VGA to CGA video converter from hongkong

[blackmoor]

Yesterday I acquired a mille miglia 2 arcade cabinet from 1995 / monitor and sound system from 1986. All works though. So I have an idea of lifting original controller out and putting my X-arcade dual joystick in. And putting my older ibm laptop inside to act as mame/nes/c64 emulator. My main concern is how to hookup to the electrohome g19 monitor. I can't use arcadetoVGA pci-e card because I have a laptop ready to be used as mame brain.

Then I found this:

http://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/video_converter/vga_rgb_cga_video_converter/12215.html

Does anyone have any experinece with this type of device? Does it really work? if my i connect my laptop and monitor togehter through this, I would not need anything more, no 15kHz soft emulation? If so, that is a magnifient piece of hardware, right?

[grantspain]

you will be very disappointed believe me

[rCadeGaming]

It will be crappy, blurry, scaled 480i with no proper scanlines.  It will probably add lag too.

If you got an arcade monitor, make the most of it.  Sounds like you need to learn about the benefits of native resolution.

[blackmoor]

Yes, I do have a lot to learn when it comes to arcade monitors, I realize that

MAybe like this? Install powerstrip to my laptop (runs windows 7) and letting it change resolution as soon as windows is loaded, BUT using that hongkong apparatus still between my monitor and laptop, to prevent damage to monitor between startup of the laptop and running powerstrip?Maybe when powerstrip runs the apparatus wont do anything to the signal (make it worse) when it is set to 240p 15kHz. It would just act like a fuse to not allow higher hertz to the monitor, ever? I read in many places that higher than 15 kHz and monitor can destroy itself? That is my main concern.

My monitor is old, BTW. Its one of the rare types, from 1986, G19-AOE.

I'm going to buy stuff from there anyway (euro coin lock) its dirt cheap compared to my countrys prices ( I live In finland, 220 V electrical system and tax man robs ordinary people to support f*king Greece!) So might as well add that apparatus to the parcel...

[rCadeGaming]

No, the hong kong apparatus will scale to 480i and screw everything up regardless of what resolution you feed it.

Also you probably won't get 15kHz resolutions from Powerstrip alone, you need Soft15kHz first to unlock them, then Powerstrip to tweak them, and you'll need a Soft15kHz compatible card.  A laptop won't work.

[blackmoor]

Ok, thank you for your info...I ordered the apparatus still, because I have to now. probably It will be bad, but just have to try it!.

On the plus side I will have coin lock matched for 1 euro coin, Was needing that In here they cost 150 euros! There below 20 so thats a plus side

Are you positive that my laptop wont work with soft15KHZ and powerstrip? It is an older IBM t42 with I believe ATI graphics adapter. I was reading about testing it from here, have to try it tonight.

If it will not work, should I abandon whole laptop idea and buy a computer chassis, arcadevga card from ultimarc and motherboard + processor+ramm (any preferenced ones for mame arcade use/required for powerstrip?).

My biggest problem is that my arcade machine has been bolted shut everywhere. only a small opening for adjusting monitor is behind it and coin ock opening on front. Laptop would have been nice to just bolt to sidewall. Pc box is harder, I have to somehow open up to backpanel ,which has been bolted with L brackets to the sidewalls, AND contains the games mainboard! It is bolted to the rear panel. After that mounting the pc to the bottom of the arcade machine...

[rCadeGaming]

See if you can cancel your order.  It's a complete waste of money.

If the laptop has an ATI card, you might get lucky.  Here is the list of supported cards:

http://community.arcadeinfo.de/showthread.php?7925-Getestete-Grafikkarten

If it's listed there it will definitely work.  If not, I may just not have been tested yet, so you may get lucky testing for yourself.

-

I'd recommend updating the PC anyway, just don't waste your money on an ArcadeVGA.

Basically, the advantage of the ArcadeVGA is that it is simpler to set up than Soft15kHz.  Properly setting up native res for a lot of games in Soft15kHz with Powerstript is a lot of work, but it gives you much more flexibility in custom resolutions and timing adjustments (geometry and refresh rate, very important).

The end result with Soft15kHz is much better when set up properly, so it just depends whether you want to put the time in.  Also, you shouldn't have any problem finding a Soft15kHz compatible card (be sure it's listed as compatible before buying) for a lot less than an ArcadeVGA.

I'm using a Geforce7300GS (fanless) to output native arcade resolutions to my standard resolution CRT TV.

Sample pics:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=120798.0

All about how to achieve this:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,121491.0

Everything there applies the same with a 15kHz arcade monitor, just ignore the part about using a transcoder for the TV.  It will also be good general reading to understand analog video and the difference between native resolutions and scaling.

Another alternative is GroovyMAME.  GroovyMAME will work with a Soft15kHz-compatible ATI card, and will automate a lot of the work of setting up and adjusting resolutions.  I'm going to be switching to GroovyMAME in the future.  You will be able to let it automate things for the most part, and step in and adjust things for yourself where needed.

[blackmoor]

Just checked, my laptops graphics driver is 64MB ATI Radeon 9600. So that should/could/ work

My main concern with soft15kHz is how to stop the arcade monitor from powering on until windows has loaded and soft15kHz has loaded? Because I have read horror stories of monitors breaking when connected straight to computer without arcadeVga. That is the main reason I ordered that hongkong thing. Any ideas? I suspect many here have found a solution to this...

BTW would anyone like to see my arcade cabinet? If I can get decent enough images with my CRAPPY samsung galaxy camera, I could post them here.

EDIT: took some pictures but they ain't worth sh***. I can't believe my old nokia from 2000 could take BETTER pictures than a year old galaxy!.

Tried to play my mille miglia, but game wont start anymore Monitor starts ( makes the sound and static) and sound system starts (when adjusting volume higher makes noise) but game just wont start. No test image, no ramm testing, no anything. Monitor stays black. If monitor was dead but  game was not, then after putting together two cords in coin lock should make sound. but no sound so I know the game is not running at all.

 Is there a fuse for the gameboard somewhere maybe? My arcade has this black box that looks like a pc powersupply, only smaller. It has these ports as +5 volts, +12 volts and so on. AND it has a knob 5 volt adjust. Is that the thing that powers the game board? It has red led and it illuminates, and I suspect it powers the sound system too (sound board says sega 1986) so I don't think that is broken.

[rCadeGaming]

My main concern with soft15kHz is how to stop the arcade monitor from powering on until windows has loaded and soft15kHz has loaded?

I'm planning on wiring a computer controlled relay to my TV's power button.  Then I'll have a quick hidden program that runs at startup and tells the monitor to turn on after Windows has loaded and is running at a safe resolution.

A more common solution is to use a powerstrip with a time delayed outlet.

BTW would anyone like to see my arcade cabinet? If I can get decent enough images with my CRAPPY samsung galaxy camera, I could post them here.

EDIT: took some pictures but they ain't worth sh***. I can't believe my old nokia from 2000 could take BETTER pictures than a year old galaxy!.

If you can get some better pics, post a new in thread in project announcements.

Tried to play my mille miglia, but game wont start anymore...

Is there a fuse for the gameboard somewhere maybe?

You should be able to visually identify any fuses in the cab.  Check them visually, or with a multimeter to be sure.

My arcade has this black box that looks like a pc powersupply, only smaller. It has these ports as +5 volts, +12 volts and so on. AND it has a knob 5 volt adjust. Is that the thing that powers the game board? It has red led and it illuminates, and I suspect it powers the sound system too (sound board says sega 1986) so I don't think that is broken.

Yes, that's the power supply.  It's one of the first things you should check.

It sounds like you've jumped into the deep without learning to swim first.  You need to start at the beginning and properly educate yourself about arcade cabinets.  This might be a good place to start:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Project_Arcade

Oh, and by the way, PLEASE don't ruin your cab by putting a POS X-Arcade into it.  Build your own panel with decent parts.  You don't want your cab to end up here:

http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/index.html

[blackmoor]

Yeah, you are right I jumped at the deep end I been thinking of buiding my own arcade cabinet or buying one for one year. This game came to me from my coworker, his friend had been selling one for three months. It was dirt cheap (IMHO), 200 euros. When comparing with companies that sell these games here in Finland, they cost about 900-2000 euros (empty cabinet, which has nothing but the wood work in it, costs 500 euros). So I was FORCED to buy this

The game works again...It seems it has a tendency not starting every time. after 3 or 4 tries (mains on, mains off) it again started yesterday and played normally.

Of course Im goingo to put my X-arcade to it. Why not? the cabinet has same color (matte black) and thats the simplest place to start? Maybe after I get it working I will rip apart the arcade and build my own controls, but I will be starting with it. I'm planning to leave the original driving wheel control panel to the cabinet, because It has a claver feature. It can be folded down 90 degrees! then it makes "a table) for the arcade to sit on. Of course I will make some wood fittings to the X arcade so it will sit tightly in place and look like it belongs to the cabinet ( I hope).  This way I have driving controller and joystick controller Planning also to buy a H shifter and fitting it to the original control panel. Of course I need U-HID (or something better?) to translate the wheel, pedals and shifter for usb for the computer.

[rCadeGaming]

Of course Im goingo to put my X-arcade to it. Why not?

X-Arcade sticks and buttons are cheap Chinese knockoffs of Happ/iL parts, the button layout is horrible, and it will look like crap.

http://slagcoin.com/joystick/attributes_brands.html

http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

[blackmoor]

Ok, got the apparatus yesterday. Connected it to the monitor And to my IBM. AND IT WORKS! Games look good with it, the resolution what you give to the apparatus HAS a difference. Lower-> Looks better. And powerstrip allowed my radeon integrated graphic driver to display 320x200 resolution.

Only thing, The picture is...faded? IT has like white could over it. Could it be I made wrong connection with the monitor?

My arcade has 2 connectors as I understand. Both have equal number of pins. Other has R G B E -V And a pin with written ( this had the original game connectod to it, Cable colors are Red Green Blue Black White). Cable colors are same as in the apparatus so I connecteds to this. And it works, but picture is very faded with white "overlay".

Other Connection has R G B E V+ H+ And One pin removed from the board and then Pins E V- H-

What would be the right connector to use? And should I put white/black together as I seen in some posts?

[MTPPC]

Just checked, my laptops graphics driver is 64MB ATI Radeon 9600. So that should/could/ work

My main concern with soft15kHz is how to stop the arcade monitor from powering on until windows has loaded and soft15kHz has loaded? Because I have read horror stories of monitors breaking when connected straight to computer without arcadeVga.

Please link to these horror stories to which you refer. I asked about this specifically and couldn't get any evidence that this is anything but a wive's tale. My Ms. Pac-Mame boots through 31khz every time and the WG monitor keeps running fine.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,120315.msg1277729.html#msg1277729

[Nephasth]

Just checked, my laptops graphics driver is 64MB ATI Radeon 9600. So that should/could/ work

My main concern with soft15kHz is how to stop the arcade monitor from powering on until windows has loaded and soft15kHz has loaded? Because I have read horror stories of monitors breaking when connected straight to computer without arcadeVga.

Please link to these horror stories to which you refer. I asked about this specifically and couldn't get any evidence that this is anything but a wive's tale. My Ms. Pac-Mame boots through 31khz every time and the WG monitor keeps running fine.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,120315.msg1277729.html#msg1277729

I've never had a problem running soft15khz and breaking an arcade monitor. Wives' tale indeed.

[rCadeGaming]

Yes, I've run all kinds of things through my TV that it can't sync with while working on things.  It displays a bunch of garbage, but it doesn't hurt it.  I think it's an old wive's tale too, but didn't want to claim it and be liable.

Only thing I can say to the OP is that if you think the picture you're getting out of that thing looks good, you still have a lot of learning to do.  As I said, that thing is going to scale to 480i no matter what you do.  If that sentence isn't significant to you, keep researching.

[blackmoor]

Glad that nobody answered my volt question.

What you are then saying is, that I can make a VGA-to arcade monitor cable and coonect it to my laptop and not worry about breaking the monitor at all. Nice. Will try that.

What about the volts? I belive my monitor needs 5 volts signal and suspect that is why the picture looks faded with the hongkong apparatus. Should it be better when no apparatus is between, it should be crystal clear with self made vga-arcade montor cable?

[blackmoor]

Last working day for this year is over Now going shopping.

I got a nokia e7 and recorded some video of my machine in working state, but alas I dont have usb cable to connect it to computer and to upload video to youtube. Going to buy that.

Also does anyone now how the sound aplifier is connected, the pins I mean. It has 3 connectors, one is power (big leads), one with 5 pins and a larger one which has about 8 pins and  I can't remove it (too much power would break it). Both have same color leads going to the connectors. Speakers get grey and yellow ( suspect it is a mono amplifier because every speaker has same color leads, gray and yellow) Sadly those leads go to both connectors Was thinking of putting 3,5 mm jack adapter to it to get the sound system working with my laptop mame Board says SEGA 1986, any clues from that?

Going to also by a vga adapter and maybe rj45 cable to hook up the arcade monitor directly to my laptops vga connector. Hope you are right and my monitor does'nt blow up. Installed soft15kHz, but I'm not sure it needs windows to work? I installed it and it said reboot. After that my windows looked kinda funny (looks still, no background image and it says windows build 7600 at left bottom?). and when i run softkHz after reboot, it just says 15kHz installed AND user, what is this user?

Alas after soft15Khz installed its mode, windows says in reboot: "windows is not activated"? ! Why did it do that, any ideas?

[blackmoor]

Made the cable, pins 1 (Arcade R) ,2(Arcade G) ,3 (Arcade B) and 13 & 14 twined together (Arcade -V)
also twined together pins 5,6,7,8 to arcade E pin

And running it now.. so my monitor did not blow up, but No picture, just running lines across which might represent  windows dekstop?

Running soft15khz-> no effect. With soft15khz saying installed or uninstalled, looks the same. Cannot choose other resolutions from powerstrip other than standard (lowest 640) resolutions

And soft15khz says my card is ATI MOBILITY RADEON 7500 which was listed ok on soft15khz forum.

Now what?

[blackmoor]

Update!

Read about soft15khz, that it is not compatible with win 7. so installed windows xp sp3 32bit, ati drivers from ibm site, it is ati catalyst 8.1. something.

Still when soft15Khz is loaded and selecting install 15 khz, setting resolution in windows to 640 60 hz and restart-> arcade monitor just flips some lines.

What I'm doing wrong with this?

Sidenote, when powerstrip is installed, it won't allow to select resolution below 640, if soft15khz HAS installed its 15khz driver. Before that lowest resolution in powerstrip is 320@60hz. That still does not show in the monitor.

So I',m guessing i just cant get that 15 khz mode working, but why!

[rCadeGaming]

Ok, first of all you're asking way too many questions.  Probably why you're not getting many responses.  You need to thoroughly research things, instead just asking us to tell you everything.

Let's start with your cable, as that's probably a problem.  Your descriptions of your connections are not really clear enough to understand what's going on.  How about some pictures of the connecting points on both ends, and of your cable.

[blackmoor]

I thought this forum was all aout asking questions. Very well, not asking so many anymore.

I have been reading, trying to learn this, but for example for soft15khz about only help for it in the net seems to be run it, install 15khz, put resolution to 640 and reboot computer-> picture works in arcade monitor. Unfortunately not for me. Anything that I do at the computer end seems to do anything to show picture in the arcade monitor. Only thing that showed it was the vga2cga, but it was faded.

My cable is very rude, stripped open old cable and connected it to the game boards old connector (cut the cables to it, dont need the original game If i can make this work. At this moment only twined the wires together, where I live it is kinda hard to buy these connectors. Going to solder and insulta them if I can get this to work, though.

Measured all the leads, so that would not wire it badly. It had 3 big leads like coaxial (centre and collar lead in one lead). Those where connected to pins 1,2 and 3. their collars were pins 6,7 and 8. Funny sidenote, big leads where colored red green and blue, BUT blue had pins 1 and 6 (red, red ground) and red had 3 and 8. so they were reversed. checked this multiple times. Green big lead had pins 2 and 7.

then it had all the other pins (minus pin9) leads. what concerned me was brown lead pin 5, yellow pin 13 and grey pin 14. Connected ground pin 5 to the big leads collar and that mess of wire to black lead in my arcade (pin E). Read from ultimarc that white lead is pins 13&14 combined (reads -V at the arcade chassis). so connected those pins to that. And of course the 1,2,3 pins to RGB.

When using soft15khZ and at windows desktop, somtehing comes tot the screen, but it gois from right to left ver fast and goes from down to up in multiple lines.

I dont know, maybe this just is too much for me.

[rawbe]

I feel your pain. I'm stuck too!! I was hoping for helpful advice.

[rCadeGaming]

Let's start with your cable, as that's probably a problem.  Your descriptions of your connections are not really clear enough to understand what's going on.  How about some pictures of the connecting points on both ends, and of your cable.

Also, just twisting the wires together is not guaranteed to work too well.  You need to solder, or properly crimp them.

[blackmoor]

Just made a 19 minute video of my arcade machine and problems.

I'll show there the connector, my chassis, the arcade machine, my laptop, soft15khz configurtaion, and what happens when i connect the laptop to my arcade monitor.

It is going though youtube crunch right now, but here is the link:

Hopefully you can get the idea of what is wrong and can make suggestions. And hopefully it will show on youtube in an hour or so

BTW: So so sorry about my crappy english

EDIT: And its live now, please watch it and give some ideas.

[blackmoor]

Anybody here at christmas time?  Hoped my video would generate some discussion, but NOTHING! Was it so bad?

Anyway found my old computer atx chassis, xp sp3 installed  radeon 9500 club3d series.
 
Tried installing crt_emudriver 9.5 (the one for never cards). it installed. Arcade_osd says  crt_emudriver found. I can select any resolution and it seems to work, although below 320x200@60i monitor stays shut down. So time to hook up my arcade monitor.

AND NO PICTURE! still same stripes goes up and down. I now i should not be asking questions anymore, but in my mind I've done everything right, and still no go. PLEASE HELP ME

And the cable, have i connected it wrong? like i showed in the video, just measured it again and it goes like it should go, pin 1 goes to arcade red, pin 2 to arcade green and pin3 to arcade blue. pin 4,5,6,7,8 go to black. and pins 13,14 go to white.

UPDATE: modified my cable, found a post about connecting to electrohome g07. This has same type of connector as shown in my youtube video. So i modified my cable to go to arcades R G B E and then -H and -V so no composite sync. this is the result. Getting closer, ideas...?

[blackmoor]

Could not get it to work better. here is a picture of the monitor chassis connectors:

[rCadeGaming]

I didn't watch the first video.  Way longer than should be necessary.

R G B E V H = Red, Green, Blue, Earth (Ground), Vertical Sync, Horizontal Sync.  Double check with the VGA pinout that everything is coming from and going to the right place.

http://pinouts.ru/Video/VGA15_pinout.shtml

Not sure whether you should be using the top or bottom input on the monitor with the info provided.  Whether you're using + or - V and H sync depends on what the computer is putting out.  If you don't know how to determine this, you'll have to try different combinations.

Did you solder or properly crimp all of your connections?  Don't do anything else until that is fixed.

Finally, you have to figure out if your Soft15kHz install is setup and working correctly and it's actually putting out 15kHz.  The monitor won't sync up if it's getting too high a scan rate.  It may just roll like in the second video.

[blackmoor]

Another update was playing with my monitor and actually managed to get a picture to it (Altough it is very dark).

Problem is it only works with one resolution selected from arcade_osd. any other resolution-> a mess and have to boot in vga mode from windows safe menu to get picture back in my normal vga monitor. here is a video



I ordered videoamplifier with cables from ultimarc so that should not be a problem anymore And I believe i can get picture brightness back with that. Problem I believe is in the crt_emudriver install, can somebody give me a detailed instructions how to install? I just downloaded 9.5 version of it and installed it. after that been using arcade_osd program. should I set something somewhere when installing crt_Emudriver? monitor type or something?

[blackmoor]

apparently not the only 1 having problems with this type of chassis, read here:

http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=194

nice pic of the connectors, are spot on idetical, has same marking GF-1000 AND has one potentiometer glues with buble gum and at the flyback screen potentiometer has been glued (notice the red stuff):

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn267/purplec_2008/13-1.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn267/purplec_2008/chassis.jpg

Was playing around with my arcade. Tried with making a bootable pen drive out of usb stick with nevest groovymame linux distro. Booted up nicely, but no picture in arcade, only in my vga. Went to setup meny, setup my screen as cga 15 khz. started emulator. No go. picture comes to vga, but not to the arcade. started game..pic does not come to the vga, only in arcade, but it is not syncing correctly keeps running very fast from down to up.

Played around with arcade_ods. GOT STABLE PICTURE when customised 640x480 60i to lower khz (arcade osd edit modeline) when at 12 khz, started to get stable. below that-> monitor shut down itself. but after waiting couple of minutes restarted again, must have some kind of protection circuit.

Is is possible that this monitor just wont sync with vga signal? This is so rare type, not many posts about it in the web, g19-AEO. all the other g19 are CCO of something like that and sizes 13-19 inches. mine has 26 inch tube.

[ahofle]

That scrambled picture in your last video looks to me like a software or video card problem.  If you look closely you'll see the monitor synching just fine.  I'm guessing that scrambled image is what's being fed to the monitor.  I would try a different video card.  Uninstall CRT_Emu driver, reboot and reinstall it (use a normal PC monitor for this).  Be sure to edit your vmmaker.ini before creating the resolutions.  See this thread below and maybe post crt_emu driver questions in the Groovymame forum where Calamity will see them.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,116023.0.html

One other question, does your video card have both a VGA and DVI output?  I had a problem when using the VGA output and had to use DVI with a VGA adapter.

[blackmoor]

That scrambled picture in your last video looks to me like a software or video card problem.  If you look closely you'll see the monitor synching just fine.  I'm guessing that scrambled image is what's being fed to the monitor.  I would try a different video card.  Uninstall CRT_Emu driver, reboot and reinstall it (use a normal PC monitor for this).  Be sure to edit your vmmaker.ini before creating the resolutions.  See this thread below and maybe post crt_emu driver questions in the Groovymame forum where Calamity will see them.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,116023.0.html

One other question, does your video card have both a VGA and DVI output?  I had a problem when using the VGA output and had to use DVI with a VGA adapter.

Tried connecting to dvi port (my club3d radeon 9600 has these ports, starting from motherboard side: VGA, TV, DVI) When connected to dvi (with cvi to vga adapter) It shows picture in my vga display until computer has booted past the xp startup screen. After that no picture. So I thought now it is in 15khz mode and swapped the cable to arcade monitor-> no pivture there either, nothing. So i think the DVI port is the secondary port in my adapter, not primary? tweaking with windos display settings confirmed it, dvi is secondary. It's name is listed as radeon 9600 - secondary.

Unfortunately i dont have any more adapters,t42 laptop and this club3d is all I have

Uninstalled everything related to ati also, and tried to install crt_emudrive 6.5 but it says the same INF error as with my t42 laptop. 9.3 installs without a hitch. Modified vmmaker ini file display type cga. after installing crt_emudrive and vmmaker installed xp_quickres, no resolutions below 640x480 at 60 hz arcade_osd tweaking that resolution to 12 khz, got picture stable. but only that resolution.

I'm getting little frustrated...


BTW this is my graphic adaptor looks exactly like it : http://www.appinformatica.com/tarjetas-graficas-club-3d-radeon-9600-256mbagp.php

[ahofle]

Try posting your issues in the Groovymame forum...Calamity is extremely helpful with CRT Emu driver and Groovymame issues.

[blackmoor]

Got the vga amplifier with cable from ultimarc today. Tried it and no, cant get clear picture. Once got close with 720i and tweaking the clock setting in arcade osd lower, to 13 khz range. But then it just started rolling again and could not get it stable anymore.

So started to wonder, maybe my monitor is broken. So connected original game to it and BLAM. crystal clear picture, colors right, no roll no nothing.

WTF should i try next...

Could someone just post very simple clear info as to how to install calamitys driver, from scratch. How can i wipe everything driver/software related from xp and install calamitys driver as it should be installed?

[blackmoor]

PRoblem solved with calamity, this can be deleted by admin.

[blackmoor]

Hi again. In need of a professional opinion.

My chassis has connector saying DG COIL and two white connectors go to that. Would that be the degaussing coil? If so, do you have any idea how to make it degauss? I took my arcade machine apart and accidentally brought a speaker too close to the monitor, now it has a purple spot on lower right corner.

Another thing, when i was looking the chassis for a button for degauss, came across a switch, which has two positions, N and S. could that be the degaussing swith?

[blackmoor]

After reading monitor FAQ it appears the degaussing should be done automaticly when starting up the monitor. So looked the tube and noticed that the degaussing wire (black, about pen width) had come loose from bottom side of the tube. It was held with tape.

So replaced the old tape with new water proof tape. And started and shut couple of times and voila, the purple spot vanished

Is the S N switch a service mode switch? If so, what will it do when i put it in S? It is now in N position. Before turning it I would like to hear your professional opinion on the matter...