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Showing results for tags 'repair'.
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Got an Astrocade without having any guarantees about it working and … wouldn't you know … no worky. It teases. It taunts. Sometimes on boot I get garbled but mostly visible screen, other times a screen like figure 3 here, which then does various strange things. I've attached image and video here. Is it a doorstop? Or is there hope? I haven't gone through the service docs yet or opened it up - it's totally new to me. It came with two extra controllers as well as a nice selection of games, the box, and several game manuals. Thanks for any tips / advice! Atrocade-NoWorky.mov
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Been going on a bit of a repair kick lately and got myself into a bit of trouble / mystery. Way back in the olden days, I got a catalog in the mail from some outfit named INTV Corporation. I ordered an INTV System III from them - so I could have my very own Intellivision to haul off to college! In the ensuing years, that system has gone through quite a lot, even tolerating my "repairs". One time when opening it (another story there, let's just say it needed fixing), I essentially destroyed the ribbon cable connecting the power board to the main board. I hacked together an absolutely horrible solution, and so it stayed for the past 15 years or so. I started using different systems as "daily drivers". I finally decided to remedy the hacky repair, because the system was unstable due to … shall we say … some extremely bad work on my part. At the time I did the "repair" I damaged the traces on the power board where the ribbon cable used to be, and age has not been kind to that board. (In my defense, I did the repair using materials at hand and a soldering gun -- yeah, that was fun!) OK, backstory done. Let's move to today: I removed the mess from the old "repair" and put in something more tidy and less prone to accidental grounding-of-things-that-should-not-be-grounded. However, the damage done so many years back must have caused more issues. The system seemed to work -- until I closed it all up. More investigation revealed further connectivity problems due to damaged traces. So, I reworked the connections again. More stress on an already compromised board... Now, I still have a really bad multimeter. If you're curious, it's this one. So while I can say the voltages on the connector pins are "ballpark", I can't say with any confidence that they are "in spec". Here's the weirdness: One controller does not work. (the right controller). But only with this power board. If I connect a different power board, both controllers work just fine. With this super duper hacky-fixed-up power board, only the left controller works. Using the 4.1 test cart, the chips all pass tests, etc. but I get zero response from the right controller... Swapping back to the brand new power board, everything works just fine. Ideas? I'd like to keep the original parts intact - hacked up damage and all - if possible. Plus it's useful to have a functioning, separate power board available for testing things like this. -
I have an ATR 8000 that does not power on. I was wondering if anyone has experience fixing or replacing the power supplies for these? Looks like an unusual PSU. Many thanks!
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Just wondering if these parts commonly go on a intv model 1. Mine works but the board is black. It's the two black parts. Just want to know in case I have to order parts in the future.
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So I had problems with my 2600 so I decided to try my hand at the AV Mod. I did all the work, it doesn't look great but I hoped it would work, but it didn't. Is anyone able to see what I did wrong and if I can fix it? https://imgur.com/a/xY43JRJ
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Hello all, long time reader, first time poster on the forums. I recently picked up a junk Coleco Telstar Combat system made in ‘77 for a couple dollars. It was pretty roached, but it’s a rather obscure system so I couldn’t pass it up. However, after getting it all cleaned up, I plugged it to my TV to test it out, but all I got was static and no signal. I tried many times turning the system off and on but mostly no signal would appear at all. Sometime a staticky signal would fade in and out, but it was very inconsistent. Once, I even got a vague image of the actually game screen to appear for a few seconds. I’m fairly confident that the video cable coming from the system itself is not the issue and I have it hooked up to a known working RF switch that works well with my Atari 2600. So, I opened the system back up, removed the RF shield, and began to adjust the RF inductors (I’m using a modern tv). ( I attached pics for reference) There appears to be 2 RF inductor adjustments under the shield, and a screw adjustment at the top right corner of the board. I started adjusting the orange (bottom) inductor but that only caused the video to go from no signal, to staticky image, back to no signal. So I tried to adjust the white (top) RF inductor, but it wouldn’t budge. Upon further inspection, I saw the slot inside this inductor had several cracks. I desoldered the inductor from the board to examine it further, but couldn’t get it to budge. After resoldering it back on, I still have the same issue, however, the static signal seems to become more and more scarce, leaving me with no signal as I fiddle more and more with the inductors. I also tried adjusting the screw adjuster to no avail, but I’m not really sure which RF adjusters I should/need to adjust. Would the cracking in the inductor be enough to inhibit the video signal completely? Is there anything else that could be causing this issue besides the inductors? I have a rather limited knowledge on electronics as I have only been attempting retro repairs for about a year and a half, so any new nuggets of knowledge are greatly appreciated! This is a really neat and rare system that I would like to have working in my collection. Feel free to ask questions if something isn’t clear. Thanks in advance! (Note: I have the same problem regardless if I’m using batteries or the power supply).
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Okay this isn't necessarily the right forum for this question but it's the closest I can think of where someone might actually know what I'm talking about and have an answer. So if you open up a typical Atari 2600 joystick, the wires that connect to the circuit board have (on the end of them) a tiny clamp which slides onto a trace on the board. Sometimes when I open up a joystick to repair it this is broken. I want to order some replacements. I can't seem to figure out what this part is called in order to search for it. Example: The closest I can find is a search for "wire crimps" from mouser.com but none of those look quite right.
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looking for a working board for an intellivision. Please contact if you have any you are willing to sell.
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I recently rescued a Vectrex from a crumbling abandoned building. After i had replaced the cord, i figured out it does not work. There is no sound but the normal humming. Does anyone know if i could repair this?
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Over the past few months I've been given many Atari hardware items and software. These belonged to a friend of mine who was an avid member of the local Atari user group. He died about two years ago, and his son passed away about a year ago. I have been receiving various bits of documentation, paperwork, hardware and software from their family members in the time since they passed away. I've been asking what has and has not been archived and I've been doing my best to make sure that it has been archived (thanks to Allan Bushman for scanning and taking care of this 8-bit material-- he's such a great archivist!). Until this point, I've not given too much thought about using some of the hardware like the 1050/810 disk drives. These were all stored in an outdoor barn/shed. All of the hardware (the computers included) is very dusty and I'd be shocked to learn that any of disk drives work at all. A couple of months ago a friend of mine suggested that he would like to see an Atari load-up some floppy disks to play some games. We can do that already, as I have a disk drive emulator for the Atari and various AtariMax flash carts, but he wants to see some real 5 1/4" floppies booting to some game or other. In addition, included in the last batch of Atari items that I was given, was quite a bit of the Atari 8-bit public domain PD library on 5 1/4" floppy. It might be neat to load some of that stuff up on real hardware. My question is: is there a FAQ or repair/restoration manuals and/or videos on how to go through and restore Atari 810/1050 disk drives. I guess, at the minimum, I'd need to learn to clean/lubricate gears/motors/heads. Adam P.S. I also have several Atari 410 program recorders, but I'm not sure that restoring those would even be worth the effort. Or is there a reason to have these around?
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Hello, So first a bit of a disclaimer - I am a bit of a noob when it comes to electronics repair et all - my soldering is crap, and I am definitely learning this stuff as I go along - so please pardon what I am certain is going to be apparent ignorance. I have a 2600 jr rev E which is displaying poor colors (screen appears mostly greyscalish/monochromatic with some yellow/green tinting on the sprites. I tried adjusting the color pot, which you can tell is affecting the underlying colors but onscreen the result is just changing the grey levels so the screen still remains mostly monochromatic. Adjusted the RF pot to no effect either. Low hanging fruit (IE assumption on my part) seemed like it might be a bad cap, so I purchased a recap kit from console5 for the JR. Replaced the caps (polarity on the caps is correct) Turned the machine back on, colors were perfect for 1 second, and then it reverted to the same symptoms, only this time with audio distortion as well. Ordering ESR meter from amazon to check caps, but while I wait the two days for prime to deliver, I would love to get the communities input. 1) What should I be checking to troubleshoot this? 2) I have another 2600 jr that works (I haven't opened it yet so not sure what rev the board is) - so I could desolder and swap TIA if that's appropriate (my inclination is to socket the chips as well, my board has all three chips soldered to board - so if there is room, I think I will socket them) 3) This is probably a really dumb question - but I am curious all the same, the Jr cap kits comes with new caps for C20, C26, C27, C29, C37 c26 is obviosuly the big cap @ 2200uF 16v the other four c20, c27, c29, c37 are listed @ 4.7uF 35v in the console5 wiki (https://console5.com/wiki/Atari_2600) That said the kit from console5 only comes with 3 replacement caps instead of four. My particular revision lacks c29 so 3 caps were fine, but are there revisions which have all four caps on them? Or does each board revision have only a combination of three of those four caps? . Thanks Xamfear
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Composite modded 4-switcher has quiet sounds and ghosting picture
Kenal posted a topic in Atari 2600
Hi, everyone! I own 1981 Woodgrain Atari VCS CX2600A which I modded for composite video output and it has several issues. The first problem is ghosting of the picture. And the second problem is about the sound: volume of the 2nd audio channel is a lot lower than the first. I noticed the sound problem playing Pitfall as well as Synth Cart: all sounds in Pitfall are quieter than in other games, and in Synthcart when I turn on a beat on the right keypad it sounds very quiet too. When I switched the right keypad to bass or lead sounds they sound much quieter than sounds on the left keypad. The console has Rev. 13 PCB and AMI 8116XF TIA chip. The PCB hasn't 7805 buffer chip. I modded the console with this scheme: http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_11_2017/post-62422-0-00139200-1511299299_thumb.png Previously, I tried to mod it with TheFutureWas8Bit's Composite Mod Kit, but the picture was really dark and colors were dull, so I decided that mod amplifies the signal not enough and replace it with the mod on scheme above. I replaced 5K trimmer on that scheme by just a wire because when the resistance is close to zero the picture was better, and when resistance was increased by trimmer, the ghosting effect became worse and the picture was really blurred. Beside the modding, I changed all 3 capacitors in the console and remove and resat all three chips in their cradles. Can anyone suggest what these problems may be related to? The only reason I can imagine is that the TIA chip is defective in some way. Or maybe I should test something else? -
I've recently purchased a non-working Sega CD off of e-Bay that had a problem with the tray constantly ejecting and not spinning discs. After some minor gear realignment and a belt change I was able to get the tray working 100% but for some reason I am still not able to load any games . Strange thing about this is I am still able to play audio CDs just fine. I've tested the games it came with on a modchiped Xbox and they played fine so I am begining to think this may be some kind of laser issue. I've already tried all the basic cleaning steps and am ready to consult the experts. I want to bring this thing back to life! P.S. Any experience with generic KSS-240A laser pickups? -
so my Atari 2600 4 switch woody's left joysick up stopped working I tried multiple joysticks and the up direction doesn't work anymore. I have the pictures of the board what should I do? Now that I have the board out what would you do? I can solder but I don't know where to start. Also should I clean the board and how should I clean it up? -
Sorry to post this, I'm sure you guys absolutely hate seeing these things, but I've been working on this Jaguar for several weeks now and am at the point where I could use some assistance. I got all the information I used to fix this Jaguar (including troubleshooting tips and double checking methods) from the AtariAge forums and think you guys are my best shot at solving this. Maybe this could even help people in the future fix Jaguars that weren't as simple as replacing 3-4 things. So I got a broken Atari Jaguar off a guy I've know like three years, and I know he had been sitting on it for at least that long. He has a bad habit of buying broken consoles with intention of repairing them, but he doesn't even have the tools to do it. Anyway he finally agreed to sell it to me, and it was a super good deal and is one of the only consoles I'm still missing, so I wanted to start working on it right away. I have quite a bit of experience doing some basic console repairs and modding, hell I even recapped both the monitors in my arcade cabinets. Figured I had a good shot. Plugged in a cart, turned it on, nothing. No power. Got pretty excited, no power is usually a pretty simple fix for most game consoles. Spent some good time doing my homework (mostly on these forums), and sure enough, UC38, REG1, and C134 were all blown to high hell. Someone used the wrong power supply on it (which I find interesting since he included a 1st party power supply and video cable with it... maybe he bought those himself who knows). Anyway, bought a new U38 and REG1 off console5 and caps for C134 and C158 (just in case) off mouser since I needed caps for more Game Gear repairs anyway. Got em soldered in, turned it on, eureka, we have power boys. But the video... is just this - https://i.imgur.com/GnuJM1l.jpg When you boot up a game, it's dark blue on black, then about 5 seconds later (after the Jag splash screen finishes I'm assuming) it changes it to like blue and tan, which I'm assuming is the game video. No sound at all. It gives the exact same video using RF or the composite cable (for RF I'm using a TG16 cable since they are compatible). I have an official Jag composite cable for it as well as a third party one, both give the same thing so nothing is wrong with any of my cables. I have 3 games for it too, so I doubt it's any of the carts. Also does the same thing if I use a Genesis model 1 power supply (which is compatible with the Jaguar). I have to say, I'm pretty stumped, and am looking for things to test next, and where to go from here. I did a bunch of power readings with my multimeter, and the U38 itself seems to be functioning properly, all the power readings are what they should be. C158 is also giving me the amount it should (it isn't too low). I was hoping someone could help me rule out my REG1 being the culprit. Using Pin 4 of the U38 as GND, I took power readings of all the pins. Pin 1 gives me 5V (which is correct I believe), Pin 8 gives me 11.47V (which I think might be high but I have no idea), and all the other pins give me a reading of 0V. Is this correct? Also I remember somewhere on the AtariAge forums someone mentioned you can test REG1 by jumping Pin1 of REG1 to L7 and get audio if your REG1 is broken, and that trick did not work for me, I still don't have audio, which makes me think it's something else. The only thing I have not done to this Jaguar yet is a full recap, but I'd like to avoid that if it won't do anything. None of the caps are giving me readings that are suspect (IE, incredibly low), nor do any of them appear damaged (C134 was unbelievable obvious). I have a full chart of the capacitor readings from my Jaguar if anyone is interested in seeing it. Sorry about the huge wall of text, I want to get in as much info as possible initially so no one is like HaVe YoU tAkEn VoLtAgE rEaDiNgS yEt?? (lol)
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So.... I have an Atari 800 with the Hi Tek (white sleeve) keyboard. Space bar is not working. Took it apart to see what the problem was. Turns out the contacts that come together inside the plunger are mangled. They will need to be replaced. Is this an easy operation? Where can I get a plunger and contacts? I know Best Electronics still has the full keyboard, but this is my second computer (sold 400 to buy 800) from the early 80's, and would like to keep it as original as possible. Thanks in advance....
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I recently bought a broken intellivision off of eBay, and after messing around with it i believe that the problem is the CPU. I don't have a working unit, or any other units for that matter. I was hoping i could find a new cpu (preferably a whole board, in case there is any other problems with it) from someone on this form. I really want to try and play some intv games, especially since they are cheap. -
Hi everybody. I've got an Atari 400 with a keyboard that doesn't register 2,W,S,X, and Shift. I already swapped the 4051 and POKEY chip with known working ones so that isn't the issue. I did plug in a fully working keyboard from another unit and it worked fine in it. I was looking through old threads and found recommendations for myatari.com. It looks like the site is down for maintenance though. I'm not sure how long that has been offline. Does anybody here know if these are available anywhere else? Thanks guys. You've been a great help to me.
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so about a year ago i did a 2600 Jr av mod i found somewhere where you added 3 resistors to some pins on a chip and got composite video out... only problem is i tried adding a set of jacks instead of having a cable hang out... but now the video signal is gone. i spent like 3 hours trying to fix it, but all i get is scrolling white. i can sorta see some of the sprites, but i can't figure out what was going on, and ended up removing the added parts... but now the capacitor for sound lost a leg... so i need a new one of those also. anyone know of the mod i'm talking about, like i said i cant find it again, or at least another one that worked for you? also it does the same thing when RF is connected back.
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I recently got my old first computer out of storage. It's a 130xe and it's been dead for 30 years, and I wanted to repair it. It shows a solid black screen when running. I ran a logic analyzer across a variety of pins on the system to see what seemed to be working. The address and data lines across all ram chips, the sally, antic, and gtia all seem to be good. The BASIC chip also has solid connectivity to these lines. The OS Rom chip was socketed by the former owner of the machine (I bought it in 1986 used,) and most of the pins on this socket aren't making contact to the address and data lines. This is likely the cause of the fault in the system. The socket doesn't seem to be gripping the pins very well and the chip comes out a bit too easily. But the other thing I found is that P5 on ANTIC, which goes to P20 on GTIA, and P23 on GTIA are all solid logic low, when the Sam's guide says they should be going back and forth between low and high. Most of the other pin the wave form is provided for seem to have good signals on the analyzer. (I don't have a scope to verify the waveforms though.) Would the OS chip being disconnected cause it to be a solid black screen all on its own, or could there be some other problems with the GTIA and ANTIC? I'm going to be ordering a new socket for that (and maybe a new ROM, just to be safe,) and wanted to order any other chips that could be bad at the same time so I don't need to wait around twice if the first thing doesn't fix it. (I already have sockets for the RAM chips, and new ram chips on the way, since I figured this is a common failure mode with a MT ram based 130xe's.)
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I picked up a CX-2600 from a garage sale and was eager to play and it worked perfectly until I had my friend play with me. This is when I found out that the right controller port's fire button didn't work. I was thinking it may be something with the 16 pin bug or the diodes and was wondering if I should order this kit to repair it.
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Looking for someone to repair my Game Gear's screen (screen works but only a solid blue is displayed, sound works) or nay info on Game Gear repair services.
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I need some jobs done with my AGS-101 Game Boy Advance SP: 1. The charging port (The rectangle port next to the link cable port) doesn't charge all the way and it's very finicky. Could be a bad ac adapter, I'll try a new one out maybe. Either case I'd like someone to take a look at the port to make sure it's not damaged. I'll get a new battery too for it. 2. The volume slider is almost unusable. I have tried cleaning the little slot out but it looks like it's going to need a new volume control module or whatever that thing is. 3. A check of the capacitors just to be safe.
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Hello, I don't have experience with hardware so I'm looking for someone who can fix my Commodore 64, it powers on and has no aesthetic damage but it doesn't output video for some reason, so please reply if you are willing to take on this task. I'm located in Tennessee by the way.
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I have a 800xl with red screen issues but i have silly question as im new to ataris. can i use the 1200xl ram in the 800 to test the ram chips?
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