Help with my non-working RCA Studio II

[Atari2008]

I recently received an RCA Studio II from eBay, that was untested. It came with the original PSU and switch box. I bought this adapter from Radio Shack to connect to my flat screen:

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062054&locale=en_US

 

I connected everything, switched the switch box to RCA Studio II and nothing happened. The red LED light on the console didn't light up at all. I was wondering if it was the RCA PSU. I read that an Atari 2600 PSU works with the RCA Studio II. I tried that, and again nothing.

 

Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot the system? Also please keep in mind that I'm a newbie when it comes to retro-electronics. Thank you!

[BassGuitari]

Could be a bad switch box. I don't know if that's any better than the system itself being dead, though, since you'll probably have to buy another system anyway just to get a switchbox.

 

Did a black screen at least come up when you switched to Studio II? Did the Studio II beep or make any kind of noise?

[Atari2008]

No life out of Studio II - no red led, no beeps, no black screen on the tv. I even tried an Atari 2600 psu and nothing. Guess that means a bad system? Too bad, it wasn't cheap and I probably won't be able to afford another for a while.

[Blazing Lazers]

This thread:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/209519-rca-studio-ii-gold-mine-an-interview-with-the-studio-2-production-manager/

 

...should be of some value to you. You might be able to get your Studio II up and running again courtesy of somebody very familiar with them...

[Atari2008]

This thread:

 

http://www.atariage....uction-manager/

 

...should be of some value to you. You might be able to get your Studio II up and running again courtesy of somebody very familiar with them...

 

Thank you, I've been following the thread, I just didn't want to derail the topic. But your idea does sound like a good one, so I'll give it a shot and post there. Thanks!

[BigO]

You say you are a newbie when it comes to retro-electronics. Does that mean you're a newbie to electronics in general? If you can competently run a soldering iron, I think it's possible to inject power directly into the console @ the 5V regulator. This would eliminate the switchbox as a suspect. (But, don't hook the console up to the TV at this point.)

 

I believe that you should be able to power up the console by directly connecting the power supply to the RF cable. The key piece of information I'm missing is the polarity of this connection. With that information, I'd feel comfortable just touching the power supply plug to the RCA connector on my own console to see if it powers up. Don't do this if you also don't know what I don't know. Bad things could happen.

 

When fauxscot is back in communication, I can run the specifics by him. He's very knowledgeable and helpful. He's got some "stack of adapters" he uses on his test bench to power up and test these consoles without a switchbox. I'm not familiar with the off-the-shelf parts so would have to research that. Again, I'm quite sure I'd need to know the polarity of the power connection to set up the same thing if I had the off-the-shelf parts to which fauxscot referred.

 

If you can hang out for a bit, I think we can get together enough information to help you do the troubleshooting. At the moment, I don't have time to chase down the needed information and our resident expert is away for a few weeks. fauxscot was considering offering repair services but I don't know that he has firmed up a decision on that yet.

[Atari2008]

You say you are a newbie when it comes to retro-electronics. Does that mean you're a newbie to electronics in general? If you can competently run a soldering iron, I think it's possible to inject power directly into the console @ the 5V regulator. This would eliminate the switchbox as a suspect. (But, don't hook the console up to the TV at this point.)

 

I believe that you should be able to power up the console by directly connecting the power supply to the RF cable. The key piece of information I'm missing is the polarity of this connection. With that information, I'd feel comfortable just touching the power supply plug to the RCA connector on my own console to see if it powers up. Don't do this if you also don't know what I don't know. Bad things could happen.

 

When fauxscot is back in communication, I can run the specifics by him. He's very knowledgeable and helpful. He's got some "stack of adapters" he uses on his test bench to power up and test these consoles without a switchbox. I'm not familiar with the off-the-shelf parts so would have to research that. Again, I'm quite sure I'd need to know the polarity of the power connection to set up the same thing if I had the off-the-shelf parts to which fauxscot referred.

 

If you can hang out for a bit, I think we can get together enough information to help you do the troubleshooting. At the moment, I don't have time to chase down the needed information and our resident expert is away for a few weeks. fauxscot was considering offering repair services but I don't know that he has firmed up a decision on that yet.

 

Thank you for your response.

 

I should've clarified, I'm a newbie when it comes to electronics in general. I've never used a soldering iron. On rare occasion I've opened up one of my consoles but usually not to do beyond move some socketed chips around. I say that to say I really have no electronics know-how to do any meaningful repair.

 

The only thing I did was connect the Atari 2600 PSU to the switch box, since I know that PSU works to see if perhaps the RCA PSU wasn't working. Still didn't power up. If it is true that an Atari 2600 power supply is compatible, then perhaps it's the switch box? I'm going to stop by a local retro game store to see if they have an RCA S2 switch box, to see if I can eliminate that as the source of the problem. I imagine it's possible that it could be a problem with the system itself as well?

 

Sure, I can hang on, I'd like to see if there's anything I can do to get it up and running. I'm considering selling this one for parts and waiting for a tested, functional unit, but I'm not there yet. If there's anything I can do as someone with little electronics knowledge let me know. I also don't know how to tell you the polarity of the connection. Look forward to hearing from you and fauxscot, and many thanks!