Screen Skewed

[Yoshi648]

Hi. I recently got a fully functional Vectrex. I took it apart yesterday to clean out the 40 years of dust/dirt/spider webs. Upon reassembling it today, I was presented with this screen. It almost looks like half the graphics are correct but the other half is skewed. I messed with the X/Y/diagonal potentiometers but none of them fixed this alignment issue. Curious if anyone else had this issue or knows where to start looking for probable causes. In addition to that, don't know if it's related to this problem but there's no sound. The "Vectrex hum" is faintly noticeable, but no game sounds. Again was just fine yesterday but something got out of whack while cleaning it.

[Yoshi648]

Update. Powered it on again to test something else and now it looks a little better. Still not perfect (gaps in the Entertaining New Ideas and the score and ships are screwy in Minestorm).

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Maybe try replacing the Integrator caps? Check out the Console5 for an integrator cap kit.. Just make sure you know your motherboard revision. Super easy job, only 5 caps to desolder & replace. That might clean up your image.

 

https://console5.com/store/vectrex-integrator-cap-kit.html

[Level42]

On the second picture the image is set too large vertically.

i don’t think there’s anything else wrong. Did you use any wet stuff for the cleaning ? Maybe not everything dried up OK before your first power up.

missing sound is usually the volume pot needing cleaning or replacing.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Good points mentioned above.. Definitely treat the volume/power with some DeOxit D5 contact cleaner if you haven't already.

 

You'll have to remove the rear half of the case again and lay it down on its screen to get underneath the motherboard, where the pot is located. Squirt some in where the small hole is on the back of the pot and rotate the knob back & forth a couple dozen times. Some people even take it a step farther by injecting some dielectric grease into the back of the pot afterwards. This always usually clears up volume/static issues. Otherwise, try checking connections or replacing the AY chip. Good luck!