Colecovision with black and white picture...

[bradd1978]

I bought a known broken Colecovision, showing a black screen. I checked the power switch and voltages, they were all good.

I did the Ben Heck AV mod and got the same thing. Replaced the 3 electrolytic caps and got a black and white picture but can't seem to figure out why no color.

Thought I'd see if anyone might have any suggestions. I've googled and dug a bit but can't really find much

Thanks in advance :-)

[pimpmaul69]

check the transistor you used for the av mod and make sure the legs are soldered good and no shorting.

[bradd1978]

Yeah just used a new transistor, same thing. Picture is black and white through RF and the AV mod.

I've repaired a number of these but have never seen this...

[Pixelboy]

Yeah just used a new transistor, same thing. Picture is black and white through RF and the AV mod.

I've repaired a number of these but have never seen this...

 

And your TV works fine with other devices like your DVD player? Just checking.

[bradd1978]

Yeah it works on everything else. I have a 2004 Samsung CRT I use for retro gaming. Tested other consoles on it and worked fine

Just bizarre. But I'm sure some component needs to be changed on the board. Just which one.... :-(

This should keep me busy

[pimpmaul69]

i have a spare video chip if you want it. my guess is it is in the rf unit but i still have a used chip if you want it.. my coleco was fully working when i used it. i just decided to do 5v ram mod, bios mod, av mod and socketed and replaced all my chips with brand new ones so it was guaranteed to last another 30 years.

 

edit: while you are at it check all the ram chips solder joints

Edited August 1, 2013 by pimpmaul69

[bradd1978]

Are you referring to the chip in the RF box or the actually VDP chip with the heat sink on it?

[pimpmaul69]

Are you referring to the chip in the RF box or the actually VDP chip with the heat sink on it?

vdp heatsink chip

[bradd1978]

Thanks for the offer :-) I'll definitely consider it but doing that is my last resort. Removing that sucker doesn't look too fun

Thanks again

[pimpmaul69]

Thanks for the offer :-) I'll definitely consider it but doing that is my last resort. Removing that sucker doesn't look too fun

Thanks again

you can narrow down your problem real easy. hook up the atari converter. if it is black and white it is in the rf. if it is color i would say the vdp or something with the ram

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I just installed the Yurkie av mod yesterday and worked perfect, as did the Rf before. I stuck the case and everything back together today and played for about 5 minutes, everything still perfect and then it went black and white, the color is faint if anything and also noise, static sound that wasn't there before on both the av and Rf. I hope it's not broken, I got new games on the way. Any idea what it might be?

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I think I found my problem, my power switch is messing up on me I believe. I'll switch it on, it'll be fine but them the color starts screwing up, going faint, some green coloring & black and white. I already used deoxit on it and stuck dielectric grease inside, looks like I got more work to do..

[Summer256]

In case anyone is reading this years later like I was years. For me it ended up being the power switch. I just switched it on and off several times and eventually it went back to colour.

 

NOTE: Just in case these were important - It went Black & White after I'd had the machine on for several hours (playing Zombie Near). It came right while trying to get an Atari game running in colour as suggested above (Secret Quest). I turned it on and off a few times and one of the the times it came back in colour. So, after unplugging the Atari module, I cycled the on/off switch several times until colour returned. I'm not sure if any of the other steps had any influence on that. But my suspicion was it was just a matter of turning the machine on and off a few times.

[tripletopper]

I got a Colecovision with a Black and White Picture. It occaionally has rainbow banding and monochrome, and occasionally has a snowy or barred color picture. I read somewhere it my be my Sony Wega TV TV having trouble with RF. But Luckkilly I also have a Daewoo, and IT was in black and white too. So much for the Sony Wega having B?W problems.

 

Here was the 2 websites where I read that informaiton on:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/200963-video-output-issues-with-my-colecovision/?hl=%2Bevilmaxwar&do=findComment&comment=2569949

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41711

 

Then I read there's an analog thing you can screw to adjust the RF adapter correctly on an SNES RF internal box. I seee a hole in the RF box on the Colecovision. is there a way I can ajdust it without risking ruining the Colecovision. I don't feel comfortable as a surgeon running electricity through a naked, open CV. Any safe ways to do this where I can adjust on the fly and not risk damaging my system?

[nick3092]

I got a Colecovision with a Black and White Picture. It occaionally has rainbow banding and monochrome, and occasionally has a snowy or barred color picture. I read somewhere it my be my Sony Wega TV TV having trouble with RF. But Luckkilly I also have a Daewoo, and IT was in black and white too. So much for the Sony Wega having B?W problems.

 

Here was the 2 websites where I read that informaiton on:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/200963-video-output-issues-with-my-colecovision/?hl=%2Bevilmaxwar&do=findComment&comment=2569949

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41711

 

Then I read there's an analog thing you can screw to adjust the RF adapter correctly on an SNES RF internal box. I seee a hole in the RF box on the Colecovision. is there a way I can ajdust it without risking ruining the Colecovision. I don't feel comfortable as a surgeon running electricity through a naked, open CV. Any safe ways to do this where I can adjust on the fly and not risk damaging my system?

Generally you should never have to tweak the RF adjustments. And if you do, it usually requires a special plastic hex shaped tool, or a plastic screwdriver. And not because you will get shocked, because metal tools interfere with the settings.

 

Also, there is nothing you can do to make a Coleco work with an auto RF switch box (ie. NES/SNES or Genesis). Those switch boxes work by having a small amount of electricity added to the RF signal out of the console. That tells the switch box to change from antenna to game mode. The Coleco was not designed to send such a signal on the RF line.

 

If you are using one of those boxes currently and have degraded picture, that could be your problem. Your best bet is to use an RCA to type F coaxial adaptor, and ram the signal directly into the antenna jack on the TV.

[tripletopper]

Generally you should never have to tweak the RF adjustments. And if you do, it usually requires a special plastic hex shaped tool, or a plastic screwdriver. And not because you will get shocked, because metal tools interfere with the settings.

 

Also, there is nothing you can do to make a Coleco work with an auto RF switch box (ie. NES/SNES or Genesis). Those switch boxes work by having a small amount of electricity added to the RF signal out of the console. That tells the switch box to change from antenna to game mode. The Coleco was not designed to send such a signal on the RF line.

 

If you are using one of those boxes currently and have degraded picture, that could be your problem. Your best bet is to use an RCA to type F coaxial adaptor, and ram the signal directly into the antenna jack on the TV.

 

 

I am currently running an RCA cable from the back of the Colecovision straight into the TV or VCR through an RCA to RF cable and it's STILL having either B/W or Rainbow banding + Monochrome. There is no RF switchbox, primarily because the reason for the switchbox, hooking up television and video games at the same time, has been rendered moot because the lack of NTSC Antenna programming on TV. Every way I hook it up give me either a monochrome picture, a rainbow banding + monochrome picture, or a snowy color picture.

 

Also would getting a Composite, S-Video, or Component Mod fix the B/W issue with the RF? I would like it in whatever method the Colecovision thinks of the video signal in natively. For example, the Astrocade natively thinks in terms of Y/Cb/Cr and runs through a RF encoder so a mod should get it out through Component Video. Does the Coleco natively think in terms of Y/Cb/Cr, Y/C, or composite video? That's the tap I need. The coleco runs perfectly fine, except for color issues.

 

P.S. Is there any ping issues with running it through a VCR? Sometimes running it through a VCR gives me color. But sometimes it locks a B/W signal, then I play a color video tape and it within a frame goes to color, then when I stop the tape goes back to B/W CV.

 

I notice sometimes, in the old days, when Betascanning a tape of video game footage, the video game footage doesn't appear in the scanning.

 

I guess the perfect test is a light gun game: if the light gun aim is thrown off, then it's not pixel perfect ping.

 

Thankfully, there are no light gun games for the Colecovision.

[Taijigamer]

The Colecovision TMS9928 VDP naturally outputs a type of Y, B-Y, R-Y (Y, Cr, Cb). This thread https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=960&sid=94cad79b4533d005683a0ce186363544explains a few different ways to transmit that to a TV over Component video.

 

For a ready made solution check out citruspsi3000 RGB mod http://atariage.com/forums/topic/274474-new-coleco-rgb-board/

 

This should solve your B/W picture problem.