I just got a Whirlwind and was planning on replacing the display due to burnt out segments. Upon closer inspection, the segments appear to be fine. it turns out that there are specific segments in specific letters that will not display no matter where they are positioned on the display. I found this in the pinrepair guide:
Partial Segment Failures on Score Displays.
Sometimes only parts of a display aren't displaying, and only on certain numbers. For example, the top part of a "0" or "7" are not displaying. It can even be so strange so that the missing segment will work on some numbers or letter, but not on others.
"This can be caused by one of the hex input buffers at U10, U11, U15-U18 (14050 or 4050) on the Alphanumeric master display board, which are CMOS chips and static sensitive. You can check these with your ohm meter. Connect one lead to ground, and the other lead to each input/output pin of the 4050 chips. Any pin that doesn't read the same as the others probably means the chip is bad. Sometimes you'll have to test these chips with an analog ohm meter, and watch the needle "bounce". A pin that doesn't "bounce" like the others again probably means that chip is bad."
So my question is, do you know of anybody who repairs these display boards? I can't find much info on the web. If there is somebody locally that can repair this please point me in their direction. I'm guessing it's going to be a whole lot cheaper than replacing the entire display.