Big Powerful Fever CRT display just shows horizontal line

[Dodge Aries K]

Anybody know how to fix these? The machine just shows a horizontal line now after sitting in storage for a year. You can tell it's still trying to display whatever it's supposed to (if you tilt the screen back and forth kinda quick you can make out some of the picture actually lol) and sometimes it will flicker and show more of the picture on it's own. I checked the connections the best I could (high voltage is scary) and everything is plugged in. This is my favorite pachinko machine... I'm hoping it's fixable.

[compirate]

Just a solid line in the middle? I've been told that it's failed capacitors/transistors, not sure which ones. I've got a Fever World with the same problem.

This link will give you a general idea.

[Dodge Aries K]

Yep, solid line in the middle. It "changes" with the gameplay so it's still getting a signal and everything. I'm going to try to take the CRT to the local game place. They fix arcade machines and stuff too so I figured it's worth a shot to see if they can do something with it. There's also a TV repair place that specializes in older equipment so maybe they can give it a go.

Any way to just hook up the connector to an external display? There's a circuit board under the monitor that houses all the graphics related stuff that has a (I believe) 6 pin connector that goes into the mess of CRT electrics. Just trying to find a backup plan so at least I can still use the machine even if the display isn't fixable.

[Dodge Aries K]

Dropped it off at a TV service place. As soon as I know what they say, I'll post here. It might be possible to fix these stupid things after all.

[heima]

Its a CRT and not an LCD? Color me educated.

[alphaminor]

Its a CRT and not an LCD? Color me educated.

Yeah, the really early deji pachis with a screen used a CRT screen

I've got a couple like that

[heima]

Thank Alpha.
I knew that some early moderns had CRTs, I did not know Big Powerful Fever was one of them. I get my pachinkos mixed up.
I was thinking that this tread was about Neo Fever Powerful.
I am such a newbie.
lol

[alphaminor]

Thank Alpha.
I knew that some early moderns had CRTs, I did not know Big Powerful Fever was one of them. I get my pachinkos mixed up.
I was thinking that this tread was about Neo Fever Powerful.
I am such a newbie.
lol

No more than myself
For the most part I'm just really good at being unable to say no to another
machine

[Dodge Aries K]

The odd thing is my Fever Powerful III has a LCD but this guy (which is a few years newer) has a CRT display. Sankyo must have had some reason for it...

[heima]

The odd thing is my Fever Powerful III has a LCD but this guy (which is a few years newer) has a CRT display. Sankyo must have had some reason for it...

Hmm, I will take a guess.

On my second trip to Japan, I bought a surplus LCD video display in Akihabara. I believed it was for a pachinko, but I was going to retrofit it for my Sega Genesis.

I remember it being a crummy STN type display, that had horrible viewing angles. And this might be the reason for Sankyo to go from LCD to CRT to LCD again.

STN LCDs were cheaper than CRTs, but not by much. STN LCDs were loads cheaper than TFT LCDs. So after so many people complained that the STN LCD changed colors or became darkened while they were playing (they were not sitting exactly in the center of the screen), Sankyo shifted to CRTs. My Sankyo Crazy Combat has this behavior.

When the price of TFT LCDs came down to as cheap or cheaper than CRTs, they made the shift over.

I don't have a CRT pachinko, but I would think that the CRT is fairly short in length to fit the depth of the pachinko. Is it? The shorter the CRT, the greater the deflection of the electron beam, the higher the voltage and additional circuitry to make the display on the CRT linear. There might be a second deflection coil as well.

I kind of would like to have CRT pachinko, because, well, I like CRT displays. The light doesn't seem as "cold". Yeah, something about the color temperature of the LCD backlight.

[compirate]

Yeah, it's pretty short. I've only seen them in Sankyo FF or FF99 framed games. Anyone seen one from anybody else?

[Dodge Aries K]

I'll measure it when I get it back. As a guess I'd say it's less than 8" from front to back of the tube.

[heima]

Hmm, I just thought of something else. Does the CRT monitor have composite video input?, if so, then you could redirect or split the video signal from the pachinko to an external monitor. That would be kind of cool. Like when arcades did this with them more popular video games back in the 80's. Dragon's Lair and Space Ace come to mind. Yes, it helped that the laserdisc output was composite and not RGB.

[Dodge Aries K]

It doesn't have an input in a traditional sense. No luck yet with it being repaired. If it can't be fixed, then maybe it can get an external monitor input and I'll just put something else that fits in the hole so it still works.

[Dodge Aries K]

Well, after many months... it's FIXED! It has a lot of the capacitors and some other part I can't remember what it was called replaced. A big round of applause for Mera's TV in Rockford for being able to figure out how the display board worked. Now, it wasn't the cheapest thing to have done ($150) but since I love this machine I'm more than happy to have it back. The good news is, now that my machine was basically an experiment for them, the repair dude is pretty certain he can fix these for other people. Their phone number is 815-965-8621 and they told me they shouldn't need the whole machine but just the center display piece which is very easy to pull out so that will really save on shipping costs. Please, if you have one of these old machines that needs a second chance at life, call them up and tell them Karl with the pachinko machine sent you.

[CarlW]

Thank you!