GloryDayGamer

I had the same issue after taking a chip out and bending a pin I lost track of how it came out. I used this manual: http://www.atariguide.com/pdfs/Atari_2600_VCS_Domestic_Field_Service_Manual.pdf Under section 2 motherboard silkscreen. just make sure the notches in the diagram match your board.

That is really weird. You turn to channel 2 and get picture and no sound, but if you preview the channel in the tuner programmer you get sound and no picture? Have you tried disabeling all the sound features like MTS/Smart Sound etc.? I'm sure you have, but it sounds like it has to be the TV not liking the Atari's signal. It's a real head scratcher that's for sure. Hope you get it figured out.

Cosmic Ark

It does look a bit fragile. It isn't socketed is it? It looked like it was soldered in place and I never seperated the switch board from the main. I got everything put back together and this thing is working like it's brand new. I even tried a cart that I thought was dead because every other cart at least loaded and crashed, but this one (donkey kong) did absolutely nothing (black screen). Now it plays just fine. Thanks again, guys! Heres a picture of the insides for those interested

IT WORKED! Thank you all so very much. I haven't put everything back into the case yet, but I just played a full game of yars revenge and it played flawlessly. I'm so glad you didn't forget this because I certainly would have never thought to do it. Thanks again!

Thank you guys for this information. Benzmann, it is doing this on ever game. Shadow460, when you say reflow are you meaning just touch the soldering iron to the exisitng solder to melt nd let recool or is there more to the process? Zylon, I will borrow my neighbors multimeter and give the voltage regulator a check tomorrow. Thanks for the information. This thing has a huge heat sink and really it should have been obvious to me that thats where the voltage regulator would be. This is going to be a fun learning project I think. So tonight i'll take it back apart and reseat all chips that are in sockets. I'll check the voltage regulator tomorrow and if that checks out and it is still acting funky, i'll reflow all the joints. I am including 2 pictures, one of the guts in the case and a closeup of the voltage regulator.

Is that something you can tell me how to do? I can borrow a multimeter from my neighbor, but all i've ever done with one is check simple circuits. Never anything on a board. It is a heavy sixer. I have a terrible confession to make. I misread one of the tutorials on restoring old ataris and...well... I cleaned out the inside of it with a course toothbrush and windex but didn't catch the line "with guts taken out, of course" DOH!!!! If I damaged it then would it be noticable immediately or does ammonia cause electronics touble over time?

Oh by the way. In the video I am just moving the Yar around with one hand on the control. I didn't press the button. The firing is part of the glitching. I unhooked the joystick while it was glitching but it had no effect. Oh and another thing, When it starts doing this I could tap it and it would straighten up and act right for a bit, but this doesn't seem to work like it used to.

So I got my "fully tested and working Atari 2600" that I bought on ebay the other day and it seems to have a few issues. When I first hooked everything up, the games would play for about 2 or 3 minutes before the screen would start glitching and ruin the game. I read a couple of tips on this site and others and started by cleaning all of the game cartridges with q-tips and alcohol. That seemed to help a little but it would still glitch so I wet one of the cartridges with alcohol and inserted it into the console several times and then waited for it to dry. This seemed to help with some of the more glitchy games, but still only worked for 5-10 minutes before starting to flicker and glitch some more. So I cut a credit card to fit the slot, wrapped some fine grit hobby sandpaper (real thin) around it and went over the contacts in the consoles cartridge slot. then i wet a peice of tissue with alcohol, wrapped it around the credit card and cleaned the contacts. They looked nice and shiny and the games all seemed to play without any issues. That was last night. This evening I was looking thru the high scores on this site and decided to play my favorite game on the settings required for the contest. I'm not sure how long I played for (I got up to 167,328 points though, YAY!) and the dang thing glitched on me and then reset. I tried cleaning with alcohol again, but its not helping and it seems to have gotten worse. Now it plays for just a minute or so before becoming unplayable again. I made a video of what I mean when I say "glitchy". If you guys need any more information to help me diagnose what the problem might be I can take pictures, video and take it apart if needs be. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIOJKFAkaPc

I certainly hope so. I'll be in on the joke and ready to trash the poster good

Quite a few jerks on this site. I humbly offer my opinion and hope not to be attacked by internet warriors. I think the reason you are seeing the NES take the lead in collecting is because more kids played it and are now entering a time in their careers where they can afford to aquire and play all of the games they couldn't get when they were kids. In 5 years or so, you will have a new generation of collectors that remember only the SNES. These kids are going to collect SNES and its predecessor the NES. I was born in 76 and my first gaming memories are sitting on the floor with the 2600 playing air sea battle and pacman with my sister, but most of my childhood gaming memories are of the NES. Oddly, as fun as the system was, I am more drawn to collect Atari because it is the original home console. In the end, that is what will make it the most collected IMO.