Monitor Problems....

I posted this before, it was about the white lines on my monitor when it is turned up to bright and the lack of color. (in Puzzle Bobble I can't tell the difference between yellow and green! Sad huh?) Well Nick you told me that it was probably the caps and I need them replaced. I KNOW NOTHING about arcade monitors. I don't want to get ripped off if they come and look at it. Just exactly do I tell them when I call them. I went to a local television repair shop and they DON'T service in home. I am afraid of getting ripped for a simple repair job out of iganorance. When I call do I just tell them that I need the capacitors replaced on my Monitor? I don't want to get lost in techinical babble......thanks for any of your guys help........ <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

I wouldn't use a TV repair place. You need to find a local arcade operator, and talk to him/her about who he uses to repair monitors. Its possible that you can contact this technician and ask for his rates on installing a cap kit on your monitor chassis (a new set of capacitors).

Here's a great site to purchase arcade parts. This guy has really reasonable rates and is very honest, helpful, and trusting (he shipped my first order, $300 worth of parts, with no payment from me in hand!!):
http://personal.msy.bellsouth.net/msy/b/o/bob147/siteindex.html

Here's a great FAQ from his site on identifying your monitor chassis (the pcb board attached to the monitor tube):
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/monitor.html

And its quite possible your monitor just needs a cap kit installed. I too have a cabinet (MERCS factory original) that needs a cap kit installed, and I bought all the parts myself. I hope to do the work myself someday. Here's a cool little guide on how to install a cap kit:
http://www.alsarcade.com/capkit.htm

Cap kits cost only about $5 for the capacitors. If your monitor needs more work, such as a replacenet flyback or horizontal width coil, it costs a little more. The first link sells all that kind of stuff at great prices . . . good luck!! <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

Oh yeah, he forgot to mention that you could DIE futzing around with your monitor if you don't know what you're doing. There are extremely high voltages in there even when the monitor is unplugged. BE CAREFUL!

Originally posted by Wolf:
<STRONG>Oh yeah, he forgot to mention that you could DIE futzing around with your monitor if you don't know what you're doing. There are extremely high voltages in there even when the monitor is unplugged. BE CAREFUL!</STRONG>

Click to expand...

Yeah, that minor detail I did leave out. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

Monitor tubes carry very high voltages, even after the power to the cabinet has been turned off. If you were to do the work on it yourself, you'd need to be sure you discharged the residual charge first.

Here's a link from Bob Robert's site about building a discharger:
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/sb.html

Looks like a little bit of work, and I don't have all the tools to do it myself. But the charge must be drained before any work is done on the cabinet . . . kinda scares me to think about it. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">