Trying to figure out the issues of my Atari Lynx II

[Wesker]

Hello. I have had this Atari Lynx II for quite some time, but some time ago started to give me these problems. The first of them was the screen marks/horizontal lines/whatever. Then some time later popped up this weird distortion in the left side of the screen. You can see them in the attached videos.

 

I'm not very skilled in messing up with hardware and I don't know anyone nearby who's able to handle an Atari Lynx, so I have lended it to a friend who has some experience with repairing certain consoles. Having a suspicion at first that this may be a capacitors issue (the Game Gear is especially infamous for this problem), he ordered some of them and has recapped the console. But it has been no use, and the console is still the same, though he says that at least it seems to power on now a little better than it did before.

 

So I'm trying out to get some help to figure out what exactly is causing these problems and how to solve/repair them. The screen marks/horizontal lines/whatever may be a screen problem that could be solved replacing it, as I have a similar problem with a Sega Nomad (in this case being a glaring bright) which seems to be solved by just replacing the screen, so maybe it's also the case here. But the weird distortion? No clue about it. I thought it may be related to the capacitors, but it seems not the case. The repair tutorials for different issues of the console I found online haven't been of much help to figure it out. If this is a problem related to the Suzy graphics chip, which I read it's bound to fail after some time, then I guess I'm in a big problem with this because I'm not sure how I could get that fixed.

 

Any tip or indication to how I could try to repair it would be of great help. Thanks.

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Wesker

[+karri]

Looks like Suzy starting to go bad. I have changed Suzy on my Lynx a few years ago that got the same symptoms. It helped.

[Wesker]

Oh great. And where am I supposed to get a spare one? Is that also causing those weird horizontal lines or those are probably something related to the screen itself?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The lines are likely the LCD itself as I've seen that on others with bad LCDs. But the other glitches occuring during the games could be as @karri said and it could be a failing Suzy chip.

[Wesker]

Where can I get both a LCD screen replacement and a spare Suzy chip? I hope I don't have to pursue a donor system to get the required parts because in that case it might be better simply getting another Atari Lynx itself.

[Nop90]

22 minutes ago, Wesker said:

Where can I get both a LCD screen replacement and a spare Suzy chip? I hope I don't have to pursue a donor system to get the required parts because in that case it might be better simply getting another Atari Lynx itself.

When you replaced the capacitors, did you clean the circuit board and the connectors with isopropil acohol? Before making costly fixes it's better to try the simpler ones. I don't think it can solve the problems with suzy, but maybe you can be lucky with the screen.

 

 

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, Wesker said:

Where can I get both a LCD screen replacement and a spare Suzy chip? I hope I don't have to pursue a donor system to get the required parts because in that case it might be better simply getting another Atari Lynx itself.

I'm not sure if Best Electronics has replacement Suzy chips. I think there was another thread around here where someone stated they had found them on Aliexpress? As for the screen, it might be best to go with an LCD replacement like the McWill or BennVenn screens.

 

[+karri]

I did get a Suzy chip from Ali Express as I tried to buy a Mickey from them. But finally I bought a Mickey and a Suzy from Best Electronics that I used on my broken Lynx.

 

As I am writing this I just opened my box of broken Lynx units. There is a lot of parts. Most are from an old effort to buy broken Lynxes for the cart connectors. But I did not have the guts to rip connectors from working motherboards. So I tested the boards with 5V and wrote a small note of how they reacted. Out of 10 broken Lynx boards about 6 or 8 booted up and run the game. Most of the units had really bad screens. And broken power control circuitry.

 

Yesterday I picked up 3 Benn Venn LCD's for Lynx I and now I will fix the best 3 Lynx I's for my personal use. So I should have 6 working Lynxes in total. Four of them are Lynx I's. After that I probably get rid of the rest. Either by listing the available parts here or on ebay. Or selling everything in one go.

 

There will be a number of Suzy-chips in the lot as well...

 

[+karri]

I actually found a Suzy chip from a Lynx II that I believe is ok. It has a long story. My Mikey died on a Lynx II and I decided to replace it. So I ordered a new Mikey chip from Ali Express and when it arrived it was a small chip. So I just thought that this must be Mikey. I removed it and before soldering in the new chip I realized my mistake. So I ordered a new Suzy and Mikey from Best Electronics and soldered both new chips in. The Mikey got thrown away. But I still got the original Suzy that I removed accidentally.

 

If you want it PM me.

[Wesker]

22 hours ago, Nop90 said:

When you replaced the capacitors, did you clean the circuit board and the connectors with isopropil acohol? Before making costly fixes it's better to try the simpler ones. I don't think it can solve the problems with suzy, but maybe you can be lucky with the screen.

 

 

 

My friend says he didn't because he didn't see anything weird/suspicious looking, but he's proceeding to do all the aforementioned cleaning and see if that helps.

 

22 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I'm not sure if Best Electronics has replacement Suzy chips. I think there was another thread around here where someone stated they had found them on Aliexpress? As for the screen, it might be best to go with an LCD replacement like the McWill or BennVenn screens.

 

Googling McWill doesn't give me any shop/website aside from several Game Gear replacement screen resultso.

I did a Lynx II search in the BennVenn's shop website and these results popped in: https://bennvenn.myshopify.com/search?type=product&q=lynx+II

Some of them are sold out. Which one should I rely on?
 

11 hours ago, karri said:

I actually found a Suzy chip from a Lynx II that I believe is ok. It has a long story. My Mikey died on a Lynx II and I decided to replace it. So I ordered a new Mikey chip from Ali Express and when it arrived it was a small chip. So I just thought that this must be Mikey. I removed it and before soldering in the new chip I realized my mistake. So I ordered a new Suzy and Mikey from Best Electronics and soldered both new chips in. The Mikey got thrown away. But I still got the original Suzy that I removed accidentally.

 

If you want it PM me.

Great! That I'll do. Thanks!

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

McWill is actually based in the UK, but as I'm in the US I order my McWill screens for the Lynx systems from Console5. The GG kits are available there as well when they have them in stock.

https://console5.com/store/mcwill-lcd-upgrade-kit-for-atari-lynx-ii-later-version-2.html

 

The BennVenn screens he does a few listed but they all essentially provide the same thing. He has a solder wire version that is now cheaper and he has a new solderless drop in replacement version that is a little more. You would likely want the drop in version:

https://bennvenn.myshopify.com/products/drop-in-lcd-kit-solderless-drop-in-pre-order-revision6?_pos=3&_sid=078e73b83&_ss=r

 

Console5 is currently out of stock on the McWill LCD upgrades for the Lynx II so just have to keep checking with them if that is the one you want. BennVenn handles his in a pre-order fashion where you basically pay upfront for the screen, and then once they have a few orders paid for, they get some made up and sent out. I think the order I placed for my screens last took about a month and half from the time I ordered and paid, to when I got them. But I've also had them delivered within 2 weeks before so  you don't know for sure. 

 

Which one you want will depend on the features you might be interested in. The McWill kit is a good kit as I've installed quite a few of those in several other Lynx systems here for members as well as for my local retro gaming shop. I've not tried the new solderless drop in BennVenn screens, but the previous solder version I did like as well. In some cases I preferred using my Lynx with the Benn screens vs the McWill for long play sessions simple because of the variable brightness that you get with Benn screen's. The McWill does require solder work and some component removal from the Lynx II mainboard. But the McWill also offers you the ability to wire in a 15pin VGA out to the Lynx to connect to VGA displays or converters for a console like experience from the Lynx while Benn's screens do not offer this ability.

 

[Wesker]

8 hours ago, Wesker said:

My friend says he didn't because he didn't see anything weird/suspicious looking, but he's proceeding to do all the aforementioned cleaning and see if that helps.
 

Ok, so he tried and no use, it's still the same. He's also asking that maybe the mosfets could be faulty and need to be replaced too? I noticed there are replacement ones on eBay.
 

8 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

McWill is actually based in the UK, but as I'm in the US I order my McWill screens for the Lynx systems from Console5. The GG kits are available there as well when they have them in stock.

https://console5.com/store/mcwill-lcd-upgrade-kit-for-atari-lynx-ii-later-version-2.html

 

The BennVenn screens he does a few listed but they all essentially provide the same thing. He has a solder wire version that is now cheaper and he has a new solderless drop in replacement version that is a little more. You would likely want the drop in version:

https://bennvenn.myshopify.com/products/drop-in-lcd-kit-solderless-drop-in-pre-order-revision6?_pos=3&_sid=078e73b83&_ss=r

 

Console5 is currently out of stock on the McWill LCD upgrades for the Lynx II so just have to keep checking with them if that is the one you want. BennVenn handles his in a pre-order fashion where you basically pay upfront for the screen, and then once they have a few orders paid for, they get some made up and sent out. I think the order I placed for my screens last took about a month and half from the time I ordered and paid, to when I got them. But I've also had them delivered within 2 weeks before so  you don't know for sure. 

 

Which one you want will depend on the features you might be interested in. The McWill kit is a good kit as I've installed quite a few of those in several other Lynx systems here for members as well as for my local retro gaming shop. I've not tried the new solderless drop in BennVenn screens, but the previous solder version I did like as well. In some cases I preferred using my Lynx with the Benn screens vs the McWill for long play sessions simple because of the variable brightness that you get with Benn screen's. The McWill does require solder work and some component removal from the Lynx II mainboard. But the McWill also offers you the ability to wire in a 15pin VGA out to the Lynx to connect to VGA displays or converters for a console like experience from the Lynx while Benn's screens do not offer this ability.

 

Wow! Very extensive coverage you did there, thanks. I'm my case I'm based on Europe so maybe it would be best for me to get it directly from McWill? But haven't found how.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Wesker

[Wesker]

Well, my friend already got both the mosfet and the brand new Suzy chip that karri kindly sent, and after implementing both of them, it turns out the console is still the same unfortunately. So it wasn't the Suzy chip after all.

 

 

He has a clue that this could be down to a voltage/fuse problem, but he's not sure because he's not an expert with the console. He did a test with AAA batteries instead of plugging the console with the AC connector and it seems even though the corrupted graphics area vanish a little (even though is still there), further adding to this theory.

 

 

His thought is that maybe with this and/or this the problem could be solved. But we prefer to have some second opinion once again, before venturing into getting these and maybe they won't do nothing still.

Edited April 10, 2021 by Wesker

[+Stephen Moss]

On 4/10/2021 at 11:12 PM, Wesker said:

He has a clue that this could be down to a voltage/fuse problem, but he's not sure because he's not an expert with the console. He did a test with AAA batteries instead of plugging the console with the AC connector and it seems even though the corrupted graphics area vanish a little (even though is still there), further adding to this theory.

I doubt it is a voltage/fuse issue, a slight change in appearance when using batteries over a power unit in no way supports that theory. Perhaps try actually measuring the voltage rather than jumping to random conclusions based on little to no evidence.  

On 4/10/2021 at 11:12 PM, Wesker said:

His thought is that maybe with this and/or this the problem could be solved. But we prefer to have some second opinion once again, before venturing into getting these and maybe they won't do nothing still.

Although replacing the power connector will not hurt as they can become intermittent they is unlikely to solve the problem as problems there are more likely to result in an on/off (power/no power) than anything else and it is extremely doubtful it would result in the screen corruption you are seeing. The same applies to the Power rebuild kit, but as I said before try measuring the voltages to see if they are out first because if they are correct changing those parts is unlikely to have any effect...

Across C44/R75 (below contrast pot VR1) you should measure around 5VDC.

Across D11(to left of contrast pot VR1) you should measure around 9V DC. 

 

From the videos it appears that sound and game logic are unaffected which suggest the problem does not lie with bad/dirty contacts with the cartridge that would result in missing or corrupted data as I would expect those to also be affected if that were the case. Assuming that the issue is present with all game cartridges and not just one, if it were my Lynx I would be looking at the following...

a) The screen is defective as -^CrossBow^- suggested, screen failure seems to be reasonable common with the Lynx.

b) Bad contact with the screen as a result of the flex circuit not being correctly inserted into/making bad contact with the FCC socket, bad solder joints on the FCC socket or a fault with the flex circuit.

c) As Mikey/Hayato sends the video data to the LCD a problem with that could be causing corrupted data being sent to the LCD     

[Wesker]

My friend just measured the voltages. These are the results.
 

 

We are pretty much going to get a new screen and see if that solves something. But I suppose that will mostly remove those static horizontal lines. The corrupted garbling on the left side of the screen, that's what we are trying to find out what could be the issue/reason before moving into getting something that maybe won't help to solve it still.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Wesker

[Wesker]

So the new screen finally arrived, my friend attached it to the console and... bingo, it magically solved all the problems.

 

After all, both issues were due to the screen all along. We always had pretty clear that those horizontal static lines were a fault of the screen, but that garbage on the left side of the screen looked like something else. Anyway, it's gone now as you can see. Anyway, I suppose doing things like recapping, replacing the mosfet and even replacing the Suzy chip may have helped for avoiding possible future problems.

 

Thanks to everyone for their help and support, especially to @karri for providing some of the possible solutions and to @BennVenn for his excellent screen which not only fixes the problem, screen quality is much superior now.

[catalinthejoker]

does anyone have spare suzy for a decent price? i can't seem to find one and i have a lynx with glitchy graphics.

[retroforlife]

Same

On 9/25/2021 at 6:13 PM, catalinthejoker said:

does anyone have spare suzy for a decent price? i can't seem to find one and i have a lynx with glitchy graphics.

Same here. Aliexpress has ONE for $128 :-(