richphotos

Yeah, I think I will just get a working unit and use this one for parts. I do appreciate all the help with this issue. I will be sticking around, this is a great forum.

That makes more sense that you said that. The TV is very new. I was looking on ebay at working ataris and I might go that rought instead of throwing money into this one not knowing the issue. It would be cheaper to get a working unit. I know it say in the storage for years, but before that it sat in a basement which is known for having water flood it, so I am not sure on water damage. I think i will just keep this for parts and get a working unit from the bay.

I am not using a RF modulator, I am just using the RF to coax converter that can be purchased at radio shack. I do have access to an old TV and I will give that a try tomorrow and keep you guys updated. So if it does end up being the ataris weak RF signal being the issue with my new tv, what would fix that issue? an RF modulator? I dont have an old tube TV and do not intend to get one any time soon. As always. I greatly appreciate the help. This is a great community. When I joined and saw that people were making games for these I was blown away. Very awesome to see. Take care!

Well, I did the connector cleaner for the switches, cleaned the cartridge slot more and cleaned all the games and still no signal is being sent to the TV. Man, I want to play this thing so bad.

I have not had the chance to try another RF cable for this, I will need to order one. I tried every bit of the cable bending and moving it to see if it were to make connection. One thing I have not done is the detox that you mentioned. I do have a bit of experience with electronics and taking apart these switches to clean them is not an issue. Which I should do. I looked in with a flash light and they looked clean but seeing in that small area, its hard to tell. Thanks again!

It does have an analog tuner, that is one thing that I questioned until I did a channel scan and saw it scanning for both digital and analog channels. This is driving me absolutely insane! I want to play some Atari! Thanks for the help.

There is no difference with the atari on or off. The TV just has the box in the center of the screen that says "no signal"

So, a small update to this. I was in the chat room on this site and someone suggested to me to set the channel on the atari to 3, and to an autoscan on my TV (I am using a modern TV) so I did that and still nothing happened besides the TV being placed on CH 3 (still no signal) So, I decided to set the atari to ch 2, did an autoscan on the TV again, this time it set the TV to ch 2, but no signal again. I did this a couple more times to test it to make sure I was not losing my mind, and each time I switch the atari between ch 2 and ch 3 the TV would auto program to that channel but no picture. Which makes me believe that SOME kind of signal is being sent to the tv...

Thanks for the suggestion fiddlepaddle, but I do not know anyone that has a working 2600 unfortunately. So I cleaned multiple games very well, q-tip came out clean, then cleaned the cartridge slot very well also, and still the same result. I have attached a couple photos of the board and the voltage regulator.

I will do some more cleaning and re-seat the socketed chips. I have some experience with circuit boards, have built a couple to control LED lights on my truck. I also should add, I might have been seeing things earlier, but when I first turned it on and nothing happened I sat there for awhile to see if anything would happen, and I think I saw colored blocks on the screen for a quick second. It was out the corner of my eye so I cant be certain, this was when I had super mario in. I have 38 games, so I will be cleaning for quite awhile. again, Thank you very much for the help.

Thanks, I just cleaned it out and cleaned multiple games and tested it out and still nothing is happening. Not sure where to go from here. Everything that was under the shields looks immaculate. The rest of the board and the components look great too. The voltage regulator on the other hand looks in rough shape. Also, some of the leads that go to each component on the board are raised up in sections, most likely has separated itself from the board, but the connection itself is not broken, and that is not happening at any of the solder connections, and like I previously said, I re flowed all of the solder connections. I really appreciate the help, I really want to get this thing running. I know its possible, for the most part unless the board is shot *quick update* I just left it on with a game cartridge in there for about 5 minutes, went back after I unplugged it, the voltage regulator was warm, and all the processors were warm as well, which makes me thing that it is "working" but for some reason video is not going out of it. I am wondering if the RF cable is bad?

That I have not done yet. I will give that a try and report back. But yes, there was a game in there. How do I remove the plastic of the cartridge slot? I have removed both the top and bottom shield from the board to gain access to the 2 tabs that hold it to the board, but it wont budge.

I recently acquired an Atari 2600 from my girlfriends dad who found it while he was moving. Being heavily into gaming I was extremely happy about this. I immediately went to radio shack and got the RCA to coax adapter to hook it up to the TV. Hooked it up, turned the TV to channel 3 which is what I had it set to on the Atari, and nothing. I opened it up, everything looked good, flipped the board over and re flowed all the solder joints on the board. Next up was testing the AC adapter. Left the Atari plugged in for about 5 minutes, unplugged it and felt the voltage regulator and it was warm. So it is getting power. I am not really sure where to go from here? Can the regulator still get warm even if it is not functioning properly? Thanks very much for the help. *edit* By the way, its the 4 switch woody