Game King Monitor went black all of a sudden

[wifehippo]

Hey Yall,

I have the saddest story. Our Game King was running fine and then one day the monitor suddenly went black.  You could still touch the screen and select the cards and hear the beeps, but there was no picture.  I've tried rebooting a couple of times but it didn't help.  I also checked the CR2354 battery but that was fine at 3V.  I also tried:

 - Turning the attendant key a couple of times like  Jason said: http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=8337.msg47270#msg47270
 - Pushing the monitor reset buttons as per  bpracer's instructions: http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=8262.0

My husband thinks the video card went out, it is similar to what he has seen with his PCs.

Any ideas on what went wrong and also how to fix? Thanks so much in advance!  Oh and attached is a picture of what lights are on, if that helps.



Other related threads:

http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=4092.0
http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=34680.0
http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=212.msg625#msg625

[Tilt]

The first thing I'd check is the inverter board on the back of the monitor.  It powers the CCFLs that back light the LCD screen.

[off-track]

Easy way to check that is to shine a flashlight on the screen at close range and look for signs of an image on the screen.

[wifehippo]

Thanks for the tips yall! 

So I took a look with the flashlight and saw no image.  However when I touch the screen, I hear it respond with the same clicking sounds  as when I select cards when the screen is working.   I also noticed some fluorescent light in the back flashing.  Is that the broken CCFL you are talking about?  Do I need to unscrew the screen and replace some bulb back there?

Or is it possible the video card went bad? 

Anyway, thank in advance for any ideas yall have.  I'll keep poking around.

[wifehippo]

Thanks yall!  I bought this inverter (https://lcdquote.com/gh059a/) on LCDQuote.com .Will let yall know what happens after I install it. 

Also I am laughing to myself, I had no idea how easy  it was to pull the monitor out.  It's so big and attached to this heavy metal rack, i thought i was going to have to unscrew a bunch of pieces.  Then I noticed a metal lip under the monitor and pulled.  Lo and behold it just slid right out!  (Well, after some jiggling.)

I was going to try to attach some other device to the monitor to test if it was bad, but the plug is so weird.  Anyone know what it is, am attaching a picture down below.  Must be something proprietary?  Didn't come up in Google image search.

[Tilt]

Yes, it literally just pulls out and slides back in easy too.

That's called a beau plug.  Yours happens to be a 25 pin.  IGT made them in 19 and 25 pin models.  The unpopulated pin holes are included in that count.  That messes a lot of people up as 25 pin plug are populated with 19 pins so they'll say they have a 19 pin plug.  What they actually have is 19 populated + 6 unpopulated so it's a 25 pin plug.

If you want to connect your monitor to an external source (think laptop or pc) disconnect the VGA cable from the A/D board, connect the source there, put the monitor back in the machine, and power it up. 

I circled where the connector is in your photo.

[off-track]

I was going to try to attach some other device to the monitor to test if it was bad, but the plug is so weird.  Anyone know what it is, am attaching a picture down below.  Must be something proprietary?  Didn't come up in Google image search.

That is a 25 pin connector.  GK machines used either a 19 or 25 pin connector (count is by holes not pins) for the display assembly.  It carries the monitor signals, illumination and the touchscreen functions to the MPU.  I don't have a LCD on mine so I don't know if there is a method to verify the LCD operation with another signal or not?

NM. Tilt beat me to it....

[wifehippo]

Yes, it literally just pulls out and slides back in easy too.

That's called a beau plug.  Yours happens to be a 25 pin.  IGT made them in 19 and 25 pin models.  The unpopulated pin holes are included in that count.  That messes a lot of people up as 25 pin plug are populated with 19 pins so they'll say they have a 19 pin plug.  What they actually have is 19 populated + 6 unpopulated so it's a 25 pin plug.

If you want to connect your monitor to an external source (think laptop or pc) disconnect the VGA cable from the A/D board, connect the source there, put the monitor back in the machine, and power it up. 

I circled where the connector is in your photo.

Oh that's awesome to hear!  All the stickers in the back of the monitor about high voltage freaked out a little, I was a little nervous about plugging something into the VGA while the whole thing was plugged into the machine for power. 

[wifehippo]

Hi everyone!

I'm back again.  I tried the inverter but no luck, still a black screen.  I tried hooking up the VGA out to a little TV and it worked fine, we could even touch the black screen to click on the buttons, so at least I know for sure it's the monitor that's busted.  (Btw be careful hooking up a VGA -> HDMI -> TV, we wasted hours b/c it turns out the connector does HDMI -> VGA but not VGA -> HDMI).

I tried hooking my laptop to the DVI input but the screen remained black.  But the laptop did recognize the monitor as a Kotek 19" TFT in the UI which was reassuring so maybe that means the A/D board is fine?  Also when I was debugging, I noticed that the some white lines sparked across the screen every once in a while.  So maybe I need to replace the CCFLs?  I guess I can also look and replace the whole screen like MazzMayhem had to do.

Anyway, yall have any ideas, go ahead and post them, I'll keep debugging.  Thanks in advance!

[Tilt]

Normally the inverter is a safe bet, this time I guess it wasn't. 

I've connected an external source (laptop) to a monitor, but haven't ever tried connecting the machine to another video device.  Good thinking there, now you know for sure the MPU is outputting a video signal. 

The CCFLs could be bad or it may be the A/D board.  Usually if the A/D board doesn't see a valid video signal it will tell you that on the screen "No Video Input" or something similar and often the power light will blink on and off, or perhaps change colors from green to red.  Check what it does normally, then turn it off, pull out the MPU board, power it back up, and see what it does. 

Try what off-track suggested again too.  Shine a flashlight from the bottom of the screen upwards (or the opposite) and look for any kind of image, it will be pretty dark still, but if you can make anything I'd say the A/D board is good and the CCFLs are bad.  If the CCFLs are bad you may have blown the fuse on the inverter board too.  There's a small surface mount fuse on the board labeled "F1".  Check it with a multimeter and make sure it's still good.

[wifehippo]

Thanks so much Tilt!  You are always so nice to me.  I really appreciate it.  Will let yall know what I find out!