CoCo2 won't display correctly

[bluejay]

My CoCo 2 won't display correctly. In channel 3, the green boot screen appears for a second, then becomes a black&white mess. Is this just RF trolling me, or is it some sort of problem with the computer or TV? Both channels 3 and 4 won't work, and channel 4 displays a mess of color most of the time.

I had visitors today, and the fascinated guests asked me a whole bunch of questions about my consoles and computers, and when I tried to demonstrate the CoCo 2, it didn't work, and it was kinda embarrasing. While I tried to fix it, they played on my VIC-20 and Genesis.

Is there a chance that trying again tomorrow will fix it? Is it(please no...) time to AV mod the system?

[Turbo-Torch]

9 hours ago, bluejay said:

Is there a chance that trying again tomorrow will fix it?

 

Cocos are rather old technology...I would at least give it 2 days to repair itself. 

[linville]

Random guess, something similar to what is known as the "yellow bar" problem. Try googling for "coco yellow bar fix"?

[bluejay]

Will it actually get better if I wait?

I've tried multiple cables and TVs, and some displayed different things, but none of them displayed the correct thing.

Many months ago, people told me that RF sucked. I didn't understand at the time, because all my consoles were displaying fine in RF. To all people who told me RF sucked: You were right. RF is definitely a piece of crap, and AV is three billion times better.

And also: Damn Radio Shack! Why did you have to put a warranty sticker over one of the screws?! (BTW, I'm one of those people who will never remove labels or stickers that came originally from the factory.)

Edited December 15, 2019 by bluejay

[AtariLeaf]

Have you tried a second tv if available. Also when the green screen appears for a second,  do you see the version of basic in the top left or just an empty green screen?

[bluejay]

It displays the correct screen for one second, then displays a b&w rolling mess, but I can still see the cursor move when I type stuff on the keyboard. And yes, as I said, I've tried it on a CRT and a Flat screen TV.

[jhd]

20 hours ago, bluejay said:

And also: Damn Radio Shack! Why did you have to put a warranty sticker over one of the screws?! (BTW, I'm one of those people who will never remove labels or stickers that came originally from the factory.)

 

You answered your own question -- the idea is to prevent anyone but a trained Radio Shack technician from servicing the hardware (and voiding the warranty). Sadly, they are getting increasingly hard to find these days. 

 

How do you plan to open the case without disturbing the original sticker? 

[bluejay]

4 hours ago, jhd said:

 

You answered your own question -- the idea is to prevent anyone but a trained Radio Shack technician from servicing the hardware (and voiding the warranty). Sadly, they are getting increasingly hard to find these days. 

 

How do you plan to open the case without disturbing the original sticker? 

That was a rhetorical question, btw. And I don't plan on opening the case, because of the sticker.

[MarkO]

On 12/15/2019 at 2:01 PM, bluejay said:

 

<< BIG SNIP >>

And also: Damn Radio Shack! Why did you have to put a warranty sticker over one of the screws?! (BTW, I'm one of those people who will never remove labels or stickers that came originally from the factory.)

I'm still new to the CoCo World, since I got my first one, a CoCo 3 in 2012, but I have heard of an RF Modulator in  a CoCo 1 that basically disintegrated, while the rest of the CoCo was perfectly fine.. 

 

So there is a chance that your CoCo will never get better, unless it's opened up...

 

There are some ways to ( carefully ) heat and remove the original Warranty Stickers so that they can be replaced.

[MrDave]

I bought a coco2 on ebay with pretty bad video looked around the board and found a bad 4700uf capacitor near the power supply it was bubbled up at the top and showed signs of leaking its an easy solder job to replace that it helped my problem.

[bluejay]

I've given it a week; it isn't working.

Bleh.