Quoted from RoyF:Ok, progress has been made but still more to go.
Today I made a monitor discharge tool, went the screwdriver + 10 100k ohm 1/2 watt resistors in series with a pigtail and alligator clip route. I did this because I read that a direct discharge of the G05-801 monitor is not recommended. I metered the resulting tool and it metered pretty close to 1000k ohms. With the power cord unplugged, I clipped the alligator clip onto the monitor frame and probed around under the suction cup. Never did hear a "snap" like I expected to, but I left the tip in place long enough that I'm guessing the monitor did in fact discharge.
I then removed all connectors from the vector board, reflowed all the header pins and reinstalled the vector board. Powered up and I no longer have a horizontal collapse problem. The ship was very dim though so I turned up the brightness and could then see the ship and the surrounding asteroids. Yeah!
However, another problem can now be seen as shown in the picture below. I don't know if this is a new problem or just a problem that couldn't be seen until the horizontal collapse issue was fixed.
I did some reading in the bw_vector_monitor_faq document and realized the lines could simply be brightness turned up too high. So I did as suggested and turned the brightness down, then up until the image was visible and then adjusted the contrast. The result - a correct looking screen with no extra lines!
Rl;Dr - It is always best to check the monitor is discharged. And a freshly charged one might take a couple of SNAps to discharge fully. But if it sits for a week or two it generally dissipates.
Play with the brightness and contrast to dim the retrace lines. They are always there and are part of a vector monitor drawing. It is how a "Vector" is made. Dot-line-Dot.
