Please Help! I just purchased my first NeoGeo cab!

I am a first time poster here, but have been a fan of the NeoGeo arcade machines since I was a little kid. I've been going to auctions for about a year now and yesterday I finally bought one. They couldn't get it to power on at auction so I scored it for $40.00, with hopes of bringing it home and fixing it. I was able to get the machine to power up, but with some problems. It was making this horrible buzzing noise which I couldn't narrow down. It seemed like it was coming from the power supply, but it very well could have been the monitor. I was able to get audio from it and I could tell that the game was coming up and the marquee light was coming on and everything. However, this whole time, no picture was coming up on the screen. I decided to leave it on for a minute just to see if maybe it would warm up and the picture would come up, but then as the buzzing started to subside, the machine just totally shut off and then along came that dreaded smell of burnt electronics and of course now it won't turn on at all. So, now I'm trying to figure out where to start testing things in the machine because it seemed as if though the board was fine, but that the problem was in the monitor or power supply, but I'm not sure if that's the case or not. If anyone can help me or provide me with any kind of help, it would be much appreciated. I am completely new to all of this, but I really want to learn how to repair and restore these things, so my appologies in advance for any annoyingly simple questions I may ask! Thanks!

Hey I'm in knoxville during the school year, at UTK. Glad you scored a deal at the the auction game sales auction. It's where I got mine Dec of 03 a nice dedicated 4 slot for a bid of 240 (290 after tax/fees)

So anyway there's lots of guys in here that will definately be able to help you out more than I can but to start off what kind of cab did you get dedicated or conversion a pic would sure help.

Anyway if its dedicated and those light panels are lighting up that could be a source of the buzzing. If its a much louder buzz and it sounds like its the power supply, my cab has an awful habit of the fan in the power supply buzzing (I usually use some old valve oil from my trumpet playing days and it shuts it up for a while). Past that I'm not too sure where to look.

Good luck and come August if you still need help or someone to game with let me know. TN is kinda sparse

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/metalslugnut/mycab.jpg

Fine choice of A game you got there.

Hey Lithy, I should be going to the auction in August so maybe I'll see you there! It's nice to know I'm not the only one in Knoxville. Here are some quick pictures I took last night with my digital camera. I don't know if this will provide any insight at all. I took the glass and screen mask and everything off the front to try to get a better look at the inside.

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Hey joshholt. Nice deal for you! Looking at your pics, I can't see any burns, so that's a good sign. The problem is most likelly your monitor or power setup (not the supply itself as the board gets power... possibly the isolation transformer?). Your monitor seems to have a couple of extra wires though... Where do the wires with the molex connector go? And the spiralled wires? I assume one set of those goes to an isolation transformer, but I don't know why they'd have two sets of power wires. But, as I said, the problem most likelly rests in your monitor or iso transformer. You can get the isolation transformer from bob roberts pretty cheap http://homearcade.org/BBBB/ .

What a mesh, I see you have more than one cabinent. Confirm the 1 slot is still operational by pluging it into one of the other jamma cabinent you have. If the one slot is ok, the problem can only be with the power supply or monitor and I would recommend EXTREME caution when probing around the monitor because it holds a significate charge even when not plugged in that can shock the hell out of you if you do not know what your doing. Long story short the wiring in that cabinent a mesh, it has to be done over so isolating the root cause with the picture failure can be made simplier. As for the power supply get a multimeter and see if you are getting the proper voltage outputs. I might add you got what you paid for, the cabinent worth 60. A new monitor could run you 600 dollars new

Nice cab..

This fix is going to be tough..Your going to need to take voltage readings/check fuses,check wiring,maybe re-wire stuff,maybe install a new power supply and or new monitor etc..

My suggestion is to have someone come take a look at it,learning in the process of how it works..

Thanks for the advice everybody! I am gonna try to check some things in there tonight when I get home and I'll post my findings.

You said you smelled a burning smell and then it wouldn't power on again. Try sniffing around the power supply, mvs board, monitor, isolation transformer. You will know if you find the culprit to have burned out parts, bc that burned electronics smell is very distinct. If your cab was in use in a (cig) smokey environment it may be a little harder to track it down by smell.

If you have another cab or a jamma test rig definitely try the 1 slot in that to see if it is functioning.

cheers,
-DT

a monitor doesn't have to cost you $600 btw... I got three 25" arcade monitors for $550 shipped, so you still got a good deal, as I suspect that your power supply malfunctioned and burned up. I still think that your problem may have started from the isolation transformer though... umm... why is there a footprint on your metal slug cart?

stuffmonger said:

a monitor doesn't have to cost you $600 btw... I got three 25" arcade monitors for $550 shipped, so you still got a good deal, as I suspect that your power supply malfunctioned and burned up. I still think that your problem may have started from the isolation transformer though... umm... why is there a footprint on your metal slug cart?

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Maybe when it was going a bright op tried the 'give it a swift kick' technique to fix it

stuffmonger said:

a monitor doesn't have to cost you $600 btw... I got three 25" arcade monitors for $550 shipped, so you still got a good deal, as I suspect that your power supply malfunctioned and burned up. I still think that your problem may have started from the isolation transformer though... umm... why is there a footprint on your metal slug cart?

Click to expand...

Guy its a ten dollar difference, not exactly a big saving there

lithy said:

Maybe when it was going a bright op tried the 'give it a swift kick' technique to fix it

Click to expand...

You joke but you don't realize how often that actually works

mainman said:

Guy its a ten dollar difference, not exactly a big saving there

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That was 550 for THREE monitors... not one.

Ok, I checked the power supply with a multimeter and all the readings were correct. I guess maybe the next step would be replacing the isolation transformer and see what happens? By the way, I don't think that's a footprint, hehe. The cartridge had some dust on it and that spot is from where my hand rubbed on it and brushed some of it off.

joshholt said:

Ok, I checked the power supply with a multimeter and all the readings were correct. I guess maybe the next step would be replacing the isolation transformer and see what happens? By the way, I don't think that's a footprint, hehe. The cartridge had some dust on it and that spot is from where my hand rubbed on it and brushed some of it off.

Click to expand...

Ah... ok... before you buy an isolation transformer, I'd suggest you test the leads between the transformer and the monitor. You don't need to have an extra isolation transformer cluttering up your the place.

Well, I checked the isolation transformer and got nothing, so hopefully that's all it is. I'm gonna order one and cross my fingers.

joshholt said:

Well, I checked the isolation transformer and got nothing, so hopefully that's all it is. I'm gonna order one and cross my fingers.

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Good luck

Thanks! I'm gonna need all of the luck I can get!