F
16

Had a customer bring in a 1980s arcade cabinet with a weird screen flicker.

It was a Ms. Pac-Man machine from 1982. The guy said, "My kid's birthday is tomorrow, and this was my game as a kid." I spent hours checking the usual stuff, but the issue was a single bad capacitor on the monitor chassis I almost missed. Got it fixed just before closing. Anyone have a good trick for quickly spotting those old, bulging caps before you pull the whole board?
3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
3 Comments
john_fisher
Wait, you found just one bad cap? That's all it took to kill a whole machine?
8
jakeb81
jakeb818d ago
Have you ever seen a single fuse take out a whole house?
1
the_paul
the_paul8d ago
That "single bad capacitor" thing shows how one tiny flaw can bring down a whole system.
0