Today I turned on my Astro City for the first time in at least 3-4 months, and I noticed there was no image on the screen, but I could hear the game playing on the speakers. I freaked out, of course, so I turned it off, and tried to troubleshoot the problem by switching PCBs, checking the JAMMA connectors and such, and came to the conclusion that it has something to do with the monitor.
After a few cycles of switching the cab on and off, the picture suddenly appears as though nothing happened! I end up keeping it on, and playing through several credits and everything works fine from there. That is, until I turned it off again.
When I immediately turn it on again, it's fine. It works and there is no distortion in the picture or any of that. The problem occurs when I leave it off for a while to cool down. I'll turn it on and then there's no image on the screen at all. It is only until I've turned it on and off about 3-4 times, that the picture returns. This is something that has started to happen today, so I'm not sure how it's going to be in the future.
The Astro is pretty old, but for the last few years, it's been kept in a warm, dry place wrapped in a comforter. It's been taken cared of, and there is no screen burn-in or anything like that. When I first bought it a few years ago, it would give off this high-pitched whine after about 5 minutes of gameplay, usually after finishing the 1st stage in a Cave shooter. And then after about 10 minutes, the whining would disappear.
I'm guessing this is pretty serious, and it might have something to do with the chassis or some wiring needing to be replaced. So what could be the problem? I'm ready to hear the worst.
