Did I kill this Atari?

[rcajun90]

Hi guys,

I recently got two old very dirty Atari 2600's.  One worked fine, the other did this strange thing where on most games the screen shows images cut in half.  For some strange reason, Space Invaders worked fine.  Anyways, I got a refresh kit from Console5.  I had never done any soldering in my life but I watched many youtube videos and ordered a cheap kit from Amazon.  Much to my surprise, soldering was easy, desoldering was really hard.  I had to keep the iron directly on the old solder to get it to melt.  In the process, I put noticable burn marks on the board and one of the circuit lines came up.  I did replace the first capacitor but now I get nothing when I powered it up.  I put the broken 2600 in storage regulating it simply as parts.  I have three working 2600's and one 7800 so this made sense.  However I would like to bring it back to life if possible.  Did I kill this Atari or do you guys think I have a chance to make it run once again?  Please give me your advice.

[Shawn]

3rd picture looks like a broken trace. All you have to do is bridge it with a wire and some solider. Your Atari should be ok.

[+wongojack]

There's always a way to fix stuff like this.  Be patient and think it through.

 

1st question - did you buy a multimeter?  It is probably THE most useful tool for troubleshooting work like this.  Go buy one (you don't need a fancy one) and then you can test for "continuity" between the connected parts of the board known as traces.  This is what Shawn is referring to above.  If you broke one of these connections then all you have to do is re-establish it with some wire.

 

Another tool to consider is a de-soldering bulb which I find to be 1000% superior to soldering wick (usually).  They are cheap.

 

Example of multimeter: Amazon.com: AstroAI Digital Multimeter, TRMS 6000 Counts Volt Meter Manual and Auto Ranging; Measures Voltage Tester, Current, Continuity, Frequency; Tests Diodes, Transistors, Temperature for Automotive: Home Improvement

 

Example of de-soldering iron (with bulb):  Amazon.com: ECG J-045-DS Electric Corded De-Soldering Iron, 420 Degree C Tip Temperature, 45W: Industrial & Scientific

[rcajun90]

Thank you!  I’m going to give it one more try.  I will get a de solder bulb and take my time.

[BigO]

I found these desoldering irons to work significantly better than the squeezy-bulb type. Not terribly expensive.

[rcajun90]

5 hours ago, Shawn said:

3rd picture looks like a broken trace. All you have to do is bridge it with a wire and some solider. Your Atari should be ok.

thanks to everyone.  I’m going to give it one more try with the suggested tools.  I can just solder a bridge to the capacitor?

[+wongojack]

19 minutes ago, rcajun90 said:

thanks to everyone.  I’m going to give it one more try with the suggested tools.  I can just solder a bridge to the capacitor?

My suggestion would be to probe around on your working Atari with the multi-meter.  Then you can see how it SHOULD be connected and possibly figure out how to restore a damaged trace on the bad one.

[qrysdonnell]

So I too destroyed an Atari 2600 (this one a Jr.) while trying to recap it. It had a problem which what I'd probably characterize as poor saturation on some colors (mostly reds?) which made some games (mostly Yars Revenge) look a little dark.

 

I had some some soldering/desoldering before, but not much. I got the caps replaced without too much work, but after I replaced the voltage regulator I now get no video on the system. Now, I had a VERY hard time getting both the old voltage regulator out and getting the holes cleared enough to get the new voltage regulator in. I was just using a basic soldering iron and some desoldering braid. I'm still not 100% sure what I did wrong, the voltage regulator seems to be be putting out the right voltages and the continuity to the next points in the circuit seems fine, so it's at the point where I'd have to do some real full-on troubleshooting to figure out what happened - maybe I blew out a chip or something? Regardless, I haven't had the time/inclination to get to that yet, but I have another system which is also a little low on the reds that I composite modded that I needed to do the refresh kit on and I didn't want to totally destroy it, so I invested in a better desoldering device and ended up with this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B88FRME/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I haven't used it a ton since I've had it, but it's MUCH better than using the regular iron and desoldering braid. But, yeah, I don't think the basic desoldering method really works well on this old equipment and it's really advised to have a desoldering method other than the most basic one.

[+wongojack]

I wish there was a diagnostic cart that worked with flashes or beeps or something when the video won't display.  I bet we could save a lot of 2600 with a little more diagnostic help.