help please - monitor problem

upright 6-slot original neo cabinet, and it was working fine until 1 day the monitor just stopped powering on. the cabinet lights turn on and i can hear the game working but no picture.

after opening the back panel i see that the narrow part of the tube is not glowing or lighted up inside. i turn game off, check the fuse, which looks intact but has tiny specs of silver along the fuse wire. it's a 2amp - 250 volt fuse, so i replace it with same fuse value although a different thickness of fuse.

nothing changes. i decided to try other fuse values although i can't remember the order in which i changed them, whether i changed the monitor fuse 1st or the fuse in the front of cabinet where on/off switch is.

anyway, while trying 3amd and 5amp fuses (all 250 volts) they kept blowing out. either the cabinet fuse, or the monitor fuse. i bought this cab used, so i don't know what the original fuse values should be for either area, so i just assume the ones in place were correct since the machine worked for years.

anyway, some help or input would be greatly appreciated, cause i'm not a monitor person at all.

thanks

What is the make/model of the monitor?

Typically if they blow fuses they have a bad short. The most typical causes of bad shorts are: Rectifier diodes in the power supply, shorted horizontal output transistor, or a shorted vertical amplifier IC or transistor.

If you don't know how to troubleshoot those then I would suggest finding someone close to you that could.

I see you are in Houston. If you want to yank it out of the cabinet and drive up to Dallas, I could help ya. Otherwise if you think you are up to it then download the schematic off the web and check those components.

RJ

I would go along with what channelmaniac said, also its fairly common for the monitors power supply regulator/switching transistor (sometimes an I.C.) to fail causing the mains input fuse to blow.

Here is a simple generic monitor trouble shooting flowchart that may help.
http://arcarc.xmission.com/Tech/Monitor Misc/generic flowchart.jpg

To avoid the risk of shock, its probably better to have it looked at by a pro.

hey thanks for the info guys. it sounds like a major problem, and i'm not experienced with monitor repair so i'll probably just take it to a local repair guy i know here.