a most troublesome bally 6 digit display that has an issue with the one's digit being stuck on (none of the other digits will display and the one's digit is a bit abnormally bright as one would expect)
I replaced both Q1 & Q7 with new and have same result - one's digit still stuck on, checked the associated resistors and they are within spec/tolerance, so i changed the MPS42 and 2n5401 again, still no love same results

I pulled Q7 and the 5 other digits work just fine with the one's taken out of the picture

am i missing something here or is the display failing internally? am leaning towards a failing display

thanks, anything is possible at this juncture, but there are no solder bridges that I can find - will check again tho,

Q1 = MPS-A42, Q7 = 2N5401

swapped both twice with new yet issue remains (moving it to a different location yields same results)

repaired one of the other displays which had same issue and it now works like a champ with new a MPA42 & 2n5401 installed

re-installed Q7 and one's digit remains stuck and the only digit lit, strangely enough it alternates between 0 and 8 when in attract mode (decoder issue?), in test mode it shows the correct corresponding numerals (of course only in the ones place)

this is true, testing transistors with multi meter using diode tests is easy, the results of new transistors match the existing transistors, unless I received counterfeit (mps-a42) parts these are all good - anything is possible - they could be labeled wrong i guess

will swap a 42 from one of the other digits and see if the locked-on digit moves, i am still leaning towards a defect in the display

we shall see tho

and I failed to address one of the highest order truths ... "always suspect previous work"

doh, my fault, i should have known better, must be getting lazy