Having problems with a cart.......

[slosu]

I recently pick up a 7800 cart (Midnight Mutants) and I'm having trouble firing it up. I have tried cleaning it numerous times but I think it is clean as it is going to get. When I turn the power on the colorful Atari logo fires up then after about five seconds the screen goes black. I have messed with the cart when inserting it and actually had the game on for a moment but then went black again. What's the deal? Any suggestions on how to fix this? Or is it a lost cause?

 

 

Steve

[+Mitch]

It almost sounds like you have a PAL version copy.

 

Mitch

[Mayhem]

Yeah that would be my first guess too.

[Rik]

Dont ask me why,but i had the same problem when i tried a 3rd party controller,while trying to play Midnight Mutants.As soon as i plugged in the pro line,it worked fine. And it did the same with another stik.Dont know why a certain stik would do that,or a broken stik for that matter,just a weird thing really.

Edited May 30, 2008 by Rik

[shadow460]

Dont ask me why,but i had the same problem when i tried a 3rd party controller,while trying to play Midnight Mutants.As soon as i plugged in the pro line,it worked fine. And it did the same with another stik.Dont know why a certain stik would do that,or a broken stik for that matter,just a weird thing really.

 

This happens to me all the time with Asteroids. I can boot it with a Pro-Line or a CX-40 and it works fine. After Asteroids boots, I can switch to whatever controller I want and it will still work.

[thefunone]

Five seconds????? Then it goes black?? Just curious but when you have a bad voltage regulator it will "Blip" out like that.

 

Check for five volts DC on the voltage regulator , when it warms up and if its bad it will do the same thing.

 

Also ,

if it is the game. some times LIGHTLY rubbing on the contacts with a very fine grit sandpaper will get that corrosion off. dont get any of the dust in the system though. finger nail polish on them works too sometimes, just work clean.

 

The controller issue is sometimes due to a shorted plug or something.

[slosu]

Dont ask me why,but i had the same problem when i tried a 3rd party controller,while trying to play Midnight Mutants.As soon as i plugged in the pro line,it worked fine. And it did the same with another stik.Dont know why a certain stik would do that,or a broken stik for that matter,just a weird thing really.

 

 

Unbelievable!!!!!!! I took your advise and took out the 3rd party controller and threw in the Pro Line and guess what!!!! It works fine..........Thanks a million! Atleast the cart got a GOOD cleaning.

 

 

Steve

[fiddlepaddle]

Also ,

if it is the game. some times LIGHTLY rubbing on the contacts with a very fine grit sandpaper will get that corrosion off. dont get any of the dust in the system though. finger nail polish on them works too sometimes, just work clean.

 

What color finger nail polish do you use? I just put "Sunrise Red" on the contacts of my 7800 Xenophobe which was fussy, carefully let it dry, and now it doesn't work at ALL...

 

or do you put finger nail polish on the sand paper first?

[thefunone]

correction..... finger nail polish remover.

 

 

 

 

 

Dont ask me why,but i had the same problem when i tried a 3rd party controller,while trying to play Midnight Mutants.As soon as i plugged in the pro line,it worked fine. And it did the same with another stik.Dont know why a certain stik would do that,or a broken stik for that matter,just a weird thing really.

 

 

Unbelievable!!!!!!! I took your advise and took out the 3rd party controller and threw in the Pro Line and guess what!!!! It works fine..........Thanks a million! Atleast the cart got a GOOD cleaning.

 

 

Steve