Controller Port Input Issues

[Adam 12]

The story thus far:

 

 

Long story short, I thought my paddles we're bad.  Now I think my controller ports and/or the electronics controlling the inputs are bad.

 

So the old topic no longer fits the situation, and I made a new one.  Follows is a condensed version of my last post from that other topic.

 

Quick details:

4 switch Vader

Standard paddles, cleaned last night

3rd party 6 button Genesis controller.

 

Joysticks work just fine in both ports.

 

---

 

I did some testing.

 

In Warlord, paddles in left port would move only to left and right extremes.  In right port, nothing whatsoever.

 

In Breakout, same thing.  Though it seemed ever so slightly better today, on the left port, it may be my imagination.

 

I tried a 3rd party Genesis Controller that I had always assumed was incompatible.  In Pac Man, on both ports, if I held down B while resetting, everything worked except left.  Pac Man moved continuously right once he started moving.

 

This Genesis Controller does the same thing on the Harmony Cart menu as the paddles.  Keeps scrolling through the pages.

 

My new hypothesis is that my paddles work fine and my Genesis controller is in fact compatible, but when they're connected, they constantly act as if right is being pressed.  Which is either something wrong with the ports, or, more likely since it's both, something wrong with the circuitry that handles controller inputs.

 

So, I guess I'm stuck with Joystick games only until I either get this fixed or get a new console.  Glad I haven't gone through the trouble of modding this one yet...

 

Maybe I'll get a light sixer, and combine the cases into a Six Switch Vader!

 

Any advice on how I might go about fixing these issues?

 

Thanks!

[buick]

Is there a local video game store near you? You could bring the paddles there. They probably have a working 2600 you can test them on to know for sure before you go ahead and do anything to your console you can't reverse.