rednakes1

They're always there, even after powerup.

That's correct, you can't see it on pitch black, but on other backgrounds like light grey or sky blue, it is very clear. I've thought of putting decoupling caps across the TIA power line and on other places. I may check it out another day when I have some more time.

Gah... I just tried it on a 40" LCD and the problem shows up there, not as bad as on a CRT but it's still annoying enough to be there. I probably didn't see it on the earlier monitor because the noise was too small to see on the smaller display. In both TVs it's not just diagonal lines. The pattern changes sometimes so that it's like static. It looks worse than my RF although the RF output has slightly duller colour. Do we need to disable the RF circuitry in order to have his AV mod showing up clear?

I just noticed my Colecovision shows jailbars as well! On two different TVs. I just never noticed it that much until we started discussing the Atari issues. Now I'm starting to wonder if it's an Ontario power thing or just that the Coleco also has this problem.

Yeah after what you had said, I was thinking the timing-related components were out of sync. I only have a tiny basic multimeter on me. Anything I could try?

I ordered some ferrite beads a couple weeks ago on eBay. I will follow up on my findings. I also had a spare TIA from Best Electronics, but using that had no effect. I am also waiting for the new RIOT chips. I also have a set of cheap green chiclet capacitors arriving soon from eBay; which would replace the one next to the voltage regulator. Not sure if it will help. I did replace the voltage regulator several weeks back, but only as a preventive measure.

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with a "crystal oscillator" that I've read about on these forums. ?? I'll have to do some more research on that.

In one of the games, I think Boxing, the vertical lines also follow (get more intense) around the moving character.

I count 52 of the darker lines in my case. Give or take a couple. I used Radar Lock and Aquaventure to count them. This is on 13" Electrohome CRT TV from 2006.

I've tried with and without a surge suppressor and I get the same problem.

Here's a description: https://console5.com/store/atari-2600-total-refresh-kit-new-capacitors.html

Radar Lock came out in 1989 BTW

That's on a 50" LCD where the composite video on the Atari looks like a smudgy mess. Here's the same Atari on a CRT:

For me the best way to test it is to run Radar Lock. The problem always shows up on the grey runway. The image below was on an LCD but it also shows up on my CRT.

I agree, this has nothing to do with RF static. You're better off getting one of those Atari 2600 Capacitor Refresh kits and replacing the caps. I'm not sure if that will help though, as the problem may be more underlying than that, due to age. I may try this one day though but I've already spent way too long on it this month

Yeah it shows up more when you have the brightness turned up, but I have this jailbar issue on coloured areas even when the background is pitch black. It happens on both LCD and CRT.

I would believe that some carts would introduce more static than others but I don't think they are the cause of vertical lines. If you remove the RF shield from a non-modded Atari you will notice some carts are worse (in terms of static, not jailbars) than others, which is probably due to what you said about certain carts.

For my case I'm using a Harmony cart. I have a couple other regular carts that I could try out. EDIT: I just tried 5 regular carts and all have the problem.

Yeah it bothers me as well, and I'm sure someone knowledgeable can figure it out eventually if they have the resources. The 2600 is not a very complicated hardware. What I'm wondering is whether this is a phenomenon that occurs only on the 4-switchers and not on the 6-switch or Jr.

Here are a few instances of vertical lines happening on other consoles, and also mentions how they fixed them. This may give some ideas into what to look for: PC Engine / TurboGrafx: http://etim.net.au/av-driver/pcebars/ - put decoupling capacitors between power and ground lines at the chip that does the digital to analog conversion (RAMDAC) Famicom: https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13150 - Add capacitors or replace capacitors with bigger ones around the video amplifier circuit Atari 130XE computer: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/222906-vertical-bandslines-on-left-side-of-130xe-screen/ There was also an issue with some Sega Genesis model 1's running RGB video, which required lifting a pin that was used for composite video.

It was either this post or another one on their Facebook page where someone asked about vertical lines. I was actually going to respond to it and then I forgot. I can't find it anymore.

I would have liked to ship you mine, but I modded it, and with a dozen wires and a perfboard it's kind of delicate. I have another one as well (RF) but it needs minor repair. I'll see if I can get it fixed in time... it has vertical banding but not so obvious due to the bad static. I'm wondering if it will be a universal issue, same spot in all these problem four-switches.

I have other things plugged into that same CRT TV via composite input - an Atari Flashback 2, a PS2 and also a modded Colecovision. None of them have this problem with jailbars but it could just be that they have better noise suppression circuitry than the 2600.

I tried the Atari just now on a big screen LCD on my main floor. The video quality is horrendous LOL and the vertical lines are still there; no improvement. I don't want to bother trying on the top floor as that TV is mounted to a wall.

I do remember when I was doing one of the composite mods (the 2 resistor + 1 transistor), that when I removed capacitor C215 (150 pF), the vertical lines would look way worse and the picture would look grainier. If you look at the schematic, this is the last capacitor that feeds into the Video Out going to the RF modulator. So in this case the cap does have a big effect. I tried employing the same technique in my current mod (which looks better than the former mod, but does not improve on the vertical lines) but had no luck with different sizes of caps.