Atari 7800 just crapped out

[Atari 7800 just crapped out]

I think I'll have to take another look at this after the long holiday weekend. Thanks very very much for all the suggestions. Hopefully I can do some testing and narrow it down when I return!

[Atari 7800 just crapped out]

Thanks for the replies everyone! What an active forum, very nice to see. My power supply checks out and measures at around 12 which is what I would suspect. I tried to measure the leads going into the power button and there was nothing there. So the power is not reaching the power button. Still, I tried pushing the power button and moving my finger left and right but that didn't help. As I mentioned before though, the unit did turn on just fine initially, albeit for only one second. But my point is that the power switch was working without issue. Just that something went wrong right afterwards. I tried to smell the circuit board now and I can't really smell anything that smells different than the rest. But what I smelled yesterday, the sort of burning smell that was coming from the console is gone. So that leads me to believe that something did burn out yesterday. Who knows what. I'm not sure I know how to really follow the power through the circuit board, so perhaps I ought to investigate getting a new board. If anyone has any other ideas for me to try, let me know. Otherwise, I guess I'll start moving on since I'm afraid this is beyond my skill level.

[Atari 7800 just crapped out]

Thanks. I do have a power meter. Could you give me some more details on how to test both those using it? I'm not very familiar with the voltage meter and I'm not sure where I should be testing. Or if this information is noted somewhere I'm not aware of, could you point me to there?

[Atari 7800 just crapped out]

Thanks for the reply. I have been playing around with it a little. I did move around the connector and it didn't really seem to help anything. By all accounts the both the wiring and the port soldered onto the circuit board appear to be in good condition. I did open up the console and visually inspect it. The only thing that seemed weird to me was that the two dial like things in the middle of the board had a yellow glue looking substance on them. I touched them and the yellow stuff did come off very easily. Not sure if that is related at all... Any more ideas?

[Atari 7800 just crapped out]

So, for the first time in a long time, I just decided to hook up my Atari 7800. When I hit the power button the initial time the power light came on for about 1 second, and then the whole unit shut off and hasn't worked since. There seemed to be a barely detectable smell coming from the console as well. Pretty sure there was anyway. It's old (though in good condition) but it may just smell weird I suppose. Is there any common things that would fry inside one of these? I've read an awful lot today about people with power switch issues, but since mine did turn on initially, I didn't think that was my issue.

 

Any clues for me? I do have a power meter, although I really don't know how to use it. So if you have any tips that involve that, please be detailed. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!