Need help with my Intellivision model I

[tz101]

I bought an Intellivision I off CL about a year ago, and it had a problem when I brought it home. Seems that whenever I plugged in a game cart and powered on the console, all I got was a black screen. Repeatedly hitting the "reset" button caused a flicker of some wavy white stripes for about a half second or so, then back to the black screen. All my games are thoroughly cleaned before they ever hit the cartridge slot on my systems, so I knew it was not dirty contacts. After taking the console apart and dusting it out, along with thoroughly cleaning the system's cart slot pins, I got it to play games OK. Now, today, I decided to play a few games after the thing sat for many months. It powered on alright and I played a few games of Beauty & the Beast before it went back to the problematic black screen. Now, all I get when I plug in a game cart is that screen, no matter wghich game I try.

 

Any ideas? Are there capacitors that go bad on these?

[Charlie_]

I bought an Intellivision I off CL about a year ago, and it had a problem when I brought it home. Seems that whenever I plugged in a game cart and powered on the console, all I got was a black screen. Repeatedly hitting the "reset" button caused a flicker of some wavy white stripes for about a half second or so, then back to the black screen. All my games are thoroughly cleaned before they ever hit the cartridge slot on my systems, so I knew it was not dirty contacts. After taking the console apart and dusting it out, along with thoroughly cleaning the system's cart slot pins, I got it to play games OK. Now, today, I decided to play a few games after the thing sat for many months. It powered on alright and I played a few games of Beauty & the Beast before it went back to the problematic black screen. Now, all I get when I plug in a game cart is that screen, no matter wghich game I try.

 

Any ideas? Are there capacitors that go bad on these?

 

Some times my Intellivision starts games with a black screen too. I just hit RESET and they start fine.

[eatenbygrues]

I bought an Intellivision I off CL about a year ago, and it had a problem when I brought it home. Seems that whenever I plugged in a game cart and powered on the console, all I got was a black screen. Repeatedly hitting the "reset" button caused a flicker of some wavy white stripes for about a half second or so, then back to the black screen. All my games are thoroughly cleaned before they ever hit the cartridge slot on my systems, so I knew it was not dirty contacts. After taking the console apart and dusting it out, along with thoroughly cleaning the system's cart slot pins, I got it to play games OK. Now, today, I decided to play a few games after the thing sat for many months. It powered on alright and I played a few games of Beauty & the Beast before it went back to the problematic black screen. Now, all I get when I plug in a game cart is that screen, no matter wghich game I try.

 

Any ideas? Are there capacitors that go bad on these?

 

I'm not sure about the 'wavy white stripes' but I have had similar issues with my Model 1. I would put in a game and get either a black or a solid color screen and everything was immaculately clean. Now the intellivision model 1 uses a fairly similar cart slot to that on the NES and they both suffer from getting loose over time. If you notice a lot of the later intellivision games, the white label ones, like thin ice and thunder castle tend to have much thicker pins than the earlier titles.

 

Anyway what worked for me is I got a small screwdriver and slightly bent all the pins in the cart slot out so that they would make firmer contact with the carts. This took a few tries before I got it to consistently read all my games. You might want to look online for any of the guides on refurbishing a NES 72 pin connector, it should be pretty similar except you can't remove the connector on the intellivision like you can on the NES. Just be very careful about this. Those pins are pretty fragile and you don't want to snap them off. It helps to remove the case to do this.

 

If you have any of the white label games it might be worth trying those first. Since they are a lot thicker they tend to work more easily.

[intvnut]

I bought an Intellivision I off CL about a year ago, and it had a problem when I brought it home. Seems that whenever I plugged in a game cart and powered on the console, all I got was a black screen. Repeatedly hitting the "reset" button caused a flicker of some wavy white stripes for about a half second or so, then back to the black screen. All my games are thoroughly cleaned before they ever hit the cartridge slot on my systems, so I knew it was not dirty contacts. After taking the console apart and dusting it out, along with thoroughly cleaning the system's cart slot pins, I got it to play games OK. Now, today, I decided to play a few games after the thing sat for many months. It powered on alright and I played a few games of Beauty & the Beast before it went back to the problematic black screen. Now, all I get when I plug in a game cart is that screen, no matter wghich game I try.

 

Any ideas? Are there capacitors that go bad on these?

 

The power switch itself may be at fault. It's switching something like 3 different voltages in parallel (egads!). You might try fiddling with it.

[Rik]

The reset switch was mentioned.I remember a very silly thing that happened to me a while back.I had 2 INTV model 1 and thought the reset buttons were broken.Someone here suggested i press the button in HARDER, ... and wouldn't you know it, they did indeed work, just gotta press em in hard, till they click, mine were stiff.

Edited September 22, 2010 by Rik

[SRG]

On my system, which was filthy when I got it, I had to clean the reset several times and then lube it with some graphite, otherwise it would only move slightly. It was stuck so far down that it was holding the reset. Now it moves freely and works great. Give that a try?