Late last year I received a bootleg CV1000B PCB. It appeared to be of same quality as the earlier CV1000D bootlegs. However, when I tested it something seemed very off with image, but I put it down to my cabinet’s monitor acting a bit strangely with the PCB and didn’t think much of it. After talking to a friend later on, who had noticed the same issue, we realized the colours were being driven strangely causing a very poor image.

First place I looked were U14, U15 and U16. These are the RGB colour amplifiers (AD8061ARTZ) and when these begin to fail the image of these PCBs becomes quite dim. This is a common fault and easily fixed by replacing them with new ones. We weren’t exactly having a dim image issue but this was the best place to check. Given these boards are bootlegs I wouldn’t be surprised if they had used fakes. So I ordered a replacements and installed them when they arrived.

before After
before after

Faulty amps were clearly the issue, notice the huge improve to the sharpness of the text and how solid the horizontal lines became. The PCBs image is now Flawless!