Genesis is acting up..diagnosis?

[atarilovesyou]

Hi guys. Just getting around to reconnecting my systems after the move. I've got a couple Genesi, but my main is an early run model (super graphics whatnot). I use and everdrive with it and an aftermarket AV cable.

 

I noticed I get a lot of distortion on the screen, particularly when the background is black (like the startup screen). Kinda wavy lines, that sort of thing. I plug everything into a switcher, but my other systems don't have anything close to the effect my Genesis does. I'm going to try my Model 2 tomorrow to see if there's any improvement.

 

Another concern is with the everdrive. Any cartridge, really. This is kinda a new development, but if I touch the cart, either the game freezes or resets. This is something I used to expect out of my older systems (Atari, Coleco) but not my 16 bit systems. Again, the other everdrives I have (SNES, for instance) don't do this. It's kinda concerning...possibly worse things down the road?

 

Gameplay is fine if I don't touch the cartridge during play or mind the moderate distortion.

 

What do you guys think? It's a bit of a Frankenstein model, with a replaced board from a member here at AA, an AV cord from ebay and the original power supply. I love the look of the older model as that's what we all played back in the day (super graphics and sound details notwithstanding), but I'm sure finding another board might just end up like this one. I'm not too sure what to do other than just put up with it or just try again. These systems are getting more and more expensive, I find, especially the ones with the 'good' sound chip (plenty of discussion on the differences elsewhere).

 

Suggestions?...thanks.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Touching or bumping the system and it causes freezes...resets...etc. That is nearly always a condition of the cartridge port itself needing a several cleaning and most importantly the pins needs to be adjusted. When you bump or touch the cartridge as you described, what is happening is that the pins on the cartridge port are so worn that even the slightest touch will cause the cartridge PCB to loose connectivity with the cartridge port pins or fingers. using a small spring hook, dental pick or other type of device can be use to carefully and slowly reform the pins back towards the center of the cartridge port. After all the pins are reformed towards the center, there will then be issues with them not all being aligned properly. So I make sure to reform them more than needed, and then carefully insert a game that isn't in the shell so I can see how the pins move around the PCB. I make sure all pins touch as needed and then the leave the game plugged into the cartridge port for about a week. This is help reform all the pins together.

 

I don't own the everdrive myself for the genesis, but it is also possible that the pcb for those and other games might be thinner than other cartridges. As a result, the cartridge pins wouldn't make as good a contact on those games as it would with others.

[atarilovesyou]

Makes sense. I think I'll first start by doing the old system clean (isopropyl and a lint free cotton pad) and see if that helps, and see if I get the same issue with the everdrive vs a regular cart. I don't recall there being an issue with this system of mine, but it was in storage for a long time.

 

Just too nervous to play anything on it if it may glitch. I sure hope I don't have to start thinking about resoldering the connector itself, because I tried that on another board (that one just kept freezing no matter what I did, if it even bothered running).

 

...could a faulty power supply be an issue causing this? Like perhaps too much or too little voltage provided?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

You stated that if you bump the console or touch the cart while it is playing it does this. So that tells me it is a loose connection between the game and the system. In this case the teeth or pins inside the cartridge connector itself are likely very dirty or need to be reformed.

[Osgeld]

Power supply might cause the screen noise but touching the cart and things going wild is almost always a bad contact ( dirty or whatnot)

 

Course you can try another DC supply 9-12 volts make sure the + & - match up and it's DC (nes supply for instance will kill a lot of machines as its 9v ac)

[zylon]

My old Genny-1 has a similar problem on black screens or backgrounds, but only on AV. If I use the RF cable, the picture is just fine. Not sure if that is an option for you, but it works for me.

[Osgeld]

If I use the RF cable, the picture is just fine.

 

its still there its just buried behind the noise and signal loss lol

[zylon]

 

its still there its just buried behind the noise and signal loss lol

 

Out of sight, out of mind.

[atarilovesyou]

Power supply might cause the screen noise but touching the cart and things going wild is almost always a bad contact ( dirty or whatnot)

 

Course you can try another DC supply 9-12 volts make sure the + & - match up and it's DC (nes supply for instance will kill a lot of machines as its 9v ac)

 

...I learned this the hard way with my very own NES supply on the first board Genesis I had. While I can't be certain, and the power wasn't on for long, it certainly couldn't have helped.

 

I'm going to track down a cleaning kit for an easier job, and also try to remove the old board connector and really clean it out. I tried the pin reforming on that one and it didn't really work out too well.

 

I just gotta proceed with caution, I think.

 

Thanks for the input!

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, as mentioned above I would try cleaning the port and checking the pins to make sure they're not bent out of shape.

 

I had a similar problem with my SNES last week. On that one it turns out it was the solder joints on the cartridge itself that had broken contact over time. Reflowing with a little 60/40 was all it needed in order to make it come back to life.