Bad LCD screen on sankyo "Neo fever powerful"?

[lotsoballs]

Hi everyone, I've got a bunch of lumina cells (10) but one of them "neo fever powerful" either has a bad LCD screen or possibly a bad board. This one has the weird start up issue some lumina cells have.... screen black, lots of twitching from animatronics, usually clears up after a few minutes after firing a few balls and it "warms up". Last time I played this cell the screen would go black 80% of the time; everything else functions normal. This one has a very large LCD screen; anyone have a junker lumina cell or know if the screens are compatible? Or if the screen does sometimes work; does that mean the issue lies elsewhere? (Like one of the boards?). Just wondering if there's a cheap/easy fix available or if I should just keep/sell it for spare parts...it's a fun cell, but only paid $60 for it and don't intend to spend a bunch of money or time if it's gonna be a huge PITA to fix. I've completely disassembled a lumina cell before (Star Wars) so digging into the cell to replace the screen is no big deal. Any ideas? Anyone else have this issue?


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[Drunkenclam]

Best way is to take the screen out to get the part number. As nor manufacturer specific. The screen in the Sea Story in the Med (Sanyo) is the same screen in Star Wars Advent Vader. (Sankyo)

[daverob]

I'm sure I made some notes somewhere about the screens used, and my experiments with the Sankyo AV boards, but I can't seem to find them right now. So this is all from memory, and I've had a very long day, so this might not be 100% accurate.

Neo Powerful is a 15" 1024x768 LCD, the ones in most of the other Lumina framed machines are 10" 640x480 panels.

They are kind of compatible, the output from the AV board is the same across all Lumina framed machines I've seen, but Neo Powerful has an extra converter board between the AV control board and the LCD panel, as the LCD is a higher resolution than the max output of the Samurai Force graphics chip,

Having said all that, I don't believe it will be the LCD panel itself. It will almost certainly be the AV control board, and probably the 'Samurai Force' GFX chip on that board causing the problem.
My Neo Powerful suffers from what is likely to be the same fault as yours. I plugged the output of the Neo Powerful AV board into the LCD panel from my Star Wars and it showed the same issues. I also plugged the larger LCD panel (and it's converter board) from the Neo Powerful into my Star Wars machine, and the Star Wars graphics were fine on the Neo Powerful's LCD panel.

On my machine, I'm expecting it to be normal graphics chip fault on the AV board, but I haven't got round to stripping it down and seeing if re-soldering it helps at all. I did quite a few tests on this fault a few years ago, and found that on machines that exhibit this 'start-up' problem this particular chip is extremely temperature sensitive. I managed to cure the fault on one by resoldering the chip, but had no luck on another example. It's definitely down to the AV control board though. I have two 'Magic Party' machines (Victory frame), one exhibited the start up problem, the other didn't. The fault transfered to the working machine when the AV CPU board was switched (the board with the big square Hitachi CPU chip and 'Samurai Force' GFX chip on it).

One day I'll find the time to look into this issue again, but I've got several higher priority projects on the go at the moment, and not enough brain cells to go around. ;-)

[lotsoballs]

Wow, kudos daverob for the extremely detailed explanation.... yeah this one always had the startup issue since I got it (and I was warned about it) but it's gotten worse to the point I don't use it anymore; although it is a cool one with the giant screen and ability to change the music/character with the chance button. I agree, I was suspicious the screen would work perfectly fine sometimes then go black....(usually at start of the fever). Ah well, I'll just hold on to it for a spare tulip or whatever... maybe I'll get around to dissemble it one day, pm me or revive this thread if you ever get around to fixing yours!


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[Drunkenclam]

What I do is hunt down an old desktop unit know to be good. Hope its at a good price then get it for spares. Ship via surface as thats the cheapest option to keep prices down

A bit like this one.

http://page17.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/j...ion/v494266149

[Trol]

Necrobump...
I'm tinkering with my lord of the Rings startup problem.
I hit certain parts of the board with freeze spray to cool it down and use hot air to warm it up in other places. I can reproduce the startup problem this way.
I'm pretty sure its not the samurai force or the sh4. The problem starts when I cool down one of the smd caps on the board.
I'll order and replace all the smd caps and report back then..

[daverob]

I hit certain parts of the board with freeze spray to cool it down and use hot air to warm it up in other places. I can reproduce the startup problem this way.

That's the method I used to trace the problem back to the samurai force GFX chip, many years ago when I first looked at this issue. Even put a plastic shield round the chip to ensure I wasn't accidentally spraying something else when cooling it down. I had already replaced some of the SMD electrolytic caps before I tried this (just the values I had to hand, and not all the caps on the board).

I have also re-flowed the solder on the samurai force, on a few machines. It did appear to fix the problem on a couple of them for a few years, but it returned eventually. I've also removed all the CGROMs from their sockets and cleaned the pins to no effect (be careful if you try this the sockets are _very_ delicate).

All this was over 10 years ago, when the machines were much newer. It is possible now the machines are significantly older, that ones that have good GFX chips are starting to suffer from the caps drying out, and the symptoms are similar.

I'll be very interested to hear about your findings, and if successful I'll have a go at reproducing your results.

[lotsoballs]

If anybody want to buy a couple cells afflicted with this condition for troubleshooting/electronic repair project I’ll sell mine; cheap! $40 each plus shipping.

I’ve got a Neo Fever Powerful, Marilyn Monroe and a really cool Magic Carpet hanemono; I might hold on to that one a bit longer in case somebody solves this issue!

I think I’ll try leaving the Magic Carpet hanemono on for an hour and see if any improvement; at least that one is more fun gameplay than the other dud cells!

It’s really a bummer as the hanemono was one of the top 3 lumina cells I’ve got! (Julie Pinball, Star Wars being the others) Somehow my Star Wars cell has been completely submerged in floodwaters for days; (I restored it) yet runs like new with no startup issues like others report! It’s really a toss of the coin whether you get a good Lumina cell or not; I’m liking my retro Vicky Chance more and more since no troublesome LCD related components to ruin it! Good luck to finding a solution!

[takethecastle57]

I like the cannon moving back and forth on the Vicky Chance

[Trol]

And fixed
Replaced the caps... tested...starting fine... put the board in the fridge for half an hour... still starting fine in 1 go

[Trol]

1604611364742-1677835045.jpg
The cap above my finger was the problem one.
Also reflowed the two transistor things next to the left two caps.
The most to the right cap showed signs of corrosion on the pcb when removed. The normal caps on the right half of the board are still the original ones.
I also reflowed the samurai chip, but that was prior to bumping this topic, so not the cause in my machine

[daverob]

Just tried replacing the four 100uF caps on a Neo Powerful, and it didn't fix the problem on this machine. Haven't tried replacing the 470uF one yet, as I don't have any in that size.

[Trol]

Damn, guess I'm just lucky then...
The freeze spray/heat gun method works well to find the problem area on the board, thats at least something

[Pachiboy]

Very nice. Took a screen shot. I guess I should do mine. Haven't played it since we last talked. Those four of five fevers were enough to hold me for a few years I guess .

Currently downsizing, so it may not make it to the new residence. Its a long term thing though, so may find time to break out the soldering iron at some point.

[shnetinka]

Old thread being resurrected... If anyone out there has any old lumina cells with dead screens they would be interested in selling I would be interested in purchasing. I have revived a few, not to say some aren't a lost cause but I'd be willing to purchase them from you if they aren't a cell I already have. I'm a gambler :-)

[lotsoballs]

Old thread being resurrected... If anyone out there has any old lumina cells with dead screens they would be interested in selling I would be interested in purchasing. I have revived a few, not to say some aren't a lost cause but I'd be willing to purchase them from you if they aren't a cell I already have. I'm a gambler :-)

Thanks for fixing up those cells I got from Compirate’s collection; now you’re at least the 3rd of 4th pachitalk member to own these!