Coleco doing some strange things !?

[Kakaboy]

Hi Everyone ,

 

I have had my coleco for about a year now and have done the AV mod on it and things have worked pretty sweet till now .

 

I fired her up yesterday and I have an Atarimax Cart in it , Normally the games list screen comes and and waits for you to select a game .

 

For some reason all by itself without me touching anything it hits the grey side buttons on the controller (not physically off course:) ) and selects the first game , then it hangs at the title screen and wont go further as It wont let me press start (Grey Side buttons) !!

 

Thinking it was odd I thought I just put Donkey Kong Cart in and see what a single game cart wil do . So the game comes up I select 1 player and first thing that happens Mario does a single jump and then thats it . I can move him around but the jump button is unresponsive (Grey side button)

 

Thinking it may be the controller I pulled both controllers out and it still does it .

 

The only thing I done differently when I got this problem is fiddling with the controllers as I have a couple spares so I changed the boards and spring to make 1 good controller , which I have done before btw . Dont think this is related anyway but I thought I mention it .

 

So now after leaving it for a couple of hours and tried turning on again it still does the same thing but now I get a B&W picture and it jumps around and has a white band moving downwards .

 

You think the both of these issues maybe related ? This is very weird and seems like my Coleco is suffering some sort of slow death ??

 

Does anyone have any ideas ? I will open her up tonight and see if I can see anything obvious , but I have very limited electronics knowledge .

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated .

 

BTW I should mention its a PAL version

Edited January 16, 2011 by Kakaboy

[+Yurkie]

Hi Everyone ,

 

I have had my coleco for about a year now and have done the AV mod on it and things have worked pretty sweet till now .

 

I fired her up yesterday and I have an Atarimax Cart in it , Normally the games list screen comes and and waits for you to select a game .

 

For some reason all by itself without me touching anything it hits the grey side buttons on the controller (not physically off course:) ) and selects the first game , then it hangs at the title screen and wont go further as It wont let me press start (Grey Side buttons) !!

 

Thinking it was odd I thought I just put Donkey Kong Cart in and see what a single game cart wil do . So the game comes up I select 1 player and first thing that happens Mario does a single jump and then thats it . I can move him around but the jump button is unresponsive (Grey side button)

 

Thinking it may be the controller I pulled both controllers out and it still does it .

 

The only thing I done differently when I got this problem is fiddling with the controllers as I have a couple spares so I changed the boards and spring to make 1 good controller , which I have done before btw . Dont think this is related anyway but I thought I mention it .

 

So now after leaving it for a couple of hours and tried turning on again it still does the same thing but now I get a B&W picture and it jumps around and has a white band moving downwards .

 

You think the both of these issues maybe related ? This is very weird and seems like my Coleco is suffering some sort of slow death ??

 

Does anyone have any ideas ? I will open her up tonight and see if I can see anything obvious , but I have very limited electronics knowledge .

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated .

 

BTW I should mention its a PAL version

 

 

You have a blown octal buffer IC

[+5-11under]

See the first link in my signature... .

[Kakaboy]

Thanks Guys ,

 

Was was wondering if it was a controller chip . Looking at your PDF now 5-11

 

EDIT: I like the sockets makes things easier for the future . I will get a couple of those chips and sockets on way home .

 

What about the picture going strange on me all of a sudden , you think its related ? or maybe the ON/OFF switch is buggered from me switching so much trying to work out the controller problem ?

Edited January 17, 2011 by Kakaboy

[+5-11under]

Thanks Guys ,

 

Was was wondering if it was a controller chip . Looking at your PDF now 5-11

 

EDIT: I like the sockets makes things easier for the future . I will get a couple of those chips and sockets on way home .

 

What about the picture going strange on me all of a sudden , you think its related ? or maybe the ON/OFF switch is buggered from me switching so much trying to work out the controller problem ?

The white band seems a little strange, but the on/off switch is a good first option.

Do you know how to de-solder?

[Kakaboy]

Thanks Guys ,

 

Was was wondering if it was a controller chip . Looking at your PDF now 5-11

 

EDIT: I like the sockets makes things easier for the future . I will get a couple of those chips and sockets on way home .

 

What about the picture going strange on me all of a sudden , you think its related ? or maybe the ON/OFF switch is buggered from me switching so much trying to work out the controller problem ?

The white band seems a little strange, but the on/off switch is a good first option.

Do you know how to de-solder?

 

I have an SMD solder station with the heatgun . I usually give it a little heat before I bump it up to 320c and the chips comes of perfectly .

[Kakaboy]

Thanks 5-11 and Yurkie ,

 

I swapped the IC's out for a new pair and its working flawlessly now .

 

Thanks again , really appreciate it

[boardjunkie]

Thanks 5-11 and Yurkie ,

 

I swapped the IC's out for a new pair and its working flawlessly now .

 

Thanks again , really appreciate it

 

 

Heh....dig the Atari XE game in yer avatar. I too was suckered by Atari one last time and bought onna those. What was I thinking....

 

Anyway....the video garbage was prolly not related to the input buffer(s) going south. I'd check the pwr switch first, then the output voltages of the pwr supply. I've seen several just over the last couple weeks that were putting out wrong voltages. One had a 5v output that was close to 9v. This is baaaad for your board....

[Kakaboy]

Thanks 5-11 and Yurkie ,

 

I swapped the IC's out for a new pair and its working flawlessly now .

 

Thanks again , really appreciate it

 

 

Heh....dig the Atari XE game in yer avatar. I too was suckered by Atari one last time and bought onna those. What was I thinking....

 

Anyway....the video garbage was prolly not related to the input buffer(s) going south. I'd check the pwr switch first, then the output voltages of the pwr supply. I've seen several just over the last couple weeks that were putting out wrong voltages. One had a 5v output that was close to 9v. This is baaaad for your board....

 

 

Haha , Actually I think apart from its ugliness and brief history , IMO is the best Atari I have . It plays the old Atari 800 carts and all the games are better in every aspect compared to the 2600 . Its an 8 bit console and top of the range in Atari console in the 80's . Unfortunately it had an Identity crisis and was marketed bad and too late anyway as Nintendo started to dominated . The XE is very rare here in Australia and I think I bought the last 3 on ebay a year ago and havent seen any since lol .

 

Thanks for the tip on power , I will check all the voltages and give the power button an overhaul . But last night it played beautifully and for some reason NO display issues

Edited January 19, 2011 by Kakaboy

[boardjunkie]

Thanks 5-11 and Yurkie ,

 

I swapped the IC's out for a new pair and its working flawlessly now .

 

Thanks again , really appreciate it

 

 

Heh....dig the Atari XE game in yer avatar. I too was suckered by Atari one last time and bought onna those. What was I thinking....

 

Anyway....the video garbage was prolly not related to the input buffer(s) going south. I'd check the pwr switch first, then the output voltages of the pwr supply. I've seen several just over the last couple weeks that were putting out wrong voltages. One had a 5v output that was close to 9v. This is baaaad for your board....

 

 

Haha , Actually I think apart from its ugliness and brief history , IMO is the best Atari I have . It plays the old Atari 800 carts and all the games are better in every aspect compared to the 2600 . Its an 8 bit console and top of the range in Atari console in the 80's . Unfortunately it had an Identity crisis and was marketed bad and too late anyway as Nintendo started to dominated . The XE is very rare here in Australia and I think I bought the last 3 on ebay a year ago and havent seen any since lol .

 

Thanks for the tip on power , I will check all the voltages and give the power button an overhaul . But last night it played beautifully and for some reason NO display issues

 

 

The last home game I bought was the Turbografx 16 shortly after it was released. I thought it was a great system, but it never really caught on. I still play TG16 on the Magic Engine emulator sometimes. I think it holds up ok....