Need Help, 2600 glitches out after 5 minutes

[Hannacek]

I have a 4 switch 2600, and it worked great until recently. Now it glitches out after about 5 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes. It works fine, and then it just glitches out like the cartridge isn't making good contact. Usually when it glitches, bars appear on the screen, and it makes a loud continuous beeping sound. Sometimes it will reset the game, and then freeze on the title screen for games that have a title screen.

 

I mostly use the Harmony encore cartridge, but the problem also appears with regular cartridges.

 

Could the 7805 regulator be going bad, and need to be replaced? What is the best way to clean the cartridge connector?

 

Thanks for the help.

[Rhindle the Dragon]

This last summer I had a voltage regulator go bad, and it fried the RIOT IC. I still haven't gotten around to replacing it.

I think if the regulator is going bad, you should replace it right away to avoid having to replace some chips as well.

[Osgeld]

7805 would be my first suspect

 

Cleaning the cart slot I use a cart without a shell wrapped in lenses cleaning tissue and contact cleaner

 

So some variation of that as long as it doesn't leave crap in the slot

[Hannacek]

The problem was that the chips were not making good contact with the sockets. All 3 chips are socketed, so I removed them and cleaned the legs and now its good as new. The cartridge slot is connected directly to one of the chips, so that if the chip is not making good contact with the socket, then it acts the same as if the cartridge is not making good contact with the cartridge slot.

 

I checked the 7805 regulator with a multimeter, and it was outputting 4.99 volts, which is what it should be doing.