Sinjinhawke Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Picked up a boxed Sears variant today. It’s displaying screen issues. Hopefully the attached images can be viewed. Everything seems to play but the screen is a mess. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 The ROM of the Sears is altered so Mattel Electronics is not shown at the title screen. It's perfectly normal. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Probably one of the two 4-bit gram chips. The title screen uses grom characters so it's fine. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted November 29, 2020 Author Share Posted November 29, 2020 I have a non functional original Intellivision. Could I harvest a gram chip from it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 The early intellivisions used 8-bit gram chips. It may or may not have the 4-bit gram (assuming your sears does have 4-bit gram). These are common chips you can get on ebay or electronics suppliers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted November 29, 2020 Author Share Posted November 29, 2020 Oh. Wasn’t aware of that. I’ll look into finding some. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 What's wrong with the other intellivision. If it's the power supply you can swap the whole logic unit. If it's one of the main chips, that might be easier to swap than the gram which has to be re-soldered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted November 29, 2020 Author Share Posted November 29, 2020 To be honest I don’t know what is wrong with it. Last I recall the tv reacts to powering it on but screen remains dark. I keep it around because I hoped to one day make it work again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamikazi26 Posted December 5, 2020 Share Posted December 5, 2020 I have about 3-4 bad main boards from a 2609. All different issues I believe. Do you want them for parts? I’ll send them to you for just the cost of shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted December 6, 2020 Author Share Posted December 6, 2020 Oh maybe. I’ll let you know. We had a family tragedy so I have not had time to try opening the Sears yet to see. I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamikazi26 Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 16 hours ago, Sinjinhawke said: Oh maybe. I’ll let you know. We had a family tragedy so I have not had time to try opening the Sears yet to see. I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you. So sorry to hear that bud. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 On 11/29/2020 at 1:29 PM, Sinjinhawke said: To be honest I don’t know what is wrong with it. Last I recall the tv reacts to powering it on but screen remains dark. I keep it around because I hoped to one day make it work again. Not a guarantee or anything. But I've revived two with black screen conditions by simply replacing out both of the 3906 transistor after confirming all the power from the power board was correct. Can't miss them, as they are next to each other, have a ferrite bead on one of their legs and usually surrounded by scorch discoloring around them on the mainboard because they get crazy hot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthompson Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 1 hour ago, -^CrossBow^- said: Not a guarantee or anything. But I've revived two with black screen conditions by simply replacing out both of the 3906 transistor after confirming all the power from the power board was correct. Can't miss them, as they are next to each other, have a ferrite bead on one of their legs and usually surrounded by scorch discoloring around them on the mainboard because they get crazy hot. Those two transistors turned out to be the cheap & easy fix for the black screen on my console. Definitely worth trying. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamikazi26 Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 Pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted December 10, 2020 Author Share Posted December 10, 2020 I'll have to look into that. I'm going to open both of them to take a look. I don't have much skill beyond recently desoldering some bad 8-bit Atari DRAM and replacing it with sockets and new DRAM (it works but does not look pretty). Is that just solder holding the RF shield over the Intellivision board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 32 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said: Pics? https://atariage.com/forums/topic/278865-advice-needed-on-repairing-a-motherboard/?do=findComment&comment=4031942 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 14 hours ago, Kamikazi26 said: Pics? Of Rev? Again? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamikazi26 Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 6 hours ago, cmart604 said: Of Rev? Again? No CMart, sorry, not of Rev. I’m still traumatized after the first ones you showed me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck D. Head Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 36 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said: No CMart, sorry, not of Rev. I’m still traumatized after the first ones you showed me. Hmmmm. I just did a search on AtariAge for posts that had both the words "Rev" and "traumatized" and was absolutely shocked to find out that this was the only instance. I would think these two words would be linked together in the local vernacular like pork and beans. 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 1 hour ago, Kamikazi26 said: No CMart, sorry, not of Rev. I’m still traumatized after the first ones you showed me. Says the guy who ordered framed prints.... ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 32 minutes ago, Chuck D. Head said: Hmmmm. I just did a search on AtariAge for posts that had both the words "Rev" and "traumatized" and was absolutely shocked to find out that this was the only instance. I would think these two words would be linked together in the local vernacular like pork and beans. Haha! You would think... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 I took apart my non-functioning original Intellivision to do some chip swapping with the Sears. Unfortunately the Sears only has 3 socketed chips. The CPU, STIC and the System RAM. When I swapped them the Sears still had garbled graphics. So those chips are ok (I assume). I also hooked up the non functioning Intellivision board to the Sears power supply. Still just a black screen. So at least I know it's not the power supply, CPU, STIC or SRAM on the non functioning unit. I have some transistors (2N3906) on order. Might try swapping out those on the non functioning unit. As for the Sears I ordered a couple GRAM chips and a few of the other standard IC's. If I am going to try and desolder them I will put in sockets while I am at it. Every single tab is soldered on the Sears. Going to be a nightmare getting the bottom RF shield off. The solder on the cartridge slot looks nasty. Is it supposed to cover those four pins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMBerzerk Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 (edited) Yes. Those are ground pins, which provides static ground for the CPU case and ground path for the board. That's what they usually look like, but I agree...yours does look a little rough. Maybe it was repaired at one point. Do you have any stickers on the base near the serial number from a repair shop? Are there other spots on the board that look non-factory soldered? The older boards have the chips soldered to the board...the newer ones have chip sockets. I tried doing what you did once, and I found it very time consuming and tedious. You just need a solder remover strip or suction pump. Take one pin off at a time. Edited December 14, 2020 by IMBerzerk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinjinhawke Posted December 15, 2020 Author Share Posted December 15, 2020 I'll just slowly work on removing the tabs. The GRAM IC's will take some time to get here with all the holiday parcels out there. I can take my time. Had to order some 22 pin sockets as I didn't have any of those. The transistors will get here first so maybe I an get the the non functioning one working again. Will be nice to have 4 working Intellivision's if I don't mess this up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 I find using a desolder tool with a motorized vacuum pump makes removing the metal shield and chips a lot easier. The downside is that the tools are a little pricey (compared to a soldering iron) and they require more cleaning before putting it away. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/american-hakko-products,-inc/FR301-03%2FP/9371419?utm_adgroup=Soldering Irons%2C Tweezers%2C Handles&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping_Soldering%2C Desoldering%2C Rework Products&utm_term=&utm_content=Soldering Irons%2C Tweezers%2C Handles&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2uH-BRCCARIsAEeef3nDUbYB_3WVCu_pgbyaW-P4KC5r20vGZiEj9ZmV5jpao3JD4GzsRMAaAviTEALw_wcB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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