5200 4 Port Switchbox repair

[atari-dna]

Repaired my Switchbox successfully yesterday, new DC jack, new RF jack, socketed a new LM393 and a new 2N3906 transistor. Good (or better) than new ?

[ave1]

That's great you didn't have to throw away a perfectly repairable switchbox- nice work!

 

Around 3 months ago my 5200 seemed to be intermittently having rf interference- one day I'd notice problems with the display being wavy or squiggly-looking (the distortion was occuring in horizontal bands near the upper and/or middle part of the screen) and then the next day would be back to normal. It would stay normal for a week and then the problem would return. Then about 2 weeks ago this problem was there every day, so I decided to try it on a tube tv instead of an lcd, but the problem was apparent on that tv, too. I tried switching channels to see if it might solve it, but it didn't.

 

Then I decided I was going to just get a new switchbox, but after seeing the $30 price tag on Ebay, I thought I'd try one last ditch effort to solve the problem. I took the system upstairs away from my surround sound reciever, Xbox One (with Kinect 2.0), and cable box. My theory was that the rf interference might be related to something electronic that it was sitting next to.

 

As soon as I got it plugged in and turned on the problem was gone and has not come back That was about 5 days ago. Looks like I don't have to throw my old switchbox out (or try repairing it). I'm quite happy this worked out the way it did- Sometimes it just takes a little thinking outside the box to solve a problem and keep from spending $30.