor-kit from Bob Roberts, MikesArcade, Arcadeshop...it's a fairly common monitor.
Judging from your other post, you seem handy with a soldering iron. Replacing monitor capacitors will be easy for you. Just be sure to discharge the monitor thoroughly when taking the neck-board out.


I'd start there. If the cabinet is as original as you say, then the caps most likely haven't been replaced on your monitor. It's a good idea to do it anyways as it'll iron out the waves, as well as make the image more vivid and clear, for many more years of use.

Good luck!

[clutch]

I was so ready for that guy to get shocked. 

[Tarman]

Check your fuses.  It sounds silly but is common on the pacs.  Make sure the holder is tight and clean and put new fuses in.  That fixed mine.

[JoeB]

Does the problem go away after a few minutes of running?? I have a cab with a much newer monitor, and a cap kit fixed a very similar problem, during cap replacement I found 1 cap that was leaky.