S1500 Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 So I got a 2600 a few days ago(4-switcher), and after getting power to work to it, it fires up. However, hitting the reset switch "crashes" the console, where the whole screen goes black. Any idea on where to start? The 2600 console repair manual assumes you have the diagnostic cartridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Anyone? Anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Common to have bad solder joints on these switches. Touch up the solder on every switch (paying particular attention to the power, reset and select switches) and I bet you'll be golden! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Common to have bad solder joints on these switches. Touch up the solder on every switch (paying particular attention to the power, reset and select switches) and I bet you'll be golden! I will give that a shot. I noticed the tiniest touch to the reset switch will make it all shut down. Time to reflow some solder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Oh, almost forgot... power input jack too while you're at it. :-) Soldering gun works great on the switches, while an iron would be better for the power input or any other smaller circuit type work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 With the power input jack, there's the soldering connections, all tiny and such. With the box itself, wonder if I can crack that open(safely) and clean the metal spring-loaded tab to get a better connection. I sprayed it down with electronics cleaner last night, hoping that would help a bit. Are the metal sheets around the reset & select switches attached to the RF grounding cage 100% necessary? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Nope. I always figured they were just extra paranoid FCC fare. They even ditched them altogether on later models. I've never bothered to replace or repair them when I've refurbished units either and never noticed any adverse effects with them gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Made some progress. Took off the RF shield(both sides), and suddenly things were working a lot better. Discovered this when I pressed down on the RF cage and it booted up just fine. Player 1's top 5 pins wouldn't read at all. I jammed a shielded wire in there, and all 9 pins were working. I couldn't un-solder the game select switch at all. I tried for an hour. Also tried to just pry the tabs to no avail. But things are getting better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 I've got a broken solder joint somewhere. The Atari works just fine when I boot it up and push the cartridge a bit more inward. But I'm stumped as to where said broken joint is. There's quite a few of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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