Dragon's Lair: White rolling bars on monitor

[mark twain]

Hi there-

*Sometimes when I turn the game on, the attract screen goes right into playing the disc all the way through instead of syncing with the game & not allowing me to coin up, change rom version through the joystick, etc. Turning the game off and on again usually remedies it. This happens almost every time I turn the game on again when I haven’t for a day or two.

** A bigger problem that I’m having which, a little frustrating is that I’m getting white distorted horizontal lines across the screen in 2 segments that travel up continuously throughout the game. Kind of looks like an RF signal without enough amperage like you’d see on an Atari 2600 with a coaxial hookup.
I’ve tried a few things, replacing the BNC cable with a new one but it didn’t help. I swapped out & tried my LDV-4400 again with the disc to verify & this is not an issue.

For reference, I’m using an original LDV-1000 cable, latest Merlin 1000 rom from Shaun, Electrohome G07-CBO monitor with a Hantarex Polo ntsc coverter card. I’m pretty sure that the card is not the original that came with the game but again, it works fine with no distortion when using the laserdisc. I’ve tried to video it, the static does not come out at all in the video.

Interestingly, I’ve tried routing Dexter direct with the BNC cable to my Sony PVM 13” monitor and the picture is perfect. However, this is only 13” and the connection is Direct. I wish I could play like this.

So, questions please…

Could it be that the LDV-4400 Laser Disc player has a stronger signal than Dexter?

Or… I just read on the website that I have the bad power supply model. Could this be causing these problems? Not correct/enough power??

Any input or suggestions to help would be appreciated… Thanks

[Matt Ownby]

Hi there-

*Sometimes when I turn the game on, the attract screen goes right into playing the disc all the way through instead of syncing with the game & not allowing me to coin up, change rom version through the joystick, etc. Turning the game off and on again usually remedies it. This happens almost every time I turn the game on again when I haven’t for a day or two.

This may be related to Dexter's auto detection not working reliably which you can fix by manually selecting your player type using the MODE button on the Dexter board. If this happens again, see if you can see which player type LED is selected on the Dexter board. If it is different from what it should be, then this would be the problem. (ie if it is pr-7820 when it is supposed to be ld-v1000 or vice versa).

Here's a video explaining how the auto detection works and how to set the type manually:


If not, try plugging an ethernet cable into Dexter while it is running and exhibiting the problem. You will then be able to see Dexter's log which you could paste here for us to examine. See this video for details:

** A bigger problem that I’m having which, a little frustrating is that I’m getting white distorted horizontal lines across the screen in 2 segments that travel up continuously throughout the game. Kind of looks like an RF signal without enough amperage like you’d see on an Atari 2600 with a coaxial hookup.
I’ve tried a few things, replacing the BNC cable with a new one but it didn’t help. I swapped out & tried my LDV-4400 again with the disc to verify & this is not an issue.

For reference, I’m using an original LDV-1000 cable, latest Merlin 1000 rom from Shaun, Electrohome G07-CBO monitor with a Hantarex Polo ntsc coverter card. I’m pretty sure that the card is not the original that came with the game but again, it works fine with no distortion when using the laserdisc. I’ve tried to video it, the static does not come out at all in the video.

Interestingly, I’ve tried routing Dexter direct with the BNC cable to my Sony PVM 13” monitor and the picture is perfect. However, this is only 13” and the connection is Direct. I wish I could play like this.

So, questions please…

Could it be that the LDV-4400 Laser Disc player has a stronger signal than Dexter?

Or… I just read on the website that I have the bad power supply model. Could this be causing these problems? Not correct/enough power??

Any input or suggestions to help would be appreciated… Thanks

I haven't heard any reports of this kind of problem before, and I think Dexter is "supposed" to have a strong enough drive to power two monitors at the same time (someone tested this) so I am going to blame the dodgy power supply for now. I'll ship you a new one once I get them from Amazon (I already ordered them). In my DL cab, I have the original electrohome NTSC decoder and it works fine.

[mark twain]

Thanks Matt. I'm going to wait a little to receive the power supply & change it out then post the results.

[mark twain]

OK, received the TicTid power adapter arrived in the mail today. Model: JK050200-S04USA

Result? Dexter works perfectly.

Video is crystal clear with original monitor setup, auto detection of the LDV-1000 worked the first time after being off for several days so believe safe to say problem solved.

[Warren Ondras]

That is excellent news. Now have fun!