Virtua Fighter 2 won't turn on

[Spawn of Jack]

Hello everyone, I'm new here but have been collecting machines for a few years. I recently had the opportunity to pick up a working dedicated Virtua Fighter 2, but now I can't get it to turn on, I hope someone here can help.

Here are the details: When I first plugged it in it turned on no problem (I hadn't realized the switch was set to on when I plugged it in) but I did hear a weird crackling sound near the bottom of the cab (if anyone is an owner of a Virtua Fighter 2 please let me know if this is normal).
So i turned off the game (might have unplugged it, not sure) then I switched the i/o power switch off in the back. After cleaning out the cabinet I attempted to turn it on but found that the power switch is highly resistant and won't turn to the on position. I'm owrried that the switch is acting as a type of breaker and this is signifying a bigger problem with my cabinet. I'm hoping it's just as simple as replacing the switch itself, but I don't want to cause any problems if it's something bigger.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope someone can help calm my nerves here with what I can do to troubleshoot and fix this thing without accidentally frying it, I have only a little electronics knowledge.

[iankellogg]

Its probably not a breaker, i am not aware of any arcade game using a breaker switch.

I would just do usual checks. see whats up with the switch.

[mrdude]

I had some sort of similar issue with one of my games. I started tracing back from the problem with my multimeter on the continuity setting...turns out a wire had just come loose during transportation but was still attached so everything appeared to be ok. Check for the fuses, see if you're getting voltage out of the power supply.  I'm not familiar with Virtua Fighter...does that have an interlock switch somewhere?

[Spawn of Jack]

Thank you for the replies, I finally had some more time to look at my game again and tested continuity as you suggested mrdude. Everything from the power cable to the psu (at one point was rewired from the original stock psu to a more commonly seen "black box" psu) seems to be good continuity wise. Also if my knowledge about interlocking switches is correct, it does not have one. (I'm assuming those are the switches that are pushed into the cabinet backing to cut power when the back is open, please correct me if I'm wrong).

What I've done so far since my last post is attempting to disconnect the power switch from the power cable leading to the wall outlet (all done unplugged of course) and the cabinet wiring. There are four connections to the on/off switch. I was able to successfully remove the white and black cables leading to the power cable (the green ground wire still runs straight through to the cabinet).

However I had issues when it came to trying to disconnect the black and white cables from the switch that lead into the cabinet to supply power. They seem to get stuck when I try to pull them out of the sockets as if they are locked in. When looking at a disconnected spare wire connector lying in the cab it looked like it had expanded on the the inside to prevent it being disconnected and I'm wondering if the same had happened to the connected on the on/off switch. I don't know if this is due to any electricity being trapped in the switch so I don't want to attempt to cut the wiring until I know its safe. I don't know if its possible for electricity to be stuck in the switch but if I can't physically pull out the connected wires I wonder if it's stopping me for a reason.

Once the switch is disconnected I hope to open it up and see what I can do to possible fix it (or at the very least figure out what kind of switch I can swap out for it.

I hope my explanation is easy to follow. I will be posting pictures of this tonight when i get home from work