Yeah, I get to beat Tony!

Its in the faq

One of the column driver chips embedded in the VFD glass has failed. You'll need a new display

Best bet would be to contact Rob Schofield normally, but he's not fixing empegs for a while yet. Maybe Stu or someone else can help you with that repair. The tricky part is sourcing a VFD. If your handy with a soldering iron you can fix it yourself.