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Atari's are like onions...


mojoatomic

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Thanks to a pointer from a really good forum friend, I got a great deal on a Sears tele-games heavy sixer. Cosmetically it's absolutely beautiful, it really is - but it was dead like fried chicken when it hit the bench.

 

I hope this troubleshooting flow will help some folks down the road. Also... there were some BIZARRE issues with the video and sound - I'd like to put the failed IC's back in and video the issues this weekend and post that to this thread.

 

Console was dead, unresponsive. Opened it up and checked for continuity across S101 (power) - there wasn't any. Pulled the switch apart and it looked like it had been in a fire :-) - nasty! Turns out, it was a disintegrated foam switch cover. Cleaned everything up with a wire brush and alcohol. Switch tested good, so applied power again - nothing. Put a meter across A101 - good voltage coming in, nothing coming out. Replaced C106 (2200uf) and A101 voltage regulator & fired it up.

 

The unit was now powering on and framing, but not populating the frame with video. Clock was good, so I replaced the CPU. Retested with missile command in the slot, video looked good.

 

Replaced the rest of the usual suspect caps, adjusted the RF and the video looked great. Fired up Raiders and the video was wacky with strange text at the bottom of the screen and the song was not playing all of the notes. Really weird. Obvious choice was the TIA which I replaced, and now the unit purs like a kitten.

 

Need to clean the rest of the switches and burn it in, but other than that it's ready for another 40 years. Boards are marked '77, low rev and in perfect shape - no one has ever monkeyed with this one. I'm a huge fan of the tele-games systems - the build quality on these first few months of production ones is just incredible.

Edited by mojoatomic
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Odd that both the 6507 and TIA were dead. That's a bit unusual, isn't it? Which manufacturer and what date codes were the chips? Just curious to compare to my Sears Heavy. :)

 

Well, only the 6507 was dead. The TIA had internal damage - likely culprit? Static discharge. Without a NASA lab and scanning electron microscope we'll never know for sure.

 

I'll take pics of the IC's and post them here.

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Atari's are like onions... They add flavor and keep you healthy. :)

I'm jealous! Maybe, one day I'll get my own Sears Heavy Sixer! WOOT WOOT!

Looking forward to the video and pics as well!

Always curious about trouble shooting. Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for the tip on the console!

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