Bad consoles--Information thread

[Opry99er]

I've got 4 consoles that have the black screamer at startup.... No idea what's going on there, but I am assuming RAM (VRAM/DRAM/SRAM).....

 

The curious thing is that all 4 consoles worked fine until 2016 at which point they started going down, one by one. I lost one in May, then 3 in the Summer months... then finally the last one went out somewhere in the Fall of that year. I threw away wall warts, installed a UPS, secondary online surge protector, had the electric company check the neutral line coming in to the house.... I even had my computer room put on a completely separate breaker--- last open slot on the bus. When I lost the 4th one, I pretty much disappeared for a while and quit messing with hardware. A dark period that was.

 

In any case, I have a bunch of consoles sitting wrapped up in newspaper inside a waterproof tote in a cool dark place. As some of you know about me, my technical acumen relating to electronic troubleshooting leaves something to be desired, but I need a Winter project (once all my new games are shipped) and I was considering customizing a motherboard with sockets for all the RAM chips and adding an XB GROM inside the console.

 

My question is, can we put a bunch of links together here on console modifications, RAM troubleshooting, etc? I want to do something with these consoles, and a chip listing along with some PDFs or older threads dealing with this sort of thing might help me (as well as the next unfortunate son of a bitch who fries all his consoles in the future). The FAQ thread has a couple resources I think--and I know there are some older posts (maybe one by me, I'm not sure) about this kind of thing. I'll start looking and posting what I can find to the thread. Thanks!

Edited December 9, 2018 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/Troubleshooting

 

 

Nice troubleshooting guide for determining which VRAM chips to investigate. (From FAQ)

[Opry99er]

An instance in which a sound chip caused the black screen:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/269645-console-black-screen/?fromsearch=1

[Opry99er]

A case in which the -5v power was not functioning..... Blown power supply.

 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/264923-catastrophic-fail-any-brilliant-ideas-to-fix-broken-ti/?fromsearch=1

[Opry99er]

The old "console exchange" program offered generously by Matthew180 once upon a time! . Many symptoms and fixes for different issues are discussed here.

 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/173099-994a-console-exchange-program/page-3

[+arcadeshopper]

I'm considering a trade in program..

[HOME AUTOMATION]

This might not be what you asked for but, I have one such board... I have tried many things without results... last attempt I used an AUDIO SUBBER... the processor makes a unique and recognizable sound when running. I compared the sound to a working TI... I noticed the phased harmonic sound is missing... I only get a very high freq. "monotone" and only on some power-ups. The last time I heard of this problem being solved by someone... the solution involved either replacing the XTAL or 9904 CLK CHIP or a bad ROM. I'm hoping my ROMS are good, as this system had something unique either in the ROMS or ELECTRONICS...

I for one would like to try a new XTAL. But don't want to cannibalize my only spare!

[warpman]

"Arcadeshopper", if you create a trade in program, I would be interested. I have two broken consoles and I have not found the time to repair them.

Edited December 14, 2018 by warpman