Wells-Gardner produced a large screen medium resolution follow-up to their maligned K8000 with the U5000. The K8000 was known for being 25″ medium resolution or 33″ standard resolution, but other variations may have existed, albeit undocumented. The U5000 launched in 1994 with the game Cruis’n USA in 25″ size. Featuring the ability to operate in standard or medium resolution with a switchable plug, the U5000 had great utility purpose. It carried a few design flaws much like its predecessor, and developed a reputation for being unreliable.
The U5000 thus received several service bulletins throughout its service life. Service kits existed, most popularly the Vertical Sweep modification, and another for frequent/premature horizontal output transistor (HOT) failure.
Unlike the K8000, the U5000 has an integrated power switching mode power supply in the deflection board, Wells-Gardner’s first model with the innovative application. This eliminated the need for an isolation transformer, though it’s still suggested one be used by the company. Although not an advertised feature, the signal input no longer carries polarity requirement, meaning a negative sync signal can be plugged into the pin 6 positive sync, or vice versa at pin 10.
In addition to electronic component failure, another notable area to address is at the resolution switching plug. Due to the current draw here it’s possible for the plug to burn up. It’s strongly encouraged, even if it’s not burned up, to replace the resolution header pins for 15 KHz and 24 KHz as well as the .156 female flat molex plug housing and with new trifurcon pins.
There was a service bulletin for NFL Blitz (1997) that had a previously illegible scan circulating the internet that I was able to retype/restore the text on. It offers a list of parts that can fail or lead to failure of the horizontal output transistor.