WMS 550 on the fritz

[kayjay]

I've had a 550 for the past few years and it developed a problem today that I need help on.I played it earlier today and everything worked fine (running Lucky Leprechaun).After leaving it alone for a few hours I came back to it and noticed that the screen (an LCD) was flickering on and off. The game was still there, and when you pushed the play buttons it worked and you could hear the spins payouts, but the screen was mostly black, with flashes of smeared graphics and sometimes the game.I cycled the machine off and on a few times, same problem.I left it off for 4 hours, but same problem when turned back on.
At the same time, the fluorescent lights on the belly panel are blinking intermittently and the first three "bet" button lights are off.I had an extra MPU/Video card, so I swapped it, but with the same results.Any ideas what might cause this problem?A power supply, maybe?Again, everything seems to work ok on the game, but the lights and monitor flashing has me spooked.any advice is most welcome.

[rickhunter]

Does your lcd take 120V or does it take power from device's power supply?  Funky stuff like that is usually power.  Does your 550 use a CPUNXT board (CF Based)  or is it using a legacy 1.5 board (Eprom based)

[kayjay]

Does your lcd take 120V or does it take power from device's power supply?  Funky stuff like that is usually power.  Does your 550 use a CPUNXT board (CF Based)  or is it using a legacy 1.5 board (Eprom based)

Lcd is hooked to the power supply and I am using the 1.5 CPU board.
I saw a power supply on eBay for $150, including shipping.


Is that a fair price?

[rickhunter]

It's probably the 24v side.  The power supplies for these are getting harder to find, so the price is whatever you think it's fair.  I don't think $150 is that bad.  There's also a really big transformer for these (the thing weighs a ton!), it might also be that as well.  With the age of these machines though, you can never have too many parts.  They are getting harder to locate.

[kayjay]

Is the transformer the black box on the lower right of the picture, between the power supply and the bill acceptor?Actually, the picture is sideways, so it would be in the upper right hand corner.

[rickhunter]

Yeap, that huge metal cube.  Most lcd's are not powered by the internals,  Take a photo of the back of your LCD.  Mine actually has a black power brick tie wrapped and it taps 120V from the monitor connector on the cabinet.