Sega New Astro City screen is black now....

[neorichieb1971]

After 3 years of usage (roughly 3 hours a week usage) one of my Astro's has finally bit the dust.

Over the last 18 months it showed signs that it was wearing out due to the screen showing stretched areas/wide scanlines near the top with a rollover right at the top. Only when the unit had been on for 10 minutes+ did it rectify itself.

Today, I turned both my astro's on and the faulty one came up with a black screen. It worked fine yesterday (after the warm up). I therefore conclude that the capacitors have burnt out completely ? Is that a fair conclusion?

All the functions of the cabinet work fine except the screen. The PCB boots ups, the buttons start the game, the game plays music as normal. Just the screen has gone black.

So what I need to know is where I can get this thing fixed. I have a local TV specialist in town which "might" have a CRT techie inhouse. However, I spoke to a guy at giz10p.co.uk and he said I would be a fool to let someone without Nanao experience even touch it. My dilemma is that I don't want to take the chassis off myself as I don't feel confident enough to do it without killing myself.

So based on the information I have volunteered, can you advise me on how to progress with this?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

My location is Bedford England, about 50 miles north of London.

Richard.

[brokenhalo]

a monitor chassis can't kill you unless maybe you decided to lick the anode cap while standing in a large bucket of water. look on youtube for "how to discharge an arcade monitor". you can build a tool to do it out of a screwdriver, a length of wire, and an alligator clip.

there are a few people in america who do chassis repair. arcade cup is one that i see praised constantly for great service. not sure of a source in the uk or europe, but hopefully someone can chime in.

[leonk]

Sorry to hear about your issues. A very common symptom of a chassis requiring a cap kit is "it only started working after X mins". Your biggest problem is finding someone to remove the chassis from your monitor so you can ship it out for repair and then put it back together. It doesn't make sense to ship the tube!

[robivy64]

It's funny you made this thread, because mine started showing the same exact symptoms.

Of my two Astros, the now ailing Astro has always had a picture that wasn't as vibrant as the other one. I knew it would happen eventually.

Fortunately, I have a spare chassis and will recap the spare and perform a quick swap.

[neorichieb1971]

This is the faulty Astro on the inside.



Toshiba monitor? So not Nanao.







So can anyone identify my chassis?

[ikaruga007]

That's a Nanao MS9. Both chassis and the Tosh tube is the original one for the cab I think.

[neorichieb1971]

Thanks.

I've called someone who will fix it. They said they will replace it with a Vs City chassis. I hope thats a good swap.

[ikaruga007]

As far as I know, Vs. City originally has MS9 as well so it should be a straight swap.

[leonk]

What you have there is an MS9-29S (notice the manual plug that allows you to move from 15khz to 25khz).

If it was up to me, I would not do a chassis swap. For all you know, you'd be getting another chassis with old caps that will need to be fixed 2 years down the road. That chassis and tube have been together from the start, and are tuned to another another. Just because someone has an "Vs City" you don't know what's inside (could be a different chassis that is not perfectly compatible with your tube).

I still believe your best bet is to get the chassis removed and cap it. This will get you 15+ years of trouble free usage, and you'll know the least reliable components are all new!

[neorichieb1971]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing actually. But then again I could ask the guy to recap my chassis. I have not committed to anything yet.

I'll speak to my guy after pay day and see what the options are.

[robivy64]

Yep, just get new capacitors and you should be good.

Make sure they aren't shit capacitors. I recommend Nichicon.