Problem with 2600 video

[chupathingy]

I recently picked up a 2600 free of charge at ECCC (thanks Mr. Williams!) and it's been having some strange issues. The first one I noticed was with the Harmony cart. When I booted up the system with the Harmony inserted, the text is a strange blue color. As I play through some games, restart the system and select another one, it gradually goes back to the normal green. Normally no problem.

 

The second problem started about twenty minutes ago. I was playing some Cosmic Ark when I noticed the star field starting to glitch out. Instead of being the normal diamond pattern, the stars above the ship were in a straight line and the stars below were moving a lot more rapidly back and forth. Another thing is that the game starts out normal, star field looks great, then after about 30 seconds it starts glitching out. I'm a bit worried that I have a potentially dying 2600 on my hands.

 

Any advice?

[31336haxx0r]

Maybe the RIOT is fried?

[Game-Tech.US]

It does sound like a chip is going bad, as they get hotter and act worse it's a bad sign.

[chupathingy]

Ok, so the RIOT is going bad... Any way I can fix it? Maybe swapping out the chip?

 

Also let's talk about life span. How much longer will a 2600 last with this kind of problem?

 

It's alright if this system fries out though. I recently picked up a Flashback 2 for $8, so I can harvest the cart slot from this one and slap it on the flashback.

[chupathingy]

Sorry for double posting, but is there any way slapping a heatsink on the chips would prevent or postpone failure?

[yllawwally]

I would replace the 7805. The harmony uses more power than most cartridges, so you are more likely to see problems when using it. You can also replace the green caps. They vary based on what model you have. They can all be had at Radio Shack usually. Should be about 2 dollars in parts. If you have a meter, you can check the 7805, it should be 4.90v to 5.1v. Anything else and it's probably not at it's peak performance.