Bally Astrocade Help

[ArcadeGeek]

I picked up a Bally Astrocade is very nice shape to add to the collection. Controller are in great shape. Box is even in decent shape. When I turn the unit on I only can get full color screens. I can hear sounds but I get either a all red screen or a if I put in the Basic cart I get an all white screen. I took the cover off and tried another shielded RCA cable but same problem. Any help or directions to who can help would be appreciated

[+swlovinist]

Alot could be wrong with your unit. It is hard to find a working unit these days. It could be ram, it could be the main chip(hard to replace), it could be something else. I can tell you this...of all the classic gaming consoles, I have found the Astrocade to be the most difficult to find working...

[boxpressed]

Yup, as I've mentioned in other threads, I finally got a working Astrocade after the first three did not work. Number one powered on to a black screen, number two had rolling vertical sync, and number three had random pixels and crashing due to overheating. I think I had worse than average luck. I heard that about half of Astrocades have some sort of problem, due mostly to overheating.

[ArcadeGeek]

That is the conclusion that I have come up with as well. Looks like I stay on the hunt for more Astrocades and hope to find one that works.

[GroovyBee]

If you can solder then you can try and reflow the joints on the RAM, CPU etc. If it still doesn't work after that you'll need some electronics knowledge, a DVM, a scope or a logic analyser to dig deeper into the problem(s). Also check if your local college or school runs any sort of electronics classes if you don't have any friends that are electronics minded. You might find a student there who is prepared to look at the problem. However, you might also get a machine back in worse condition (if the student isn't any good ).