nvrmndtheruins Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) I just bought my first Atari 2600 recently after playing the emulators and rom for many years. I get it home and hook it all up and power it on, and its all beautiful. I then discover the Game Reset switch does not work. After I fixed the old soldier points up it works like a charm. But no matter what I do player one's button triggers non-stop (like rapid fire), even with no joystick plugged into it. I have cleaned the console and inspected the boards very carefully for any shorts or blown parts or cold soldier points, nothing. I feel lost being that i'm just getting an Atari now, having grown up on NES and genesis, and having gone to college for computer technology. If anybody has any idea's on what the problem may be or maybe has had a problem like this, any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I feel horrible for having to ask for help as my first post, I would much rather be rejoicing. Edited March 22, 2011 by nvrmndtheruins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzman66 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) I bet you have a six switch unit, right? It more than likely is a bad buffer chip (4050) It is the smallest chip on the board located under and to the right or the cartridge slot. Edited March 22, 2011 by Benzman66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrmndtheruins Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 yes, its a light 6. The buffer chip could cause just the player one to act up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrmndtheruins Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Looked into the buffer chip and seems to be the cause. Gonna order a replacement and hopefully i'll be playing and buying up games buy the weekend. Thanks a lot for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Looked into the buffer chip and seems to be the cause. Gonna order a replacement and hopefully i'll be playing and buying up games buy the weekend. Thanks a lot for your help I've personally made this repair on the buffer chip multiple times to solve the "continuous fire" problem on player 1. I recommend obtaining a 16-pin IC socket part from Radio Shack, and soldering THAT in, after the annoying work of un-soldering the defective IC (lots of solder wick and flux!), and THEN slot in your new buffer to that nice socket! Radio Shack 16-Pin Retention Contact (link) IC sockets are fragile with respect to heat, and the process of soldering the 16 different pins will take some time, and add heat to the poor IC, potentially damaging it. Also, this makes the repair possible again in the future. It is typically caused by static electricity coming in from the controller port - - you might want to look into the "zener diode" repair for sixers that helps to reduce static effect, and of course the "static strips" over the reset/power/select switches are helpful, too. I will upload pictures later, to help illustrate. Cheers! -a2a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zylon Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Could always just bypass it with 2 little blobs of solder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Looked into the buffer chip and seems to be the cause. Gonna order a replacement and hopefully i'll be playing and buying up games buy the weekend. Thanks a lot for your help I've personally made this repair on the buffer chip multiple times to solve the "continuous fire" problem on player 1. I recommend obtaining a 16-pin IC socket part from Radio Shack, and soldering THAT in, after the annoying work of un-soldering the defective IC (lots of solder wick and flux!), and THEN slot in your new buffer to that nice socket! Radio Shack 16-Pin Retention Contact (link) IC sockets are fragile with respect to heat, and the process of soldering the 16 different pins will take some time, and add heat to the poor IC, potentially damaging it. Also, this makes the repair possible again in the future. It is typically caused by static electricity coming in from the controller port - - you might want to look into the "zener diode" repair for sixers that helps to reduce static effect, and of course the "static strips" over the reset/power/select switches are helpful, too. I will upload pictures later, to help illustrate. Cheers! -a2a Here are some images of my standard replacement method for the hex buffer IC. And, yes. You could just bypass it with two blobs of solder. If you wanted to. I do custom restorations and offer my customers "refurbished to factory spec - - or better!" quality, so I tend to do things the longer way. All these images came from a heavy sixer that I refurbed a month or so ago. Got it and a few original CX-10 joysticks in an original 1977 box for . . . very inexpensive. But, then I threw $60 of parts and time into it - - switches, new ICs, zener diodes, etc.! The unit had a note on it . . . Which read . . . Hmmm, I know what THAT is! So, the process - - The Radio Shack 16-Pin IC socket Clean, de-soldered area after faulty hex buffer has been removed Putting in the socket Finished soldering in the Radio Shack IC socket - - solder from the back, don't be afraid of using flux! Up-close solder job view: Socket, ready to receive the new, fresh hex buffer you bought - - you noted which way the old one was positioned before you de-soldered it, didn't you? (look for the "notch" on the IC as a marker!) Hope that helps, it's not too hard, and it brings it back up to perfect factory spec! -a2a BONUS PHOTOS: Here's a zener diode near the joystick port on a six-switcher after replacement, but before trimming the tails And, of course, the static strips (here just being installed on a 4-switch model)! HAVE FUN! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benzman66 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Great pics & nice solder work too A2A! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrmndtheruins Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Looked into the buffer chip and seems to be the cause. Gonna order a replacement and hopefully i'll be playing and buying up games buy the weekend. Thanks a lot for your help I've personally made this repair on the buffer chip multiple times to solve the "continuous fire" problem on player 1. I recommend obtaining a 16-pin IC socket part from Radio Shack, and soldering THAT in, after the annoying work of un-soldering the defective IC (lots of solder wick and flux!), and THEN slot in your new buffer to that nice socket! Radio Shack 16-Pin Retention Contact (link) IC sockets are fragile with respect to heat, and the process of soldering the 16 different pins will take some time, and add heat to the poor IC, potentially damaging it. Also, this makes the repair possible again in the future. It is typically caused by static electricity coming in from the controller port - - you might want to look into the "zener diode" repair for sixers that helps to reduce static effect, and of course the "static strips" over the reset/power/select switches are helpful, too. I will upload pictures later, to help illustrate. Cheers! -a2a Here are some images of my standard replacement method for the hex buffer IC. And, yes. You could just bypass it with two blobs of solder. If you wanted to. I do custom restorations and offer my customers "refurbished to factory spec - - or better!" quality, so I tend to do things the longer way. All these images came from a heavy sixer that I refurbed a month or so ago. Got it and a few original CX-10 joysticks in an original 1977 box for . . . very inexpensive. But, then I threw $60 of parts and time into it - - switches, new ICs, zener diodes, etc.! The unit had a note on it . . . Which read . . . Hmmm, I know what THAT is! So, the process - - The Radio Shack 16-Pin IC socket Clean, de-soldered area after faulty hex buffer has been removed Putting in the socket Finished soldering in the Radio Shack IC socket - - solder from the back, don't be afraid of using flux! Up-close solder job view: Socket, ready to receive the new, fresh hex buffer you bought - - you noted which way the old one was positioned before you de-soldered it, didn't you? (look for the "notch" on the IC as a marker!) Hope that helps, it's not too hard, and it brings it back up to perfect factory spec! -a2a BONUS PHOTOS: Here's a zener diode near the joystick port on a six-switcher after replacement, but before trimming the tails And, of course, the static strips (here just being installed on a 4-switch model)! HAVE FUN! I think this is exactly what i'm going to do just as soon as the weekend comes. I'm the same way I always prefer to fix things back to, or as close to original as I possibly can. On a side note I also just won an Ultra Pong console on ebay thats "not powering on" i'm hoping again its just a cold soldier issue, but for $2 I just couldn't pass it up, I always worry that the seller will toss it in the trash if things like that don't sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrmndtheruins Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 Got the new buffer chip today, I had installed the socket over the weekend. It worked great!! Thanks a lot for all your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Got the new buffer chip today, I had installed the socket over the weekend. It worked great!! Thanks a lot for all your help! You're welcome! Glad it worked! Very satisfying to get those old machines back to spec! -a2a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringfellow Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 Could you give me more details on the static strip? It looks like it is just aluminum tape but I want to be certain before I make one for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringfellow Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 also where is a good place to get the chips afford-ably? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syntaxerror999 Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 also where is a good place to get the chips afford-ably? The buffer is a standard off the shelf part. Any electronics hobby shop should have it. The cpu and riot and tia can be purchased from best electronics. http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Could you give me more details on the static strip? It looks like it is just aluminum tape but I want to be certain before I make one for myself. also where is a good place to get the chips afford-ably? also where is a good place to get the chips afford-ably? The buffer is a standard off the shelf part. Any electronics hobby shop should have it. The cpu and riot and tia can be purchased from best electronics. http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ So, the deal with the static strips - - yes, you can use aluminum tape. The trick, however, is getting the spacing right. I use a set of authentic ATARI foil strips, make photocopies of them, and then cut those out and use them as a template. I tape that template to the aluminum tape, which is easily bought at HOME DEPOT, and then use an X-ACTO knife and a straightedge to cut out the aluminum tape. I have a ready-made template sheet that I can upload for your use BUT I am travelling, so it will be a week before I can do so. The template I have is nice - - it's about 6 or so sets (a set is two strips) on piece of paper. As Syntax noted, BEST ELECTRONICS is, well, the best place to get integrated circuits from! You can buy the official static strips from them, too, but they are too expensive, really, so you are better off getting a set and photocopying them. Hope that all helps! -a2a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringfellow Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 This is what I love about this place, the stuff I keep learning. I would love if the template could be uploaded. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 This is what I love about this place, the stuff I keep learning. I would love if the template could be uploaded. thanks No problem, but like I said, I'm travelling, and I won't be back to the Batcave for another week! Look for it next Monday . . . -a2a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringfellow Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 no rush Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringfellow Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 This is what I love about this place, the stuff I keep learning. I would love if the template could be uploaded. thanks No problem, but like I said, I'm travelling, and I won't be back to the Batcave for another week! Look for it next Monday . . . -a2a do you still have the template? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 This is what I love about this place, the stuff I keep learning. I would love if the template could be uploaded. thanks No problem, but like I said, I'm travelling, and I won't be back to the Batcave for another week! Look for it next Monday . . . -a2a do you still have the template? Oh, sorry! I neglected to update this, didn't I! I will write myself a note so that I scan the template in tonight and can post it tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me. -a2a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari2atari Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 (edited) This is what I love about this place, the stuff I keep learning. I would love if the template could be uploaded. thanks No problem, but like I said, I'm travelling, and I won't be back to the Batcave for another week! Look for it next Monday . . . -a2a do you still have the template? As requested, the static protection templates. - Use heavy cardstock paper to run off the templates; it's a standard 8 1/2" x 11" sheet - Thick aluminum duct tape works great for the static protectors - Cut templates out, tape to the aluminum tape - Use straightedge and XACTO and cut out! Hope that helps someone . . . let me know if the resolution or format is not good. -a2a template.pdf Edited July 3, 2012 by atari2atari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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