Screen jumps during flash on NEO Games? (Dedicated MVS2 big red, solid marquee bulb, 1992)

I was playing Metal Slug 1 today and my bf pointed out that the screen vertically jumping during the first stage boss really bothered him. I never even noticed until now, so I checked other games like Samurai/KOF, and the screen definitely jumps up vertically about 1/4" to 1/2" when the screen flashes. Guess it's one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Easy fix like adjusting a knob, monitor cap kit, or just the way the dedicated neo cabs are? This one in particular is in pretty decent cosmetics shape, owned it since 1998 so probably has never had any repairs besides me replacing the PSU about 10-13 years ago.

I took a video, the brightness blinking brighter and darker only appears on the video. Notice the jumping during the machine gun fire on the Metal Slug intro. You can especially notice if you pay attention to the difficulty level display at the bottom:

I believe its called blooming.

ChuChu Flamingo said:

I believe its called blooming.

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This is exactly what I thought. Sometimes it can be as simple as a cap kit that'll fix it. Other times it can be a hard problem to track down. Start with the cap kit and see if that fixes it.

pulstar said:

This is exactly what I thought. Sometimes it can be as simple as a cap kit that'll fix it. Other times it can be a hard problem to track down. Start with the cap kit and see if that fixes it.

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From my reading, it is usually from that as when your capacitors start going out you turn the contrast up more/rgb and make the problem worse, or B+ is unstable. Sometimes it is inevitable as I've seen it on a lot of crts (even my MS9 which probably needs a recap). Higher end crts seems to have better voltage regulations. Arcadeotaku has a lot of these threads if you google and want to find out more, Grantspain over there is super knowledgeable about this stuff.

Blooming is when (especially noticeable in whites) start getting blurry. Turn up your contrast and you will get blooming. Turn down your contrast until white text is as sharp as you can get it without it bleeding out or being too dark. This issue is definitely not blooming (but I do plan to fine tuning my focus/brightness on the back of the monitor soon). Right now when the black levels are perfect the screen is a tad too dark, and adjusting the focus really can't hurt.

I just hope someone can chime in about this jumping. I'll have to lug out my heavy 6 slot and test on my supergun today to make sure it isn't an issue with caps on my board, but this is just screaming monitor issue IMO.

Apparently have some leaky caps on my board. What are those long black strips called on a motherboard, are they a type of capacitor? Whatever they are, two of them are leaking besides one normal cylindrical cap leaking.

Aww crap, I just noticed some slight waviness to my picture I've never noticed before
. It's very minor and slow, but crap. Cap kit is needed 110%.

ResO said:

Blooming is when (especially noticeable in whites) start getting blurry. Turn up your contrast and you will get blooming. Turn down your contrast until white text is as sharp as you can get it without it bleeding out or being too dark. This issue is definitely not blooming (but I do plan to fine tuning my focus/brightness on the back of the monitor soon). Right now when the black levels are perfect the screen is a tad too dark, and adjusting the focus really can't hurt.

I just hope someone can chime in about this jumping. I'll have to lug out my heavy 6 slot and test on my supergun today to make sure it isn't an issue with caps on my board, but this is just screaming monitor issue IMO.

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I always thought blooming was when the screen size expanded or shrank depending on the brightness of the screen, especially noticeable in full white screens or when the screen flashes like in the video.


Whichever it is, it definitely looks like a cap kit is the first port of call.

Also, can you take a photo of the black strips? It sounds like a resistor network.

pulstar said:

I always thought blooming was when the screen size expanded or shrank depending on the brightness of the screen, especially noticeable in full white screens or when the screen flashes like in the video.


Whichever it is, it definitely looks like a cap kit is the first port of call.

Also, can you take a photo of the black strips? It sounds like a resistor network.

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You're correct, I'm talking about a resistor network. Why would there be corrosion on the backside of the board from them? They don't leak, so flux? Idk.

Looks like they might have been replaced at some point, so I would assume flux as well.

As for the big pic,

Those two long strips are probably resistor networks like pulstar mentioned. Just looking from the underside I thought they might have been chips of some sort, but "long black strips" sounds like resistor networks, and you seem to have further confirmed it. Yeah, like pulstar said, it's probably just flux. I wouldn't worry about leakage.

As for the thing in the upper left of the pic, there's probably a capacitor up there, what with it being cylindrical, but I doubt it's leaking through the board like that. It's hard to see exactly what's going on up there, but it might just be flux, too. I've never seen capacitors leak through solder joints.

Even though it's probably not going to fix your problem, it couldn't hurt to clean all that stuff up. Just try to remember exactly what was messy in case those components need to be replaced. The pic should help.

If you're going into the monitor, be careful. It could kill you.