My Atari 7800 won't play 2600 games

[jkf101383]

The power supply went bad on my 7800 years ago. Time went by and eventually I got a new 7800 power supply and went to hook it up and play the games I longed for. Well, All I got was a blank black screen. I went through all 16 or 17 games and all are doing the same thing. I have one game for the 7800, pole position 2, it works like a charm. If anyone could help me with this problem, it would be greatly appreciated. I have a F (RCF) to Coaxial connector straight to the TV.

 

Thanks

[TimsterAA]

17-for-17 sound pretty bad, so this may not be the case, but did you try cleaning the connectors on those carts and re-trying? I don't know why it would/could lose the ability to play 2600 carts yet still be able to play 7800 ones. Maybe someone more knowledgable about the hardware will know if that's possible. Worst case scenario - you could pick up a 2600 pretty cheap to play those games. Best of luck.

 

--Timster--

[jkf101383]

I've cleaned about five of them when I first got my power supply and still nothing. I wonder if the ROMs were somehow erased. Don't know how, they sat in my closet the whole time. Is there a way to check if the data is still good on the catridges? I have the console apart now checking all the pins, everything seems to be in order and clean. I'm not really the brightest when it comes to this kind of electronics, my knowledge is more in computer networking. Don't really want to get another system unless I absolutely have to, but I will if this console continues to refuse my games.

[Shawn]

Sounds like the conacts are bent too close on the ends. pin 1,2,15,16,17,18,31,32 are the ones that need to be seperated. The reason 7800 games work and 2600's won't is cause your contact pins are grounding out the system when not using a 7800 cart as the edge conector is seperating these contacts when using a 7800 game where as with a 2600 game the edge conector is not seperating these contacts that are seemingly touching, if you bend them back into place your system will play 2600 games again just fine.

[jkf101383]

You're a genius. A small piece of pencil lead was at the very bottom of the outside pins, apparently connecting them. Once removed it works fine.

 

Thankyou so much for your advice, now I can play the games as they should be played. :-)

[Shawn]

You're a genius. A small piece of pencil lead was at the very bottom of the outside pins, apparently connecting them. Once removed it works fine.

 

Thankyou so much for your advice, now I can play the games as they should be played. :-)

 

 

Glad I could help now go play some 2600 goodness