Hey there. I'm new but I've lurked these forums on and off for several years. You guys have great tips and advice for retrogaming and one of the few sources of info on CRTs.
I acquired a BVM (A-series) several years ago. It was relatively inexpensive because it didn't come with an analog input card and almost nobody uses SDI video input. Eventually I sourced a BKM-68x and was finally able to use the TV. It worked great!
The problem happened after I moved. My new house is down a rural road which sometimes experiences power flickers or brownouts. The BVM worked fine at first, but I left it plugged into the wall in standby mode (red light was on, but the tube was off) and eventually it was subjected to one of those brownouts. Obviously I don't know for sure what's wrong, but I suspect that's part of the problem.
Here's what I observe: plugging the TV into wall power is supposed to put it in standby mode and wait for the "turn on" signal from the remote. However the red standby light just blinks. The tube doesn't engage at all.
The user manual says this about a blinking red light:
>When the STANDBY lamp is blinking, the monitor cannot be put into operation mode (internal data initialization is taking place). Wait until the STANDBY lamp is steadily lit.
I've tried waiting for an hour but the light just keeps on blinking.
Maybe some ROM get corrupted? Maybe an expansion card get jostled, and has a bad connection? Maybe an old capacitor went bad?
I called Savon Pat via the number on his eBay page, and he graciously provided some debugging expertise.
Pat said the A-series is more finicky than the D-series, especially the "129" remote control module which has more firmware/software in it. He also said the A-series card connectors can have connectivity issues (similar to SNES cartridges etc). "Get it all but 1 inch from plugged in, then really slam it in with the palm of your fist". Since this is one of the newer TVs and only ~7k hours on the tube, it's almost certainly not a capacitor problem.
I tried reseating the control card, but there's no change in behavior. The only way I can change the behavior at all is plugging the TV in while the control card is absent from the TV. Then I don't get a blinking standby light at all. (Of course the TV still does not boot.)
At this point my best guess is that the ROM in the control card got corrupted by a power brownout. In the future I'll only plug this TV into a UPS for safer, smoother power. Do any of y'all have more debugging ideas, or maybe a suggestion of where to get a replacement control card? The rest of the components are in excellent condition so it's a real waste to not be able to use this thing. Thanks.