My 2003 VF2 had an odd alarm this morning, now the screen is black but still runs

I didn't write down the alarm as I figures as normal I would be able to see it later, not the case this time. It said I had a corrupt program, I should save my parameters, dump and reload my program, but the program looked OK as I scanned through it. Anyhow I had a platefull trying to get things started and of course one job I had to complete before noon. This machine runs for an hour at a time so I put in some blanks and turned it on, all seemed fine and it ran all morning without a complaint. It stopped just before noon and it has a blank screen, no red light, it does have a green led indicating power to the CRT, I pressed program, nothing, settings, nothing, I loaded up some new blanks, slowed the rapid and watched it as it took off making parts like normal. It ran all afternoon without an issue other than no screen. I am assuming the CRT died but how does one proove that? I understand there are some good LCD upgrades, is there a recomended one?
thanks
mark

If you have can see a small green light in the bottom rh corner of the screen,you CRT is bad.
FYI,a new upgraded LCD from Haas is about $1,300.
It’s a simple replace,plug and play.


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I'll have to look into that next week, I have a few weeks I can run it blind but I don't think I can set it up for the next job without the screen

This morning the screen came up, with 2 alarms 212 and 251, both looked about the same saying corrupt programs, I looked them over and they looked OK to me but I downloaded the programs and offsets then shut off the machine for about 10 mins. Powered it back up, loaded the same programs and offsets back in and at this point all seems normal
What might this mean?

Hey all; In the post you note CRT... in the 03 manual I was scanning, they show it as an LCD setup. Wondering if you can confirm? Page 372 here shows the basics: https://www.haascnc.com/content/dam...english---vf-series-service-manual---2003.pdf

Essentially, (as far as I know on mine) it's a 115VA supplied pendant for my CRT. It gets low voltages (if I recall correctly) from a few other cables (5/12 only). It gets a TTL MDA Video signal from Vid boards in the CPU stack. (its digital).
With the LCD (and CRT) getting their appropriate power, On page 372, they also show a 12Vdc line to the LCD display specifically. Maybe confirm if the 12Vdc is clean and in use by an LCD module? There is also another box connected that I've never seen before. (video Diff Rec)? I have a CRT, so I'm not much help but... I have torn into most of my pendant and rooted around the 232 Comms, SKBIf and some things when mine was acting up.
If your's is a CRT, then (like mine) you have the 110VaC line. The green light can be on and it can still be the display. It could also be something on the Video board. To test you could get one of the cheap MDA to VGA convertors many folks chat about for older machines. I think $80. Amazon has them. Then connect up and see when it acts up. IT could be the CPU stack and acting up, but I do not hear or see of that often around the posts... With your corrupt items noted is why it could be an option. I'm more inclined to think it's the CRT or LCD unit itself going/ But you could prove that out. Do the usual checking for Bad cable, loose connectors... etc reseats and such can be done.

As of this morning it is up and running as normal making it hard to test much, I will check and make sure as I think it is a crt, I will try and get eyes on it tomorrow

kustomizer said:

As of this morning it is up and running as normal making it hard to test much, I will check and make sure as I think it is a crt, I will try and get eyes on it tomorrow

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Sounds to me more likely to be an unwanted, but intermittent "situation" in power or signal.

The display might be the victim of that, not the cause-of - nor even primary sufferer - just the most visibly OBVIOUS victim.

Cause could be an aged component, corrosion interfering with conductivity, filth and/or biologicals creating paths that conduct when they should not... "etc".

.. .all fairly common as electronics age whilst exposed to an often hostile world.

NB: Solid State AKA "dirty beach sand" goods, do, too, "wear out". Eventually.

Lifespans are measured in "degree days".

Yep, I first thought I was choosing between replacing a display or a card that drives it, though the corrupt file alarms have me puzzled. I really did expect problems from bouncing these machines down 1000 miles of highways, dragging them on and off the trailer with winches and undersize forklifts but I would have expected that right after the move, not a year later, but who knows. I will turn it on and make parts today and see what we see but if it is working again as it did yesterday I suspect there is nothing to do but wait, my favorite thing

kustomizer said:

the corrupt file alarms have me puzzled.

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Those - effects before the display acts oddly - and a program that actually runs, anyway, are the primary evidence it is something other than the screen.

That is along the lines I was thinking, as of now it is still acting normal

kustomizer said:

That is along the lines I was thinking, as of now it is still acting normal

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I had once employed a 13-year IBM "Big Iron" veteran as an IS/IT guru.

She was razor-sharp - went on to head-up Cisco's Field Service organization for China.

Get a call from a staffer, arrive, start by turning the truant PC upside down and shaking it.

THEN .. open the case. Recover the stray HDD/FDD/MB mounting screws her predecessor was notorious for losing and not bothering to CARE if they had fallen in amongst the goods on the MB .... or the bottom of the case.

That said, it was caps failing at on-MB power circuits or in cheap switching PSU that were far the more common cause of nuisance faults for many years.

New York office got so damned much carbonaceous dust we just scrapped a MB annually.

Hong Kong, the same, but it was biologicals growing conductive dead-fungoides trails in a moist debris layer - until we added intake filters to the PSU fans ... ceased turning ANY machine OFF.. and paid extra for properly "tropicalized" MB.

They lasted longer if there was no day/night condensation cycle.

2CW

It came right on this morning and is running fine, like it was all a bad dream

kustomizer said:

It came right on this morning and is running fine, like it was all a bad dream

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Uhh.. huh... all THAT means is that your particular electronic Gremlin is probably a female demon.. teasing your foolish male arse... so as to strike when you have your back up against the wall on a tough RDD.

THIS is where I get out the NON denatured Ethanol, anti-static brushes, low-temp blower, and CRC or LPS contact cleaner.

Get her drunk and blow her arse away, look for overheat evidence, bulged PSU or filter caps.. and soon good for another many years.

Funny thing, the first 15 years I had that machine it ran a pair of parts, 4 operations each side mirror image with 4 Kurt Bi-locks on there, the new blanks went in the laft vise, finished parts came out the right one, every 30 mins the machine would stop and all the parts got moved one station to the right. After the first week it was on the floor the screen could have gone black and it wouldn't have mattered, I had preset tools as backups that I would swap in by popping them out/in on the sidemount while it was running another tool.
Now that I want to put some other things in it it wants to play games. Wonder Woman was talking at lunch today about some thunderstorms I slept through last week, the machine was off and in a metal building but perhats that caused some kind of glitch. It has been running fine all day.

kustomizer said:

Funny thing, the first 15 years I had that machine it ran a pair of parts, 4 operations each side mirror image with 4 Kurt Bi-locks on there, the new blanks went in the laft vise, finished parts came out the right one, every 30 mins the machine would stop and all the parts got moved one station to the right. After the first week it was on the floor the screen could have gone black and it wouldn't have mattered, I had preset tools as backups that I would swap in by popping them out/in on the sidemount while it was running another tool.
Now that I want to put some other things in it it wants to play games. Wonder Woman was talking at lunch today about some thunderstorms I slept through last week, the machine was off and in a metal building but perhats that caused some kind of glitch. It has been running fine all day.

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LOL! I had done a 3-campus Fujitsu heavy-lifter PABX system for a posh educational outfit, Hong Kong. Among the features was silent voice-print capture that put a SCREECHING halt to lazy rich kids calling in bomb threats when they weren't prepared to sit exams.

But then.. the bugger trashed DS1 interface cards so fast we had to get Fujitsu to BORROW one from Canon's Taiwan factory, on-site customer-owned spares and fly it in.

Cause?

Near-miss air-mass thunderstorms... and the lovely ground wire I had spec'ed going into the boiler room to where a Megger-tested and RPE-certified master grounding rod nest existed in the floor...

..which wasn't doing a damned bit of GOOD.. with the grounding wire coiled up next to it.....not even connected..

Y'all might want to review metal-building and service-entrance site bonding and grounding out there where you have NO "umbrella" but DO have miles of rural powerline acting as an antenna farm?

Telephone and Telegraph industry as well as power utility co actually have a short ton of decent solutions for all this s**t. Most of them are even cheap, actually.

Surge Protection and Power Conditioning | Schneider Electric USA

We have HAD to have, over 150 years uber-vulnerable, already.

Last Thursday morning the screen came up black and has stayed that way, the machine ir running fine. I called my HFO and ordered the replacment kit, he said it would be $800. It showed up yesterday afternoon, I put it in this morning. I have to say I am impressed, everything was in the box in one chunk except a small bag of hardware that my machine didn't need and 2 zip ties that I did use, it all fit and it works as it should though it is green, very, very green but it works and I don't have to do everything from memory, I can see it again.