MrBlond750 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I bought a cherry Lynx II from eBay in the box with several games. Cosmetically the thing is perfect. Mush have had very little play time. After I got it I used it almost every day. I must say this is my first Lynx, and I love it. I have been modifying DMG gameboys for some time so I am familiar with electronics. I noticed that when the batteries in the Lynx begin to die you the contrast changes and you have to adjust the contrast to compensate, eventually you cannot compensate any more and are force to change you viewing angle till either the screen goes blank of the angle is so extreme you can't see anymore. My problem is that after the last batterie change the contrast did not return to normal. I have the contrast wheel turned all the way to brightest setting and I can just barely see the image if I view at about 45 degrees. I'm thinking maybe the contrast wheel might need replaced. Any advice??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_lynx1989 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Possibly that.Also,have you looked at the screen ribbon socket for proper seating or age cracking across the bend of the ribbon?The cracking happens,I had it. If the Lynx has been worked on (and you're not careful) or dropped the ribbon(s) can pull out on you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlond750 Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 As far as I know it has never been worked on, I bought it to play. I just turned it on after the first time it happened and the screen came on as normal, but then began to fade in and out. After about 15 seconds of being on the screen went blank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_lynx1989 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) Clarify "the screen went blank" for me. Any sound?Is there any brightness control?Sounds like the brightness pot is dirty or the backlight is failing to me. Also,are you using good strong batteries or a 9 Volt 1Amp adapter?Both are important for Lynxing. Edited February 21, 2012 by chris_lynx1989 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlond750 Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Energizer are the only batteries I use. I have tried sever sets of new batteries always with the same result, I don't have an ac adapter for the lynx. It looks to me like the backlight is working fine, I can see the light nice and bright at the perimeter of the screen and when you look into the holes where the contrast wheel and the volume wheel are. The sound works fine. The buttons work fine. When it happens, it looks like you turned the contrast all the way to the left, or the dimist setting. I have been turning it on thought the day to monitor it and the contrast works fine untill 15 to 45 seconds after you turn it on. Then the contrast fades away till you have a all black screen. I wonder if it's a capacitor since it always works for a bit right after being powered on? Thanks a lot your your help, by the way. I really appreachite it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_lynx1989 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Yeah,if you have backlight and sound and some image for up to 45 sec,you've got an LCD driver or a bad LCD,I think. Let me think on this and get back to you here tomorrow. You're welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlond750 Posted February 23, 2012 Author Share Posted February 23, 2012 I keep trying it cause this started all of a sudden. Every time I turn it on its the same thing regardless if I start playing a game or just let it sit. If I let it fullly cool off completely (or have it off for more than an hour or so) it lasts the longest when turned back on (about 45 seconds, passably a min). During the initional startup the contrast wheel works as normal, as the time passes I need to adjust the contrast to the right or brighter setting to compensate for what is happening. Eventually I cannot adjust the contrast anymore and the contrast continues to change untill the image goes all black. Thanks again for you assistance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moya Jackie Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) I have this busted Lynx. It doesn't work on batteries because the previous owner left batteries in it for years and they exploded inside it. So I bought a power pack for it, plugged it in and it actually turned on, the music started and I could hear that the game worked after pressing some buttons and hearing the sound effects, but there is no picture at all on the screen. The backlight works, but adjusting the contrast knob has no effect, the screen is blank. After opening it up, pulling it apart and putting it back together, making sure the screen ribbon was firmly in (it reminds me of my Amiga's keyboard ribbon), there was still no picture. Then the whole thing stopped working, possibly from the crappy power socket, hopefully not something else. I've not been able to get it working at all since then, so I'm not sure what the problem with the screen was but maybe it's similar to what has happened in yours. So, I guess I'm sorry this doesn't help at all, but I share your pain, you're not alone. Edited February 24, 2012 by Moya Jackie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_lynx1989 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I have bad news for you,man. You have something wrong within your video circuit that may be a bitch to fix! It could be any one of 6 different things on your Lynx board and/or your LCD panel. Also,you may have one of the last 30,000 Lynx units that were NEW AND FAULTY that the Tramiels were sitting on at a warehouse in Hong Kong up until '97 or something before they got dumped on Video Game Liquidators or etc. No way to tell by Serial # or anything for sure.Many still on Ebay & etc like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlond750 Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 Hey guys, still haven't even looked into this, I kept the lynx cause the thing is near perfect, not a scratch on it. But I have another and have been playing it regularly. I know I need to at least get into it but I don't know when I will. Thanks Chris for the follow up and hunting down the info for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johannesmutlu Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I think the contrast issue with those lynx dystems is because of dying capacitors or the fact that the bulb light doesn't spread the light evenly over the screen,also the screen looks somewhat dim with faded colors but i guess that's what's you can expect from early type lcd screens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirlynxalot Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 On 2/24/2012 at 2:15 AM, chris_lynx1989 said: Also,you may have one of the last 30,000 Lynx units that were NEW AND FAULTY that the Tramiels were sitting on at a warehouse in Hong Kong up until '97 or something before they got dumped on Video Game Liquidators or etc. No way to tell by Serial # or anything for sure.Many still on Ebay & etc like this. Is there a writeup or description of this somewhere? I bought a "for parts" lynx from a seller who seemed to have a lot of cosmetically excellent condition but non-working lynx 2s. If this story is real that a batch of lynxes were defective from the factory, maybe this guy got a box of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
power Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 3 hours ago, sirlynxalot said: Is there a writeup or description of this somewhere? I bought a "for parts" lynx from a seller who seemed to have a lot of cosmetically excellent condition but non-working lynx 2s. If this story is real that a batch of lynxes were defective from the factory, maybe this guy got a box of them. sounds like a tall tale, the Lynx caps will go back because they are 30 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.JT Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Did anyone solve this? i can at least confirm it’s not the LCD unit or backlight because I’ve replaced mine with a new BennVenn LCD and exactly the same fading as described above happens still on the brand new screen... If it is capacitors (seems most likely a voltage leak) does anyone know which ones? JT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 You could also measure the PCB board connectivity with a multimeter. I have seen PCB's where large areas are conductive due to leaked battery acid in the past. If you just measure the resistance of the non-conductive area of the PCB (not the copper traces) there may be a giant leak that gets worse when the unit heats up. Just guessing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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