Cartridge Port Conundrum

[Sinjinhawke]

I have a original Intellivision that mostly works.  The oddity I am seeing is that it won't run cartridges that are using the LTO style shell.  I have tried all the different original 125 style carts except Congo (don't have it) and several homebrews like Missile Domination, Astro Invaders, B.C.'s Quest and BSG Space Battle and they all seem to work fine.

 

However if I use an LTO, Rick Dynamite, Old School, the BSR Releases or anything in those shell types I just get a solid colour screen.  The one exception I found so far is Maria worked but not Fantasy Puzzle.

 

What do you think could be causing this unit to be a cartridge snob?  They all work fine in my other units.

[+intvsteve]

Are you using an Intellivoice?

[Sinjinhawke]

38 minutes ago, intvsteve said:

Are you using an Intellivoice?

I tried with and without Intellivoice.  It did not change the behaviour that I could see.  Voice games worked and talked.  Homebrews worked except for LTO style carts.

[Intymike]

Intellivision I or II?

Do the carts fit completely in?

Do you have another console to verify?

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Intymike

[Sinjinhawke]

Intellivision 1.

 

Yes the games all work on my main Intellivision 1, my 2 and my Sears.

 

This is a 4th unit I have as a backup to my main.  Just trying to figure if there is something different about those carts that would make them more picky.  I will confirm after work if I'm not pushing them in far enough.  I have lots of spare parts on some dead boards if it's possibly some bad component.

 

 

 

[+DZ-Jay]

Have you tried hitting the reset button a few times after turning on the console?  That appears to have been some sort of issue that happened with the older JLP boards, I don't know why.

 

     -dZ.

[Sinjinhawke]

1 hour ago, DZ-Jay said:

Have you tried hitting the reset button a few times after turning on the console?  That appears to have been some sort of issue that happened with the older JLP boards, I don't know why.

 

     -dZ.

Hitting reset does indeed get the game working.  I didn't try this because I have the console open and I need to stick something in to press down on the reset.   Much appreciated.  

 

It's good to have a backup working console as I would like to order a composite AV kit but don't want to risk fudging up my main unit. 

[+DZ-Jay]

4 hours ago, Sinjinhawke said:

Hitting reset does indeed get the game working.  I didn't try this because I have the console open and I need to stick something in to press down on the reset.   Much appreciated.  

 

It's good to have a backup working console as I would like to order a composite AV kit but don't want to risk fudging up my main unit. 

 

@intvnut may be able to give some details about the reset thing.  I know I experienced it in some copies of my game, and I think we talked about it, but I honestly do not recall why that was.

 

     -dZ.

[+intvsteve]

5 hours ago, Sinjinhawke said:

Hitting reset does indeed get the game working.  I didn't try this because I have the console open and I need to stick something in to press down on the reset.   Much appreciated.  

 

It's good to have a backup working console as I would like to order a composite AV kit but don't want to risk fudging up my main unit. 

Is this is a Super Pro system?

 

I know the system we had as kids we almost always had to press RESET to get a game booted up. I was always a little jealous of my friend who never had to do that. Kids are weird. lol

[+DZ-Jay]

For what it's worth, I recall having to do that on my standard Mattel Intellivision Master Component when I was a kid, although it wasn't necessary every time.  After a while, it turned into something like kids blowing on Nintendo cartridges:  just something you do as a matter of course, whether it was necessary or not.

 

   -dZ.

Edited March 10, 2021 by DZ-Jay

[Sinjinhawke]

Definitely something I can live with.  It's my practice machine since my soldering equipment and skills are are both inferior.

[Sinjinhawke]

Intvnut and carlsson helped solve the issue.  By helped I mean they told me what to do and I did as they said.

 

The reset capacitor had failed and needed replacing.  On an Intellivision 1 system, the capacitor is C26, which is listed as a 1µF capacitor, 20V, +/-20%.  I just grabbed one off an old board that Luc had given me and all carts seem to work again.  This will hold until I get some new capacitors.

 

Thanks to all for the assistance.

[carlsson]

Great! I am sure aging capacitors is a problem that may affect all other Intellivision consoles of the same age, so likely there are others who are experiencing similar issues with some of the most recent games that are faster at booting than the old games were. Now there is a possible solution for that.

[Intymike]

37 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Great! I am sure aging capacitors is a problem that may affect all other Intellivision consoles of the same age, so likely there are others who are experiencing similar issues with some of the most recent games that are faster at booting than the old games were. Now there is a possible solution for that.

 

Yes, I think there was someone a while ago complaining about the same issue.