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Showing results for tags 'repair'.
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Current status (20-Feb-2021): I'm sending out PMs to those who have expressed interest. I'm doing this in the order that people responded. Initial Post (mostly) (10-Feb-2018): As many of you are aware, the Microvision by Milton Bradley is notorious for something people have called "screen rot", where the LCD screen becomes dark and unusable. Unfortunately, this effect is all too common. A fix for these would hopefully bring back to life these interesting and (I think) fun handheld systems. It took a few months or so, but I was finally able to get a couple of quotes for replacement LCD screens for the Microvision. These are intended to be drop-in replacements for existing screens. There's a number of costs related to this project. Some are known, such as engineering cost and production cost, and some are unknown, such as customs and duty, and shipping parts to me. Therefore, I've come up with some maximum prices in US dollars (shipping not included): Quantity 1: $22.00 Quantity 2+: $20.50 each Quantity 4+: $19.00 each Quantity 8+: $17.50 each [initial orders will probably be in the $17-$19 range each, regardless of quantity ordered (1+). This is because I'll be able to work on a bunch of orders one after the other, which will save time. Price later might be a few dollars more to account for time spent packaging single orders. Note that the exact price is to be determined, based on actual costs that I incur for the project]. I should mention that once you've bought and received your replacement screens, they're yours to do whatever you want with them... resell them at any price you see fit, put them in systems and sell those at any price you see fit, keep them on your shelf to look at, etc. FAQ: 1. Will the new screens be susceptible to screen rot? They shouldn't be. These will be brand new displays, built to high standards. We're used to the Microvision display being very poor, but most or nearly all other small LCD displays work well for many, many years. 2. What is the operating and storage temperature of the display. Operating Range: 0C to +50C. Storage Range: -10C to +60C. 3. Are the Zebra connectors (that connect the LCD screen to the board) reusable? Yes. They tend to stick a bit when they've been connected for a long time, but they seem to be robust in their ability to connect well with repeated use. 4. Are there installation instructions? Is it easy to install? Here are some pictures of disassembly of a Microvision (re-assembly is basically the reverse, although the front and back polarizer and reflector is not required). The green pad is still used, and the contact strips are still used. It's fairly easy, although sometimes the wires and other parts like to move around a bit, so plan on 20 minutes for a full upgrade.- 817 replies
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We got our 1024 ST at a shop called Butler's computers in Federal Way, Washington in the late 1980's. it is hooked up to a hard drive box and it fails to boot now. Disconnecting the hard drive box does not help. -
I have five non-functional Geneve 9640 cards. For some time I've considered what to do with them. I am not interested in investing my time to fix them and have decided to offer them to the community. I obtained the cards during the late 1990s when I temporarily assumed Myarc responsibility from Cecure Electronics. The cards came from Myarc and were never sold due to their inoperable condition. Rest assured these cards are not customer cards. You can read about the repair efforts in Micropendium articles from the period. The cost per card is $50.00USD + shipping. This covers my investment. If you buy a card, you will need to source any missing parts yourself. Schematics are available on WHT. The cards will come with whatever chips are currently installed, untested with no warranty or guarantee of any kind. Last but not least, Richard and I have discussed the future disposition of these cards. We will not accept them for repair. This is primarily an opportunity for those of you who want to own a card that you can learn from and/or repair yourself.
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I have a Vectrex that stopped working. I suspect the failure has something to do with the electrical service at my house which surges at times. Few other devices also failed. There is some evidence this Vectrex may have been repaired before. The case is not fitted together on one side. It looks like it would snap in but I've never messed with it.
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I’ve got a junior that turns on fine. You see the game, but it’s as if the signal is not fully lined up with the channel selected. I’ve tried different channels, gave it a cleaning, twisted the red thingie to see if that would help, asked politely but nothing’s made a difference. I also tried to find what’s always referred to as the chiclet looking film capacitor on earlier models but not having luck. Any experts know if there’s a specific that seems like an obvious fix?
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Hi! I found this forum while searching solutions for my Lynx II issue and it's been really informative! I came into the forum with complete ignorance and I've picked up some great information about the system. Let me tell you my story: I bought a Lynx II for cheap about a year and a half ago, tested it and stored it for some time. A couple of days ago I picked it up to play for a while and to my dismay I saw that even though the text on the Retro HQ and Kung Food was clean, the rest of the image was all scrambled! I cleaned up the contacts on the cartridges and on the console but it's still the same. I did peruse the forum and saw that everyone recommended changing the MOSFET (still have to read about what this is), changing the capacitors, replacing the LCD screen or replacing the Suzy and Mikey. I understand this would be the order in which to check everything, right? I'm not particularly skilled at soldering and using a oscillometer oscibut I can get some help with that. This is very hard for me since I'm in Argentina and getting anything videogame related delivered here comes with great cost but I do want to get my console to work. If anyone has a recommended place to start for figuring out how to get my console working, I'll really appreciate it! Here's some videos and photos of how the console is working right now. 20231130_190951.mp4 20231130_193409~2.mp4
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So I recently picked up an Apple IIc and a green phospher Monitor II in reasonable condition while I was on a trip to Nashville. I'll spare the details of the restoration pratfalls i've blundered through, but suffice to say the Monitor II currently works. I know that RIFA capacitors are used for line conditioning and tend to let out the magic smoke after three decades. I need to figure out if these capacitors need to be replaced soon as I suspect, and if so, I was hoping someone could help point me in the direction of compatible replacements. The caps on the main board don't appear to have any leaks or bulges at the moment so I am not super worried about them just yet.
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My Sears Super Video Arcade's transformer seems to be bad. I don't trust the one I found on ebay. Does anyone here have a known good transformer they would sell me or a recommendation for using off-the-shelf parts. I imagine it's unlikely there is an exact replacement being manufactured but maybe 2 transformers to get all the voltages?
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What dumb little repair or tech thing have you done recently- that while simple and small- makes you feel accomplished and awesome? For me it was putting the guts of a well loved Gameboy Color into a new case with new pads and buttons to fix it- since many of the buttons didn't work well (or work in well.) and the case was not in great condition. Easy thing to do- but made me feel pretty good when it was all done and everything worked a hecka a lot better.- 137 replies
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I've got a Dualshock 2 that belonged to my mom way back in the day in my possession. Unfortunately, upon plugging it into my console I realized that the buttons were unresponsive and simply do not work with the exception of Start and Select. The board inside is definitely still working in one form or another, as the analog LED is on when I plug the controller in. But none of the face, trigger, or bumper buttons appear to be working and neither do the analog sticks or D-Pad. I'll post a picture of the insides and the board itself when I get home, but from my recollection everything looks absolutely flawless. I compared the board to a confirmed working controller and wasn't able to discern any physical wear that could indicate circuit failure. I was hoping someone could share some ideas on what I could do to fix it, thanks! Here's an online photo I found of the controller revision I have. -
As a kid I got most of Mattel Electronics handhelds. Always treated them fairly well and kept the boxes, instructions, etc. For the last 30+ years, every few years or so, I'll take them out and play a few games. This week, when I took out Mattel Electronics Auto Race, it seemed to have died. After some fiddling, I managed to fix it. Here's a summary, in the hopes that someone else out there with a similar problem might be able to fix theirs also... Last time I played the game a few years ago, for the first time in maybe 7-8 years, I noticed that the LED's were kind of flickery (which I didn't remember them being years ago), and the game seemed to play slower than I remembered. Also, sometimes you'd have to turn the on/off switch a couple times to get the game to start....sometimes you'd turn it on and there'd just be faint blips scattered on the screen, or the screen would stay black. Oh well, it mostly worked, so I didn't mess with it. The other day I went to play the game and couldn't get it to play at all. Turning the switch to 'start' usually did nothing. Occasionally if you flicked back and forth, or wiggled it around a bit, you could get some random blips to show up, but it wouldn't actually play. So I decided to take it apart and take a look. The big problem with these Mattel handhelds? Those stupid triangle screws. 2 solutions that I know of. One (the good way), is to find a 3-sided, triangular shaped metal file that tapers to a small traingular point. I've got one from my grandfather, must be 75 years old, that just fits the screws pretty good. Not sure if they still make/sell files like this, but there ya go. Second (the bad way), is to just carefully drill out the screws using a drillbit just slightly smaller than the screw head. You'll get it apart, but will later have to superglue the case back together (or use rubber bands to hold it). Pull the steering button off - it was difficult on mine, but if you just keep pulling straight up and *carefully* wiggling it back and forth, it eventually pops off. Now you can remove the entire circuit board and take a good look. I assumed the problem was with the on/off switch. First I tried using wires with small alligator clips to jump the posts attaching the switch to the board, thus bypassing it and making the game always be "on". Doing that, the game would sometimes come on and play the way it had a few years ago....flickery LED's and seemingly slower gameplay. Sometimes the screen would just get random garbage blips on it. Sometimes it would start to play, and then crap out. Hmmm. Maybe not the switch, maybe one of the components is just fried. Then I was noticing a small "pot"...a little circular thing with a slot in it that you can turn with a screwdriver. You often see these in old computers (like the Atari 8-bits), and videogame systems, where it works as a color adjustment knob. Why is it in this Auto Race game??? I turned it a bit. After doing so, the game played flawlessly again....solid bright LED's, it played faster (the way I remember it being originally), and oddly enough the On/Off switch works fine all the time - it's no longer flakey. Turns out that little adjustment knob controls the speed of the game. If you play around with it you can make the game play slower or faster. So what happened? I guess after not being moved for 40 years the contacts got worn/corroded/whatever. Just moving it a bit moved the contacts to a 'fresh spot' and solved the problem. If you have a Mattel Electronics Auto Race game that seems dead, broken, acts strangely, or the start switch seems to be messed up, give this a shot. Hopefully someone else benefits from the info (because I myself was searching for "Mattel Auto Race repair" and came up with nothing!).
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Does anyone know of a good drop-in replacement for the color/tint trimmer pot on the 130XE? The one in the pictures has ‘500K’ stamped on it. Does that mean ‘500 kOhms’? I am working on a 130XE that does a random bad color shift every so often. I can usually get the colors back normal by painstakingly adjusting the tiny color pot via the little hole on the underside of the case. I was planning to install a UAV so I did so hoping maybe the UAV would not be impacted by the original color pot. However it is impacted just as before… an unexpected color shift kind of at random maybe once every 30 minutes which can be temporarily fixed by tweaking with the color pot. I took the pot off, disassembled, cleaned it and put it back together and soldered it back on. The pot action is much better now, it’s a lot easier to adjust with a much greater range of color/tints to choose from. However I am not sure I eliminated the random color shifts… rather I only made them easier to adjust when they occur. So to be safe I am looking for a replacement part. Bonus question… did Atari use the same trimmer pot on all the 8bits? If yes I’ll order more than one new one. Color/tint trimmer pot is the one painted pink at R38 pot removed (top) pot removed (bottom) with UAV installed.
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I finally got the nerve to swap out the CPU in my recently-bought 130XE with my Rapidus that's sitting around. Opening the case, I was happy to see that the CPU was socketed (and ceramic!). Mobo rev 5. However, prying the CPU out -- it will not budge. The plastic spudger yield no success. The screwdriver tip scratched the edge of the chip but that's all. I ran contact cleaner over the connections - thrice. This made no difference. There's no sign of glue or solder; in theory this thing should plip out with ease. I banged on the spudger with a rubber mallet - I did get 1mm loosened at the corner, but this amount of pressure seems dangerous, reckless, you name it. I re-tested the machine and everything works, noting the ROM chip does get a little warm, but adding a heatsink will take care of that. Are there unconventional ways to get the socket to loosen its contacts? Or should I try a few more rounds of contact cleaner and not breathe while spraying it? Would WD40 work? Maybe there's rust that's the culprit... but I don't want to damage the plastic socket, chips or board. Thanks! (If I can get it loose, I'll also desolder the Mitsubishi RAM chips, add sockets, then look for a more proper brand of RAM... if I recall, the Mitsubishi batch used is known for premature failure.)
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Atari Jaguar motherboard stock image. Hi i picked up this NTSC Jag a while back for a really good price. It was sold as parts. It arrived but had no cables or games to test it with. I then got straight to ordering and installing the parts for it. I assumed it was the typical no power fault. I ordered and replaced the Caps, Replacement custom Bios socketed, Power Button as it was missing a power button, looks like somebody worked on this before. All of that was ordered from Console5 and installed. Then i ordered and replaced the Reg1 Sound chip and the U38 Regulator Chip commonly known to fail. I then installed the 50/60hz switch mod, a very simple mod and did the diode mod to protect the console from reverse polarity, also a basic mod. I then ordered the PSU 9v 2amps, a game Iron Solder mint in box, a boxed controller, RGB cables from Retro GameCables. I was ready to test and enjoy playing on this machine. I powered it on and no video signal, no audio. Tried it directly through the tv and nothing, no signal. I tried it through the OSSC and same thing, no sync, almost as if it wasn’t even turned on even though the Led is brightly lit. I then realised this is more complicated then i thought. I tried switching to RF and it made no difference. I undid the Diode mod, it made no difference. I went over my caps i broke two traces during the recapping process but fixed it right after i originally replaced those caps. I reflowed and tested those damaged traces and checked for other damaged traces with my multimeter, and i did not find any cut traces. I checked whether the caps were in the right place and everything was installed in the right place, in the right polarity. I reflowed the cart connector, bios, Reg1 and U38 chips and it made no difference, socketed the old bios back in and nothing. I cleaned the motherboard again with ipa 99% making sure i get the cart and av connector cleaned properly with my qtips and a soft pcb brush and nothing. I then tried to tap out the audio from the RF connections using my headphone jack shorted with ground and i only get a slight puffy sound. I lastly decided to put my finger on the CPU chip and that runs warm. The Graphics chip and that pretty much runs hot, is that normal? Overall i can’t figure out what’s wrong with this Jaguar and what the cause of it’s fault is. Can anyone help me figure this out? It’s sad coming across a fault like this on a rare system. I presume the Graphics chip is dead in this machine or hopefully maybe the video encoder chip, ram, missing parts maybe, not sure. I order a replacement power inductor. 120uh/mh and will see if that fixes it when it arrives.
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So I recently got interested in sound ICs, as a consequence of checking some parts bought via Ebay were genuine. I found about about VGM file format, which allows tunes to be played by various sound chips. So I bought a cheap non working Sega Megadrive for the purpose of harvesting the YM2612 sound chip. The intention was to connect it up to an Arduino (there are many projects on the web) in order to play Megadrive tunes from VGMs. Before I removed the sound IC, I was interested to see if I could figure out what was wrong with the unit. The reset switch was faulty, but that was a simple fix. Using a scope to look at signals around the MC68000, HALT and RESET have activity when the reset button is pressed. There is good 5V power and a good clock. Looking at some of the other pins I see 4 low going pulses of LDS and UDS, then no more activity. My guess is that these pulses are for the initial stack pointer and instruction counter (both 32 bit) which is 4 16-bit reads. I am a little uncertain, but perhaps the CPU halts if these are invalid in some way? I have attached some waveforms. it was done a few weeks ago, so please excuse my faulty memory! I think that notRESET is the yellow trace; notHALT is the cyan trace; and two of the top four traces are UDS and LDS. So the CPU does appear to halt. Here I admit that there was no cartridge inserted. I may have been thinking that there was some boot ROM, as I read something about TMSS (sp?). Nevertheless when I inserted a cartridge nothing changed. I would appreciate any advice as to what to try next or any pointers to sites which have detailed technical details about the boot process. For example where are the initial stack pointer and instruction counter read from: built in ROM; or the cartridge?
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Hi together! Someone gifted me a CX-75 LightPen, please see the picture attached. We have tested the pen at the NOMAM meeting, but it seems to be out of order. :-( Does anyone has ever repaired an Atari LightPen? Thank you so much in advance. All the best.
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Hi - Does anyone know of a good replacement for the on/off power rocker switch for the 520ST? Mine is stuck and will not budge at all. Unlike the 1040 the 520's power switch is mounted vertical and is attached directly to the PCB. I am not finding any good replacements on PCB-Way. What kind of power specs do I need for such a switch for the 520ST? TIA On Digikey I find some toggle switches like the one pictured below which look like they may fit. What kind of power specs do I need for such a switch for the 520ST? I would like to find a rocker switch like the original above rather than a toggle switch like below. However, I will settle for whatever works.
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Recently picked up a non working Vader unit and it is using the PS I use for my modded and working 4S woody, Vader doesn’t have show any voltage at the regulator, I had extra new main cap and VR and changed those out for the heck of it and no change. What’s the proper next diagnostic steps in terms of what to check with my meter? Thanks!
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Does anyone know the size and thread type of the Atari 2600 Junior plastic case outer screws? I inherited a free Junior 2600 that works but has no screws holding it together.
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I recently found my old Atari Lynx. I installed the power circuit refresh kit (replaced the MOSFET, etc) and the Lynx worked, though turning it on sometimes took a few presses of the button. I did the McWill screen mod next and that went well and seemed ok, but the issue with having to press the power button a few times remained. Next I did a recap of the board, thinking the issue was due to some old/bad capacitors. It appeared to work fine after that, but a day later it refused to turn on at all. I did some testing and I believe there is a short from 5v power to ground. I undid the recap (put the old caps back) and the issue still remains. I also verified the short is not related to the McWill mod. I don't see any obvious shorts, nothing wrong with any of the solder joints, etc. The only area of the board I haven't touched with the recap is under the shield under the cartridge connector. I guess I'll need to look there. In the meantime, I went back and lifted one leg of each of the caps I had worked on, but the short remains. Any advice on how to track down the short from here?
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Hi, I have been resurrecting my older TI equipment and I am down to one non-QI motherboard left to repair and two QI console power supplies that are not working. I would like to repair them but I haven't found any schematics to make the job easier. I am capable of tracing these out and making a schematic but I'd rather not reinvent the wheel if their is already a schematic floating around. I have found the non-QI power supply schematics in my places. Does anyone know of a schematic for the QI console power supply? BTW: The motherboard that needs repair is from the first TI I bought back early 83(??? hard to remember but the chip date codes match this). My wife-to-be was vacuuming and hit a connecting wire, the video out I believe. The cord was sucked up and stripped and the console smoked (the pcb trace for sound to the DIN connector vaporized and a number of other failures). I saved my money and bought another console and put that console aside since then, about 39 years. So their is sentimental value in getting this console running again ? Thanks for taking the time to read this! Any help is appreciated. Mark
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I bought a Telstar Arcade recently and it's been a lot of fun to repair and restore. I've fixed multiple issues with it so far but there's still one problem remaining that I haven't been able to fix. The image is constantly scrolling across the screen and nothing seems to stop it from happening. I tried adjusting the tuning pot on the internal RF modulator and I got it perfectly tuned in, but the issue persists. I also tried the console on both CRT and LED TVs and I get the same problem across all of them. Does anyone know what's going on and how I can fix it? I'll include a video to show the problem. P.S. the audio buzzing heard in the video has been fixed since the video was taken. IMG_21339565.mp4 .
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gamegun Bought the 3DO Gamegun-Does not work
jeremiahjt posted a topic in 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
I bought the two player Gamegun from a local game store. Do not ask how much I paid. The gun with the y-connector (player 1 I presume) does not register anything when the trigger is pulled. The button to calibrate does work though. The gun with the single connector registers when fired, but it is widely inaccurate. I can hold the gun in the same spot and the hits move from left to right before wrapping around the screen and starting over at the left. Can either be fixed? I will probably just return them, but thought I would ask here in case there are simple fixes. -
I know this problem has been talked about before and I think I remember someone offering a solution, but I cannot find the thread if it did happen. As some of you may know, the right button on the CX-78 JoyPad (I think the same thing happens to the CX-24 ProLine as well, but all mine have additional problems) stops functioning properly. It will still work fine in one button games and mimic the left button, but it will not work on two button games. My other JoyPad has not worked for years, but it did start working again at one point for a little while before ceasing to function properly again. Now my second, and last, JoyPad has encountered the same problem. Does anybody know a way to fix this? It is not my controller port nor my difficulty switches as the two somewhat working ProLines still function normally. I know I need to buy the Best Electronics upgrade kits, but I really do not want to spend $80 on that right now.
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So I have my PEB which hasn't been used since the 1990s. It didn't turn on, so I looked inside. My older son tells me it wasn't working years ago, and the fuse we could check (next to the power cord) was OK. So he recalls that I had been thinking I'd probably have to replace the power supply, and was going to try to get one from someone on a BBS (I honestly don't recall that, but it makes sense that I would have thought that, because the fan was probably the only thing working). Anyway, one of us (one of my sons or I) had started to unhook everything, and so I found all the 110v side wires disconnected inside the box. This is 25 years later, so I have no recollection. But in the process today, I also peeled away the plastic and looked inside the transformer, as helpfully described by Mainbyte, and sure enough that hidden fuse was blown. So while I wait for a replacement to arrive, I'm trying to reconnect everything. I also got the schematics that were helpfully posted here. But our hastiness in disconnecting everything and then shelving it 25 years ago has left a big puzzle to solve. My main question is this: There is a fuseholder (holding the fuse that wasn't blown) built into the power cord receptacle, and it has five lugs, and also looks like it can be inserted different ways for different voltages. One lug goes in one end of the fuse, and four are for the other. All were disconnected, as were the wires to the power switch. (Only the fan was still connected via the wire joiners, so I'm good there). There are also three extra wires on the line voltage side of the transformer (black, brown, and orange), but only the whites and reds are shown in the schematic. Were those extra wires supposed to be for the voltage selection feature of the fuseholder, and if so, can I just leave them unconnected and just use the red and white wires like the schematic says? Once I get everything reconnected and solder in the new secret fuse, I'll have to test the power supply board. As bad luck would have it, just before I decided to resurrect the TI, I had recycled about six PC computers accumulated in the 25 years since we put the TI away, and an I also threw out extra ATX power supply. Dang it. I see here that the guts of an ATX power supply might be substituted if the TI power supply board doesn't work. My bad luck, or my poor planning. My wife had finally convinced me I might be suffering from hoarding disorder and I wanted to prove my sanity to her... Should have looked at all the TI stuff first. And she still doubts my sanity because - ... "The TI???? I thought you got rid of that!"
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