now my Intellivision is acting up

[bradhig1]

first the Playstation One Slim . then the Telstar, Colecovision power supply, and now my Intellivision cuts out in the middle of Diner level 8. I Reflowed a blue cap on a small board with another blue cap and other components. I think that board might need to be replaced completely. Why does everyone else around here get reliable equipment but me? Everything keeps breaking.

[HunterZero]

I have had several Intellivisions through my hands, and only one didn't have some kind of issue, and that was an INTV System III. I had to make various repairs on the rest. The Intellivision has a very complex logic board for its time, with lots of ICs.

 

The smaller board with the two big blue caps is the power supply board. It has AC to DC rectifiers, and 12V and 5V voltage regulators. It has a 2 pin connector with 1 wire, and a 5 pin ribbon cable. Be careful with the ribbon cable, it can disintegrate easily.

 

Problems with the power supply will usually result in the console failing to boot at all, giving either a black screen, a striped screen or no picture at all. You can check this board is working OK by checking the voltages at each pin against the back pin on the 2-pin connector. The two large caps can have cracks in the solder, so reflowing those solder joints is sometimes necessary. These caps are usually hot glued to the board at the factory to prevent this happening.

 

Does only Diner cut out in the middle of level 8 at the same place every time? Any symptoms with other games? If this is so, it sounds more like a logic issue rather than power supply, possibly RA-3-9600 SRAM.

 

- J

[bradhig1]

Happens to other games. sometimes the picture goes black with a white line in the middle looking like it is out of sync. I thought about getting an Intellivision II but those don't play Coleco games unless there is some way to hack them to and only to get the system changer.

[+fdr4prez]

You are not the only one with INTV console troubles around here.

 

It just that the veteran collectors, and veteran gamers, around here can manage to piecemeal something that works, or just add it their growing pile of nonfunctional units and go purchase another.

[bradhig1]

What about the Intellivision iii is that as problematic as the original master component?

[bradhig1]

I opened it up and tapped the caps on the power board no problem. If I tapped the red connector too much it would screw up. Look at those dark horizontal coming from the text. Is that normal?

[bradhig1]

I took the power supply board out and looked at it. What is that brown stuff on the circuit traces by the screw hole? Could that be a problem? Heat sinks are beat out like crazy. What is that junk under the capacitors?

[Keatah]

That brown stuff is very very likely adhesive to hold those big suckers in place. If it were coming from inside the caps, you'd see the black rubber area contaminated all around. The one cap doesn't show that sign. The other I can't see. But adhesive on big caps is common.

 

If you have a connector that goes wonky when tapped, it should be taken apart, adjusted, cleaned, and coated with some sort of dielectric grease or contact cleaner that leaves behind a "treatment"..

 

The heatsinks look serviceable. If you're so inclined to take the time, I'd refresh the thermal paste and straighten the fins.

 

The brown stuff looks like stray flux, it shouldn't be a problem.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Keatah

[Keatah]

You are not the only one with INTV console troubles around here.

 

It just that the veteran collectors, and veteran gamers, around here can manage to piecemeal something that works, or just add it their growing pile of nonfunctional units and go purchase another.

 

Or take the time to properly refurb them with fresh solder in key areas. Dressing the sockets and connector contacts with dielectric grease or contact cleaner. Test the caps with and ESR/capacitance meter. Examine the power supply output. Remounting heatsinks. Cleaning switches. Retensioning plug-in stuff and plugs and connctor conductors. And a whole lot more. All part of owning and operating nearly 40 year old hardware.

 

It's either learn some skills, or do as you say, add it to the pile.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Keatah

[+fdr4prez]

 

Or take the time to properly refurb them with fresh solder in key areas. Dressing the sockets and connector contacts with dielectric grease or contact cleaner. Test the caps with and ESR/capacitance meter. Examine the power supply output. Remounting heatsinks. Cleaning switches. Retensioning plug-in stuff and plugs and connctor conductors. And a whole lot more. All part of owning and operating nearly 40 year old hardware.

 

It's either learn some skills, or do as you say, add it to the pile.

Ain't that what I said? "piecemeal something together that works"

 

You just used some fancy methods and fancier terminology... HA!

[Keatah]

The terminology I used outlined a set of actions that is significantly different than "piecemeal something together that works".

 

What I described is basic preventative maintenance by using shop supplies and the possible replacement of capacitors. No need to scrounge for parts to build a working unit from 2 or 3 donor consoles. Reading comprehension is important.

 

Additionally it is the lack of understanding of electronic theory and practical shop operations that create these growing piles. And it's only going to get worse as we move away from the era in which these consoles were built. While electronic theory is likely to remain the same for some time to come, the practical hands-on experience is diverging from the skills need to repair old consoles.

 

A modern-day example is they don't teach you how to deal with a mechanical TV tuner. Or the proper way to check tubes. And tubes were still widely in use in the 1970's. Just a few short years before our beloved consoles came to be. They may not teach how to repair and re-plate switches and the contacts inside them. It's already hard to find early custom console switches, let us not throw them on the pile if they can be restored.

[mr_me]

Have you inspected the main board for problems?

 

------------------

There are far more working Intellivisions out there than there are people that want to play them. How big a problem are capacitors. I have old electronics from the 1980s some from the 70s, all are working without any maintenance (other than some cleaning).

Edited July 21, 2017 by mr_me

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I opened it up and tapped the caps on the power board no problem. If I tapped the red connector too much it would screw up. Look at those dark horizontal coming from the text. Is that normal?

 

By red connector are you talking about the one that connects to the lower right of the power board pic you posted above? The one with the 5 large pins that stick out?

 

If so, then you need to check the solder joints on the bottom of the power board around that connector or examine the other part that actually plugs onto those pins to see if a wire appears loose? I believe that that connector comes from the actual transformer itself and is what is supplying the different voltages to the power board that are further converted to the voltages the Intellivision actually requires.

 

I've had at least a half dozen different Intellivisions cross my path over the years and only 1 has ever given me problems. It was my Sears Super Video Arcade that I picked up cheap at the thrift store. It was my first Intellivision I picked up and about a week later I found another at a different thrift for like a $1 more than I paid for the Sears unit. I ended up swapping the main logic between the two to make the Sears unit be fully functional. Still working grand to this day.

[HunterZero]

I believe that the red connector in this case is the 5-pin AC input connector from the transformer. You can try cleaning that connector with deoxit and see if that helps. Make sure that the pins are making proper contact inside the connector. Sometimes the 2-pin STIC wire can be a red connector too, that can come loose and need attention as well.

 

The junk on the capacitors is indeed glue used to hold the larger capacitors in place. If this glue has disintegrated over time, there may be some stress on the solder joints that requires reflowing.

 

The brown gunk on the solder side of the board is leftover flux from manufacturing. Isopropyl alcohol will get rid of it. I had one power board that had particularly bad flux residue, it's good practice to remove it.

 

As a matter of course for two of my main Intellivision units, I replaced the three electrolytic caps and both the 7805 and 7812 voltage regulators on the power supply board. The SHOEI branded electrolytic caps are generally very good quality but they are over 30 years old now. Replacing these parts fixed a black rolling bar picture issue on one of my units.

 

Your picture looks pretty good - The black shadows looks like it could be some RF interference or fine tuning. Have you tried the unit with an old CRT? Try a better shielded coaxial cable? Manually fine tuned the analogue signal a hair? A certain amount of artifacting (shadows and colour bleed to the immediate left of contrast areas) is normal.

 

- James

Edited July 21, 2017 by HunterZero

[HunterZero]

What about the Intellivision iii is that as problematic as the original master component?

 

It's technically the same as they Intellivision 1. After the Intellivision II, INTV corp returned to the original design for the INTV System III. But they are a few years newer, and made from newer batches of GI parts, so might be a little more reliable. One of the units I have that worked all the way with no repairs needed is an INTV System III.

 

- J

[+Lathe26]

What about the Intellivision iii is that as problematic as the original master component?

It's hard to say. While the plastics are about the same, the circuit boards vary greatly in the INTV III and Super Pro systems. Also, there are fewer of them out there. However, the parts are newer.

[HunterZero]

The INTV System III that I have does not have an RF shield. If they were all this way then overheating would have been somewhat less of an issue.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Any change in this? Saw your posts on playing microsurgeon so is your Intelly working any better?

[bradhig1]

Any change in this? Saw your posts on playing microsurgeon so is your Intelly working any better?

It works well enough to play games just sometimes it just cuts out in the middle of a game. Sonething on that board is getting hot because the corner of the Intellivision is warm. Maybe thats what the problem is.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

It works well enough to play games just sometimes it just cuts out in the middle of a game. Sonething on that board is getting hot because the corner of the Intellivision is warm. Maybe thats what the problem is.

 

Totally normal. I'm guessing it is the lower front left corner that gets warm? That is where the large transformer is inside the Intellivision that supplies the different voltages that get stepped down further on the power board. There is also two voltage regulators that add quite a bit of heat as well on the power supply board on the back left of the case. I changed out both of my voltage regulators with DC - DC buck converters. Temp is quite a bit less, though the transformer on the front left still gets quite warm and there isn't really anything you can do to prevent that. But because of all that heat inside, is why the Intellivision is known to die from overheating.

[bradhig1]

 

Totally normal. I'm guessing it is the lower front left corner that gets warm? That is where the large transformer is inside the Intellivision that supplies the different voltages that get stepped down further on the power board. There is also two voltage regulators that add quite a bit of heat as well on the power supply board on the back left of the case. I changed out both of my voltage regulators with DC - DC buck converters. Temp is quite a bit less, though the transformer on the front left still gets quite warm and there isn't really anything you can do to prevent that. But because of all that heat inside, is why the Intellivision is known to die from overheating.

Maybe thats the problem. Too bad you couldn't put a CPU fan in the thing to cool the transformer and the power board.

[CatPix]

Console5 sell radiators for the Intellivision and other Z80 sized chips to remove excess heat. I used them on the Astrocade and it's much more reliable.

Sticking one with thermal glue would help. If your Intellivision have RF shielding, remove it. Those were put to comply to FCC excessive rules - most European Intelli doesn't have that RF Shield and doesn't have any issue.

Removing it will allow better cooling.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Console5 sell radiators for the Intellivision and other Z80 sized chips to remove excess heat. I used them on the Astrocade and it's much more reliable.

Sticking one with thermal glue would help. If your Intellivision have RF shielding, remove it. Those were put to comply to FCC excessive rules - most European Intelli doesn't have that RF Shield and doesn't have any issue.

Removing it will allow better cooling.

Very interesting to know! I actually did remove the RF shield off mine years ago when I was working on it for RF adjustments and touching up some dodgy looking solder joints. Mine that I primarily use, still has the original heatsinks on the chips. Though this makes me wonder about my Tandyvision and Intv III systems.

[bradhig1]

It justs cut out at random. Is that caused by overheating?

[bradhig1]

Got the top shield off the motherboard but the bottom one is soldered on the bottom. Got it all off.

Edited July 27, 2017 by bradhig1