mightywiz Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 (edited) so I bought an adam computer system + 11games (most of the games labels are mint), online for $13. but when I turn it on the printer resets, but I have a black screen. when I hit the cartridge reset the colecovision side works and I can play games. any ideas where to start with troubleshooting? I do have the ADAM Coleco exspansion also, but out of my 4 colecovisions 2 have no video and 2 have static for sound. but it think it's the power adapter with them. Edited December 18, 2014 by mightywiz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 There are two motherboards in the Stand-Alone Memory Console. The ColecoVision Delta Board which is the top board with the cartridge port and the Adam Logic Board which is the bottom board with the three expansion slots. The Adam Logic Board is the culprit here and it may be a simple solution of just thoroughly cleaning this board and popping out and putting back in all the socketed chips... especially the U## chips at the upper right that contains the SmartWRITER and EOS chips. If this doesn't fix the issue, then possibly some of the RAM chips on this board are bad. There is also a large card edge connector that joins the two motherboards and maybe it is loose or dirty, but probably not the culprit seeing as you are getting power to the CV board through it. You could check with ADAMcon via PM to see if he has extra SW or EOS chips for sale or to ask his opinion on what may be causing this issue, but I thinknit is either these chips or the RAM chips. If a fix can't be had because I don't know anyone with replacement Adam Logic Boards (eColeco is sold out), you got yourself a CV game system with composite video output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 There are two motherboards in the Stand-Alone Memory Console. The ColecoVision Delta Board which is the top board with the cartridge port and the Adam Logic Board which is the bottom board with the three expansion slots. The Adam Logic Board is the culprit here and it may be a simple solution of just thoroughly cleaning this board and popping out and putting back in all the socketed chips... especially the U## chips at the upper right that contains the SmartWRITER and EOS chips. If this doesn't fix the issue, then possibly some of the RAM chips on this board are bad. There is also a large card edge connector that joins the two motherboards and maybe it is loose or dirty, but probably not the culprit seeing as you are getting power to the CV board through it. You could check with ADAMcon via PM to see if he has extra SW or EOS chips for sale or to ask his opinion on what may be causing this issue, but I thinknit is either these chips or the RAM chips. If a fix can't be had because I don't know anyone with replacement Adam Logic Boards (eColeco is sold out), you got yourself a CV game system with composite video output. Oy, I did not know that. I guess it was just a matter of time. I'm glad I have another ADAM for testing purposes and may start looking for one more just in case. Good to know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightywiz Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 great info, myself i'm a component level electronics tech and never have worked on an adam computer. I was mainly looking for a starting point to save some time troubleshooting. why reinvent the wheel, when someone else as already done it! thanks for the help. I will give some feed back after I tear it apart tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Have fun taking that sucker apart. IIRC there are 32 screws total that need to be removed to get everything removed. Thankfully you have the skill set to attack this task and hopefully get that ADAM working 100% again. Good luck and please do let us know what the outcome is. Check out ADAMcon website as I think he still has some very helpful technical manuals available for download: http://ann.hollowdreams.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamcon Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Have fun taking that sucker apart. IIRC there are 32 screws total that need to be removed to get everything removed. Thankfully you have the skill set to attack this task and hopefully get that ADAM working 100% again. Good luck and please do let us know what the outcome is. Check out ADAMcon website as I think he still has some very helpful technical manuals available for download: http://ann.hollowdreams.com Actually...... go straight to http://ann.hollowdreams.com/colfacts.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightywiz Posted December 19, 2014 Author Share Posted December 19, 2014 so I pulled it apart, reseated all chips on the ADAM motherboard and bam!!!!!!! on it came, and loaded smartbasic, logo, buck rogers, but my donkey kong jr wouldn't load. I even had one I think is dragons lair, but the home screen is edited with filth that I edited back in the 80's didn't realize what a potty mouth I had back then. thanks for the help, now I just need to test the floppy drive. first got to remember the commands to run basic and stuff. lol 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 so I pulled it apart, reseated all chips on the ADAM motherboard and bam!!!!!!! on it came, and loaded smartbasic, logo, buck rogers, but my donkey kong jr wouldn't load. I even had one I think is dragons lair, but the home screen is edited with filth that I edited back in the 80's didn't realize what a potty mouth I had back then. thanks for the help, now I just need to test the floppy drive. first got to remember the commands to run basic and stuff. lol Awesome! Glad you got that resolved.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 "This house is clean". I gotta stop using that line from Poltergeist seeing how things turned out afterward. Anyhow, glad it was something simple and welcome back to a very small niche of retro computing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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