This seems to happen a lot on digital multisyncs when there's a resolution change. The monitor has to react fast to switch out all the necessary circuitry, and I don't think it can always react fast enough. Results in distorted waveforms and blown components. WG will insist this isn't a problem, but evidence suggests otherwise.
Personally, I like to avoid excessive mode changes (e.g. run your frontend and what games you can at the same scanrate if you're doing a MAME setup).
Then again, these things also seem to have a tendency to blow up out of the box like yours did. A friend lost a Sanwa 29PFX with less than 24 hours on it. Seller was nice enough to swap it out, at least.
But yeah, check the components qrz listed. They're usually the culprits. Sometimes there's a relay on an s-correction cap that dies which causes the more visible failure.