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MS2930 Cracking sound in Sega Blast City

klee123

klee123

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Hi all

I just received a Sega Blast city this morning and when I tried to turn it on, the screen doesn't display anything and I can hear a constant cracking sound.

I tested this with a few different boards and the last try ended up with a very loud cracking sound.

This will be my first Arcade cab ever, so there will be a learning curve for me to open this up to check the interior, but does any one what it means when the monitor emits cracking noises?

Any assistance will be much appreciated.
 
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Is the sound from the monitor it's self? Or from the speakers?

If you open the panel in the back, do you see any sparking or flashing in the neck of the tube?
 
Open the back panel up and have a look, make sure everything is firmly connected and nothing has come loose in transit.

Also ensure that the cab is 240v and your DIP switches at the control panel are set to 15Khz if you are playing PCBs.

I'm local if you need a hand to help troubleshoot in person or on the phone.
 
If the neck of the tube has visible arcing/sparking and is making a cracking noise, it usually means the tube has been "necked" and lost vacuum. If the sound is coming from somewhere else it could be a voltage problem.
 
Yeah I'll have a look after work this afternoon to see if there are anything disconnected and take it from there. Thanks all. 👍
 
This was my blast that was purchased. Was completely operational 30 minutes before being picked up yesterday


I am hoping it's a simple "something" came loose during transit

I have heard this type of issue once for me when I didn't have the anode connected to the tube - I am really hoping that the flickering on the screen means that the tube isn't "necked" and I hope this is an easy enough fix.


As mentioned by others, the first and foremost is the determine what is happening at the back of the tube. Once we know what's happening out back, we'll get there to resolve.

I don't really think you'll be able to see much when you take the back service panel out, you will most likely need to take the bezel off, unplug the connectors at the bottom of the monitor frame, unscrew the 4 bolts and take out the whole tube - once you do this, discharge the monitor and then (and only then) should you start poking around.

Let's see what happens once you get off work.
 
Ok after within the last 2 days I managed to get the monitor working thanks to @mR_CaESaR's constant support.

Took out the monitor(which was an absolute pain in the backside) took a few pictures of the rear of the monitor and chassis showed it to @mR_CaESaR and managed to find the culprit.

IMG-20210310-WA0016.jpeg


Turns out the ground wire was loose!

Connected the cable in securely to ensure that it won't get loose again.

IMG-20210310-WA0020.jpeg


Once I connected that in. I took the opportunity to wipe up the cab and move the monitor less cab into my games room first.

Then after an absolutely crushing ordeal trying to put the monitor back into the cab, I managed to get everything back to together.

IMG-20210310-WA0039.jpeg


After a bit of trouble shooting with some loose connections etc. I managed to load up my CPS2 board successfully and man does Sfz3 look beautiful on a CRT. :thumbsup:

Still have some issues with the voltage levels on the PCB(CPS2 was showing around 4.6V) which was causing it to shut down) and some loose wiring which is causing the screen to display nothing but still emit sound from speakers, but still a major breakthrough compared to 2 days ago. :thumbup:

Once again, thank you @mR_CaESaR's for your constant support and everyone here for your input. It's been fun, but also a great learning experience.
 
Congrats on getting it running again. I love/hate easy solutions like loose connections because while easy, I’m always slapping my forehead and cursing myself for not having thought of it sooner.
 
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