Bally sputtering out?

[nd2003grad]

I've had some interesting troubles with my unit, but I don't really want to do anything right away as I know how delicate these damn things can be. I really love my Bally, but it's definitely the most troublesome and unreliable of all my classic systems--and I have a few!

 

Lately, my Bally turns on to a blank screen. It is kind of the opposite of the classic issue, as it seems to have to "warm up" for an increasing amount of time since I've had this problem. Generally, once that time passes it works find. However, I did have Incredible Wizard lock up after some play time and then reset sent it back to the black screen. I turned it off immediately.

 

Unit is cooled by a laptop fan. There was no significant heat on the cover. Anyone familiar with this issue? I know Adam and I have chatted briefly about it...I'm only comfortable with very minor repairs.

[BassGuitari]

I think I had a Bally that was doing this once. I definitely had a DINA 2-in-1 that did the same thing (these are also notorious for overheating and frying circuitry). Unfortunately neither system survived.

My best guess is some IC or other starting to fail, possibly the video display or custom data ICs.

[nd2003grad]

Well, perhaps I'll never figure this out. Yesterday I moved all my consoles to another "cave." Suddenly, the Bally works and powers on flawlessly. Temperamental little machine!!!!