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Sears Heavy Sixer Video Sound Issue


gilsaluki

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Got a Sears H-6er. At first it just showed diagonal lines, black and White. On some carts it show color vertical strips and sound a steady tone. The color of the stripes and their width change when powering on and off. I inspected the Mo-board, is looks good. I reseated the chips, no improvement. Did resolder the device with the heat sink. Switches seem solid. This unit shows little use and is really clean. Would love to get it going again, just don't know where to begin.

 

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Did you test the chips, not just reseat them? You should be able to swap them with another console to test. This was the problem I had with my light 6er - it had a bad RIOT chip. Swapped one from another system, worked like a charm. Then I just bought a few chip from ebay for a couple bucks to replace the one i swapped.

 

Check out my thread on the issue here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242607-help-with-2600-light-sixer-problem/

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Got a Sears H-6er. At first it just showed diagonal lines, black and White. On some carts it show color vertical strips and sound a steady tone. The color of the stripes and their width change when powering on and off. I inspected the Mo-board, is looks good. I reseated the chips, no improvement. Did resolder the device with the heat sink. Switches seem solid. This unit shows little use and is really clean. Would love to get it going again, just don't know where to begin.

 

The internal RF Modulators in heavy's have a rep for failure... Same thing happened to my Sears heavy. I'd say that is the likely cause.

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Seems like the heavy's have a higher failure rate than other models... Or is it just me? I've had 2 of them and both have had issues. Well it could just be due to their age. But jeeze.

 

I just picked up a lot of 5 non-working 2600 systems for pretty cheap - 4 of them have bad IC chips.

One sixer has a failure on the switch board, not sure what it is, but yeah, the ICs seem to be the culprit a lot of the time.

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Seems like the heavy's have a higher failure rate than other models... Or is it just me? I've had 2 of them and both have had issues. Well it could just be due to their age. But jeeze.

 

 

 

I just picked up a lot of 5 non-working 2600 systems for pretty cheap - 4 of them have bad IC chips.

One sixer has a failure on the switch board, not sure what it is, but yeah, the ICs seem to be the culprit a lot of the time.

 

There's a few factors at play on those models. They are the oldest and have potentially many more hours use on them. They are also an early design and some improvements made later did not get to all of the H6'ers. That first version of the voltage regulator mounting was problematic and that leads to many IC failures later. The wiring from mother board to switch board was not as good and also there was the issue with the early green cart connectors. IMHO, the L6er was an improvement in many ways.

The early regulator mounting tended to crack solder joints and overheat. When they overheat, they let more voltage into the IC's, which then fail after repeated cycles of this. The hex buffer IC helps prevent this by failing first, but it is not always the way it happens. I run into far more TIA and RIOT failures on 4sw models than on 6ers, so the buffer does its job.

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The voltage regulator. Is that the component to the lower left with the heat sink? It did have some broken solder joints and it does not lay flat. Seems the heat sink gel (stuff) is stiff and not good either. Think the VR might be bad?

 

Yes. That is the little IC with only 3 legs. The repeated heat/cool cycles combined with that style of mounting lead to cracked solder joints and hasten the failures. Best sign of failing regulator is if the colors on screen change after system really warms up. Ex- Kaboom goes from green to redish field.

The steel caged ones are the least effective, and the aluminum ones are ok. The later flat plate style is best. One of my older boards developed bad traces to the regulator, so I bought some of the later plate heat sinks and installed it as the picture shows. No troubles ever since.

If your regulator is bad, it will only kill more IC's later.

post-25215-0-35034900-1442715538_thumb.jpg

post-25215-0-47992400-1442715563_thumb.jpg

post-25215-0-28587800-1442715579_thumb.jpg

post-25215-0-49822500-1442715595_thumb.jpg

Edited by zylon
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Thanks. Great Pics. I have the one with the "Steel cage" heat sink configuration. The VR is lifted up from the surface. I see the thermo-compound (white substance), and the VR is NOT making positive contact with the heat sink. The heat sink also "floats", move about. I soldered the joints, but that did not make a difference. My symptoms are initially I get black and white(ish) diagonal bars. After a few Power ons and offs with a certain cart, I get color vertical bars and color jibberish. Sometimes I get a tone, most times, I do not get any sound. I think I may have a bad set of chips, but who knows, I need known good chips to find out for sure.

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That description is why I said it is likely an IC failure. RIOT's are easy to source new. That's the one below the cart slot. TIA's are available used or new from Best Electronics still. If I had the system, I would replace the regulator and also the hex buffer IC. If you do those things, then replace the failed IC's, the machine will last you many years.

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There's a few factors at play on those models. They are the oldest and have potentially many more hours use on them. They are also an early design and some improvements made later did not get to all of the H6'ers. That first version of the voltage regulator mounting was problematic and that leads to many IC failures later. The wiring from mother board to switch board was not as good and also there was the issue with the early green cart connectors. IMHO, the L6er was an improvement in many ways.

The early regulator mounting tended to crack solder joints and overheat. When they overheat, they let more voltage into the IC's, which then fail after repeated cycles of this. The hex buffer IC helps prevent this by failing first, but it is not always the way it happens. I run into far more TIA and RIOT failures on 4sw models than on 6ers, so the buffer does its job.

 

where is the hex buffer ic?

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Hey zylon, what's a good source for voltage regulators for a 4-Switch? Mine happens to have some pretty obvious color shifting as it warms up, and I've already had to replace the RIOT. The last time I tested it the voltage regulator seemed okay but I might just as well get a new regulator and replace it pro-actively.

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