Decent Intellivision score, but issues...

[cybercylon]

Went through one of my area flea marts today that usually doesn't have much in the way of older systems, but one of the outside vendors had an intellivision I system with 13 CIB games, 13 loose games, and the system. Couldn't pass it up, especially since I don't see something like that in the wild here. Not one of the games is a sports title, surprisingly.

 

Anyway, got it home, and issues right off the bat. At first, all I would get is a black screen no matter which cart I tried. My assumption here is that it wasn't likely that all of those carts would suffer from bit rot. So I started to clean some of the easy INTV ones that have Philips screws. No dice. Then I read here that the cartridge connector can have issues as well. So, I took it apart, clean that out with contact cleaner, 600 grit sandpaper, then alcohol. Well, a bit of progress here. Still get a black screen, but if I turn the power on and off several times, here is what happens to several carts:

 

1. Locomotion: get the usual green intellivision screen greeting. Can start a game, play a bit, but then it crashes soon after.

2. Atlantis: comes on, but won't respond to any of the controls. Some times there is extra RF noise or the screen shrinks a bit during certain sound effects.

3. Beauty and the Beast: I get an intro screen with music. Either the game won't respond to controls or if I press a number on the key pad, the screen turns white. No sound.

4. Astroblast: Very quickly see the green screen greeting, then the game starts like I have pressed one player even though I touched nothing. Okay... so if I get killed soon after it starts, the screen background is blue, I have over 30,000 points, 33 lives, and stuff is raining down like crazy.

 

There are of course more games, but I haven't messed with cleaning them or testing them since I think the source of the trouble is the console.

 

I've monkeyed with the system as much as I would care to today, including swapping the controllers in case controller #1 is borked. Same problem. Was wondering if any of the intellivision experts have further insight. The action of needing to hit the power switch more than once reminds me of the Colecovision, so maybe there is something worth looking into tomorrow. Any other ideas would be appreciated. I'm kind of bummed as I was looking forward to playing games like Atlantis and Demon Attack, games which I love on the 2600, but they look like a fresh take on the Intellivision. Also, not cool with potentially being out the cash.... the outside vendors usually aren't there the next time.

Edited September 5, 2010 by cybercylon

[thegamezmaster]

I'm curious what the pros have to say as I've had the exact same problem with my intellivision and the games. I mean what gives? Anyone know. And yes I've cleaned the carts and connector. It's really hit and miss.

[nightglider1]

I have something similar happening. I've cleaned the cartidges and connector as well as I can, but still having troubles. Currently waiting to hear back from a couple of people I found online who say they do repairs (OldSchoolGamer in Canada, and 4jays in California).

 

If you stumble upon a fix, I'd love to hear!

[cybercylon]

Some progress here..

 

The power switch was full of crud, so I opened it, cleaned it out, dash of contact cleaner, and put it back together.

 

Cleaned up some more carts. The snugger the fit, the more likely it will at least do something. The carts I listed above at least come on most of the time..

 

However, even if I leave the controllers unplugged, the system acts if one is plugged in... very quick flash of the usual green screen, then something like locomotion asks for one or two players. If the controller is plugged in, and I select 1, it will crash.Sometimes the game starts without a controller plugged in.

 

Atlantis... all I get is the demo. A button press may cause it to crash. Same with Beauty and the Beast.

 

The screen jumping/more RF when something explodes in Atlantis seems to be limited to Atlantis, but both of my copies do it.

 

Yikes... and I thought getting my colecovision was a pain. Next on the agenda is a take apart, checking connections, clean where it looks dirty, etc. Getting that RF shied off will be painful. I read someone here used a dremmel... might be time to pull that out.

[nightglider1]

As far as removing the RF shield, you should be able to use a soldering iron and solder sucker to remove the solder blobs that attach it.

[jaybird3rd]

It might be a bad STIC chip (the graphics chip). I had an Intellivision console that gave me nothing but a black screen, and that's what the issue turned out to be. I just picked up a bundle of "dead" Intellivision hardware on eBay to use as chip donors. I would try re-seating the chips before replacing them, though.

 

You shouldn't need to use a Dremel tool to remove the RF shielding; just suck the solder out of the joints with a piece of solder wick. I removed all of the solder and re-sealed the shielding with strips of electrical tape so I could remove it more easily later.

[cybercylon]

Could be a bad chip... hard to say. There seems to be so many things that can cause this, but at least some progress was made in round 1. Time will tell.

[cybercylon]

More progress to report...

 

Took everything apart, gave it a good cleaning, reseated the chips, etc. I also felt that due to cleaning, the pins in the cartridge slot may have gotten bent back a bit much, so I pushed those forward a bit.

 

So, as along as a cart has been cleaned, it comes up. However, as I mentioned above, the green greeting screen flashes briefly and it acts as if a button has been pressed on the controller. and depending on the game, it might start on it's own. This funny business happens even if the controllers are not plugged in. If a controller is plugged in, all of the funny business happens, control might be erratic at best, or the whole thing crashes.

 

Okay, so if the games at least start up, maybe it isn't the STIC chip. Does one of these socketed chips control input and output? If that is hosed, maybe it is easy enough to swap. Of course, if it is one of the soldered chips, I'm hosed. My sodering skills are not very strong.

 

P.S. The RF problem I mentioned above seemed to be due to the TV. It went away when I moved it to a different set.

Edited September 11, 2010 by cybercylon

[Rev]

you can pick up a new console rather cheap, that may be the way to go.

[cybercylon]

you can pick up a new console rather cheap, that may be the way to go.

 

pm forth coming