Atari 2600 6 switch woody - rev B 1978 - removing main board

[TJ76]

Good afternoon / morning all.

 

Recently lucky enough to acquire a 2600 woody at a reasonable price. I believe it's 2nd edition, with 1978 on the main board.  Was listed for sale as untested due to no PSU, and on a quick test I immediately got screen output testing with frogger cartridge, so very happy.  Didn't try to play it before taking a look inside, and now note at least one joystick port may need attention, but that's for later.  I'm interested to get the main board out to look at as understand this should be socketed allowing a relatively easy mod for composite output to avoid using the analogue via modulator.  

 

Watching this video, at 7.26 it looks so easy to remove, however mins seems stuck. 

 

There is some flex on right hand side of board on image I'm about to post, however on left near underside of cartridge slot, it seems solid, as if some screws i cannot get at holding it firm.  Clearly don't want to force anything and damage it.  Anyone have any advice for me on how to get this out?

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

TJ

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by TJ76

[TJ76]

Looked at this old post mentioning only 2 screws :

 

 

 

So strange mine is so solid after removing those.  glued perhaps?

[TJ76]

Ok, sorry guys, clearly just being OVERLY cautious here.  with a little manipulation and not too much force, I found this does come out.  Guess something not moved for 42 years can be stubborn!

 

And result, as expected  - a fully socketed board in VGC.

 

This Woody cost me £37 delivered, so very pleased!

 

  

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The reason it was "stuck" is because the cartridge port housing fits very snug into the actual opening on the cover for it. In fact, if you don't seat that cartridge port housing back into that top shield cover completely, you will end up with carts not wanting to fit in properly and also cause some serious stressing to the mainPCB when you try and close it all back up.

 

If you look at your pic just above here, you will see where near very bottom of the cartridge plastic sleeve has a slightly raised section all around it. That actually needs to all go into the cartridge slot housing section until it sits flush on that very last ledge of the plastic.