Monitor blacked out.... cap kit fixable?

[Lutus]

Hello, never posted on the monitor forum before but you guys sure know your stuff around here. 

I just bought a dig-dig machine that was fully working a few months ago in May and the guy said that he turned it on one day and the monitor was just blank.  Everything else still works... coin door, sound, controls, cab lights.  He said he can even play the game without the monitor. 

I won't be able to pick it up and give you more details till next saturday,  Aug 18.

My question is, based upon the problem description, what is your gut instinct as to possible reasons for this problem.  Would a cap kit possibly fix something like this?

(Seems a cap kit will fix a lot more things than I ever imagined after looking through the monitor forum.)

Thanks.

[grantspain]

best to start by looking for bad solder joints on the monitor board(what type is it?)
there are a few things to do before you get a cap kit(although changing the caps is always a good thing to do)
1-check your fuse on the monitor
2-check for bad solder joints(especially around the flyback transformer,plugs and any areas that produce heat e.g big transistors)
3-look at the neck of the tube with the machine switched on  to see if you have an orange glow
4-using a multimeter check your input voltage is present on the monitor power input plug(110-120 i presume if your stateside)
if all the above checks out ok then maybe a cap kit will sort it out but remember there are many other things to stop a monitor working(flyback transformer,horizontal output transistor,bridge rectifier circuit,protecion resistors)
one thing always worth doing first is turn up your brightness to see if you get any picture at all(never know it could be just a dirty pot)
also tap the metal frame of the monitor to see if it affects the screen in any way(this will prove if you have a bad solder joint somewhere
happy hunting

[Lutus]

Thanks grantspain!

I'll definently check those out when I get it.  From the guys description it is probably something pretty simple.  Once I get it in hand I will find out what monitor it is exactly and starting narrowing it down.