I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this sounds like the very, very well known phenomenon in Intellivision circles known as the "Black Screen of Death". My very first Intellivision suffered the BSOD after a week, as well as a few others I've had over the years.
Don't give up. The Intellivision is a system worth tracking down a good system for. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the Intellivision II systems rarely suffer from the BSOD, though there are other problems like the "chicklet" pad and the fact that a few games won't play on it.
I'm truly sorry.
So, it would still be considered a BSOD even though I can get the games to start and play them?
My bad, I ready your message a bit quickly. It would only be the BSOD if the screen turns black after running the game for a while.
As for the lines, do they alter or change at all when you wiggle the RF connection? Have you tried different RF connectors, or even getting a Phono to F adapter and plugging the cord directly into the cable input (eliminating the RF box)?
I tried wiggling the RF connection and cable a bit, with no difference in the flicker. I have it hooked up with a newer style direct to TV RF connector, do you think that could be the problem? I actually got 1 cartridge to work properly just once, with no flicker, but haven't been able to do it again. I don't know, I'm just at my wit's end with this thing. But thanks for all your help so far, it's been much appreciated.
Still sounds like it could be cleaning issues if you were able to get one to work. I had a tough time getting my INTV2 and an original version working. It took a lot of cleaning of cartridges and socket to get the systems working reliably.
Does it start up reliably or do you have to fiddle with the power switch? Does touching, tapping the power switch cause anything to happen?
When I first got it I had to fiddle with the power switch for any image to come up, but that doesn't seem to be a problem anymore (about half he time, I have to hit the reset button to get the game to come up, though). I cleaned the cart slot and the carts pretty thoroughly, but I'm still getting the flickering., so I guess I'll just try to clean them some more.
with my grandma's intellivision, i have to put the power switch to about the middle and it works. the flicker your talking about reminds me when someone hooks up a pal system to an ntsc tv.