Intellivison Help (Pro System)

[Gunnder]

So I was playing Astrosmash and all of a sudden the screen went black. I powered off and back on and now I get this screen with some extra graphical errors.  And I cant get past this screen no matter what buttons I push.  My other 3 games that I tried only get a black screen now weirdly enough, not even the title screen. All worked before no problem.  But only Astrosmash gives a screen with said glitches.

 

I googled and read about pushing reset a bunch of times, unplugging controllers, back the cart out a bit etc, but I get the same result unfortunately. 

 

Anyone ever had this happen? Any clue where to start looking? I'm thinking something on the logic board like ram or cpu maybe has gone bad.  Just that darn metal shield looks like a pain, it's even soldered to the cartridge slot pins?!?! Wierd.

 

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Edited February 5, 2020 by Gunnder

[mr_me]

Cpu, stic, 16-bit ram are the usual suspects.  But it is partly working which is better than nothing.  Could even be rom in this case.  Does it behave the same after unplugging and cooling down?  What are the other three cartridges.

[Gunnder]

B17 Bomber (run with the voice unit and without)

Tron Maze-a-thon

Space Hawk

 

Although correction, B17 gives the exact same screen corruption issue but the other 2 are just black screens.

 

Yes unplugging, waiting the next day, etc...same results.

 

Basically something probably fried while I was playing and now it won't work. :(

 

I also tried each game with the voice unit as a pass-through and I get the same exact results.

 

Would it be correct to assume that it has nothing to do with the power board or transformer since I am still getting an image on boot? Or could that still be an issue?

 

Probably will just try to pick one up locally on Kijiji or something...not worth the hassle for now since I do see a few for $30 or $40cdn on Kijiji or a little more with some extra games.

 

 

[mr_me]

Hard to say about the power supply because different ICs might not use all the voltages.  You can test the voltages if you want, I put a link below for more information.  Assuming the cartridge connection is okay, the next step is to take the rf shield off and inspect the board.  When you get your second intellivision you'll have parts to help troubleshoot the first.

 

https://console5.com/wiki/Intellivision

 

Mazeatron has a different titlescreen with sound/music but Space Hawk has the default titlescreen.

[Gunnder]

Thanks for the help. I'm wondering if the 10 yellow exclamation marks and black zero are an error code of some sort? I'm thinking something along the lines of my Atari ST and numbered bomb errors.  Both Astrosmash and B-17 show this error screen but the other 2 games are just black screen.  Its strange that some games show their splash screen with the error while others are just black screen.

Edited February 5, 2020 by Gunnder

[mr_me]

Not an error code but could possibly indicate which memory location and bits are bad.

[Gunnder]

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

Not an error code but could possibly indicate which memory location and bits are bad.

Has there ever been any other case documented with such errors and the resolution? Googling I cant seem to find anyone with these type of errors...

[+Lathe26]

Unfortunately, the Intellivision doesn't error modes or reporting.  The reason it is displaying those is that corrupt data is being put on the screen that just happens to be "!" and "0".

[+intvsteve]

A couple of months back I was repairing an Intellivision that had a weird problem. It looked like this:

 

<snark>Yeah, I see the problem! Donkey Kong?! WTF.</snark>

 

The real issue turned out to be bad SRAM.

 

Do you have an LTO Flash! cartridge? @intvnut helped me pin down the problem with a little test program that exercises the RAM and sure enough, it noticed a problem.

 

As @mr_me indicated thought - there are several potential root causes.  Ultimately the most reliable debugging of chips is to have a "known good" system and swap out parts. It's too bad that the Intellivision is a bit of a pain to open up and investigate.

[Gunnder]

Thanks guys, looks like I will need to grab another system and debug it that way.  I'm guessing that it will have to be the same Pro system version? Do all the variations share similar chips? Or different? The Pros are a little tougher to find, at least in my area. I only see the ones that have no red led between the power and reset buttons.

[mr_me]

Do you mean a Super Pro Intellivision by INTV?  They are exactly the same internally as a Mattel 2609.  Even an intellivision ii has a compatible chipset except for the exec rom.  There are a handfull of Super Pro's that are different but they are rare and yours isn't one of them.

 

If you want to take a chance, try replacing RA-3-9600 at U2.  That's the 16-bit system ram.  Someone here might have one in stock.