My Wells-Gardner D9500 Experience

[Thourne]

Just a informative post, as I found virtually nothing on the Web (Installation wise) about the Wells-Gardner D9500.

After reading several reviews and some research and my price range I decided to go with the Wells-Gardner D9500 Multi-Sync Digital 19" Monitor to complete my MAME cabinet. The "Plug and play" feature was enticing and it supports up to 800x600 resolution.

The monitor was not as plug and play friendly as I would have liked when I opened the box. There is no instructions and the technical Jargen on the website didn't help me too much for my skill level. I searched the web for help but could not find any except for a few tips from RetroGaming.

The power cord was simple enough to figure out. <Click> and it was in. The monitor did come with a provided cable but I was unsure how to hook it up as one side was VGA ready to plug in and the other side was 3 cable connections. I learned later why I had to use this cord.
 
I went to Best Buy and bought a 6' VGA to VGA cable to hookup to my ARCADEVGA video card from Ultimarc. After hooking it up I got windows to bootup fine and could see immediate pictures on the D9500 monitor. Well, at least until windows tries to auto-detect the ArcadeVGA card then it shuts down to a blank screen. The installation guide from Ultimarc simply states "If Windows displays a message "New Hardware Found" you MUST quit this and not let the standard Windows drivers install." I never figured out how to stop this so I pressed F8 upon boot up and went into safe mode.

Upon entering safe mode the "Update Driver" option didn't work for me ( I am using Windows XP) So I had to manual choose the driver and install it that way.

Once I got the video card installed The monitor looked great!! I started playing a game or two and then I noticed something. I actually could hear the electricity flowing through the VGA to VGA cable I got from Best Buy. Even worse, after touching the cord is was HOT HOT HOT!!! So hot that I could barely touch it. I am sure this was a definate fire hazard. I immediately pulled the cord out and decided I better try and figure out how to install the provided cord.

The cord comes with three seperate bundled wire sets. One I believe is a grounding wire. The other two I didn't know where to plug in. One had 5 wires the other had 6 wires. After reviewing the diagram I could see where I could plug in one but had no idea where to plug in the other one. Let's just say after about an hour I figured it out.

Best way I can explain it without pictures is this:

DISCLAIMER: I am not a technical guru. I am not even sure if this is the proper way to connect the provided VGA cord but it worked for me. You assume all responsibily for following these instructions if you decide to do so.

Ok with that being said this is what I did:

1) Unplug the Monitor
2) Disconnect the approx. 1 foot long x 6-wire cord (and the round single wire) that connects from the mainboard to the small neck board.
3) Attach the 5-wire cable (from the provided VGA cable from Wells-Gardner) to the Large main board to the 5-pin slot that is just to the right of the power cable. More specifically, next to the two-blue wires.
4) Attach the remaining round single wire and the 6-wire cord to the Neck board from where you removed the cord from step #2.
5) Attach the opposite end of the VGA cord to your video card.
6) Plug in the power cord, boot up your computer and all should work fine.

Ensure your video resolution is set to 800x600 or less. If for some reason you forget, your monitor will say something like "Out of Range" and you will see a bunch of squigly lines. It doesn't seem to damage anything that I noticed. Just as a precaution I touched the wires from the provided cable and they were, thankfully, cool to the touch.

All in all, I hope you all find the provided information useful when choosing and hooking up your arcade monitor.

Here is a pic of my unfinished cabinet. And yes, it World of Warcraft Themed!



Robert O.
Victorville, CA

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