5200 blinking power light

[iqsman]

Hey all,

 

This is my first post and its great to be around other people that appreciate the fun that Atari has brought to our lives. Now that that's out of the way, I recently purchased a 2 port 5200 from ebay and of course purchased it "as is" so I have nothing to complain about. When I got it and first plugged it in, I hit the power button and the power light blinks for a second, then instantly goes out and nothing shows up on screen. Its almost like the power is not completely getting where it needs to go for lack of a better description. Now I've read a number of things including bad power supplies and such, but I tested the power supply with a voltmeter and that seems to be transferring the power correctly.

 

Any ideas? I wanna play 5200 games!

 

Thanks!

 

IQS

[CRTGAMER]

Maybe that power supply could still be bad. It has the right voltage, but possibly not be able to support enough watt-amp continuous. Could also be internal, capacitors usually the first to go. Cheapest easiest route would be first try another power supply.

[OldAtarian]

OMG! You triggered the self destruct timer! RUN!!!!!

[iqsman]

Looks like that was the case...have a friend with a couple of 5200 PS's and both of his worked fine. Now onto the next problem...controllers not working. I have two controllers and neither one works. I can imagine the start buttons not working, but the options controlled by the keypad don't seem to be working either. Starting to think the joystick port is dead.

 

Maybe that power supply could still be bad. It has the right voltage, but possibly not be able to support enough watt-amp continuous. Could also be internal, capacitors usually the first to go. Cheapest easiest route would be first try another power supply.

[Charlie_]

Looks like that was the case...have a friend with a couple of 5200 PS's and both of his worked fine. Now onto the next problem...controllers not working. I have two controllers and neither one works. I can imagine the start buttons not working, but the options controlled by the keypad don't seem to be working either. Starting to think the joystick port is dead.

 

Maybe that power supply could still be bad. It has the right voltage, but possibly not be able to support enough watt-amp continuous. Could also be internal, capacitors usually the first to go. Cheapest easiest route would be first try another power supply.

 

1st try to clean all the contacts:

http://chazbeenhad.tripod.com/5200joy/

[OldAtarian]

I just got one that was doing the same thing. The first thing you need to check is if you got a 5200 power supply with it and not one from some other piece of Atari equipment. If it doesn't say something to the effect of "for use with the Atari 5200 only" on the top, then I wouldn't use it. In my case the power pin must have been corroded or dirty and plugging and unplugging a few times must have scraped enough of whatever was there off to make contact again. I don't know what a more thorough method of cleaning the power pin would be, though. I'm just happy mine works when it was supposed to be dead and I'm not messing with it anymore.

[iqsman]

 

1st try to clean all the contacts:

http://chazbeenhad.tripod.com/5200joy/

 

I'll have to give this a shot...preventative maintenance is always a good idea. I also bought a 4 port 5200 as well as a backup. As soon as I can test that to be sure the controllers don't work on that one, cleaning is the next step.

Edited November 5, 2010 by iqsman