Intellivision III problems-games resetting to title screen...

[ataridave]

So I got an Intellivision III that's modded for AV out from Ebay. The picture looks great, of course, but when playing Astrochase or Atlantis (and I cleaned the contacts on both of these games very well) both games reset to the title screen after anywhere from 2 minutes to 15 minutes of game play. I have no idea what''s causing it, and even the Ebay seller can't pinpoint a direct cause.

[mojotv67]

Did the seller do the AV modding himself? If he did he should know enough about the Intellivision to say what might be wrong. I am no expert but this seems to be a problem with one of the chips that causes the game to reset.

Hopefully one of the more knowledgeable members can chime in.

[Intellfan]

I have had that problem before. it was a chip. But a bad power supply might do it also .

[ataridave]

He did the modding himself, and no, he didn't get as specific as a chip. You'd think that someone who's knowledgeable enough to mod one of these older consoles for AV out would notice something like that, and fix it. What's worse is that he's a top-rated seller on Ebay. I think he's on this site. glennfre is his Ebay name.

Edited January 8, 2015 by newataridave

[intvnut]

You'd think that someone who's knowledgeable enough to mod one of these older consoles for AV out would notice something like that, and fix it.

 

 

Well, it's not as if a failing chip waves a flag and says "Over here! I'm over here!" :) Boy, I wish they did. It'd save a lot of time.

 

If it's as simple as a chip being loose in a socket, giving each socketed chip a firm press to reseat them should work. The logic board sits component-side down in the Intellivision, so gravity + thermal cycling may have worked its magic on those socketed chips.

 

Or, it could be an issue with the circuit that drives the reset input to the STIC. (The STIC is responsible for resetting the machine.) It's basically just a non-polarized capacitor and a resistor pulling to +5v, as I recall. Enough noise here and ... blip! You're reset.

 

Or, it could be a supply board issue and you're getting a power dropout.

 

Could be any number of things.

[freewheel]

You'd think that someone who's knowledgeable enough to mod one of these older consoles for AV out would notice something like that, and fix it.

 

To play Devil's Advocate because I speak from experience: no, not really. AV mods don't require much more than basic electronics knowledge and soldering skills. You really don't have to understand what the various chips in a console do - hell, most of the time you're not even touching them. And with a lot of AV mods, you're simply following someone else's "blueprint" - no real knowledge of anything required beyond a steady hand. Solder wire A to point B on mainboard. Connect to plug C. Repeat.

 

Also to play Devil's Advocate because I repair and sell a lot of old kit: games having problems after a period of time is a very, very tricky thing to notice. If it happens with ALL games (but takes time) then it can be something like overheating or a flaky power supply. If it happens quickly, it could be capacitors, it could be bad RAM, it could be loose solder joints, it could be loose chips. If it only happens with certain games (not sure if you've tested more than just the 2) then it's even trickier, because it depends on what exactly those particular games are doing to trigger the behaviour. I'll be honest, I don't exactly "stress test" consoles before selling them. I don't sit and play them for hours on end, with every game possible, trying out every feature. Usually if a console powers on and you can play the game for a few minutes, and all controller buttons work, I consider that "working".

 

What more Ebay sellers need to do is put "as-is condition, no warranty, but it powers up" (or similar) in their listings, because I think people have a false understanding of how well vintage electronics work. I have dozens of consoles in my basement. Some have worked perfectly since day one. Some have crapped out at various times. Some have had repair work done that lasts days, months, hell even decades in some cases. I've had multiples of the same console where you're swear THIS is your "good, working unit" and then suddenly one day you power it on - and nothing. Random shit just happens. It's frustrating and I'm with you on that part, because it happens to me a LOT. But it's almost impossible for random Joe on Ebay to diagnose problems before he sells you something, let alone afterwards. Unless it's extremely obvious; some systems have certain common problems that are easy to diagnose and fix. Intellivisions resetting after a decent amount of time? Not in that category, unfortunately

[ataridave]

OK, well I am sorry if was too harsh, and I mean that sincerely. I had someone tell me to take it to an electronics store, (this is not a place like Bestbuy), but I'm not even sure that a local retro game store would know what to do with it. And I did test all the games. But the contacts on the 2 that have problems are as clean as can be.

[freewheel]

OK, well I am sorry if was too harsh, and I mean that sincerely. I had someone tell me to take it to an electronics store, (this is not a place like Bestbuy), but I'm not even sure that a local retro game store would know what to do with it. And I did test all the games. But the contacts on the 2 that have problems are as clean as can be.

 

I don't think you were being too harsh (I and hope I wasn't, also!), I think you're in an unfortunate situation and the truly unfortunate part is that there's no easy answer here.

 

There ARE retro game stores, depending on where you live, that actually have some degree of understanding about these things. I've been to places with literally stacks of 2600s and Intellivisions, all in various states of disrepair. But they're few and far between, and they're generally not cheap (cheap depends on your own perspective of course!). No other "electronics store" of any type would have the first clue what to do, unless you got EXTREMELY lucky.

 

Cleaning the contacts, while always a good idea, doesn't solve much beyond "this game won't boot". Usually once you can get a game going, it'll either work or it won't. Problems after that are generally issues with the console. (This is a famous last words moment as I'm sure people have all sorts of anecdotes proving me wrong on this )

 

So - is it just these 2 games? Like, you have many other games that work just fine for long periods of time? I'd normally find that hard to believe, but I can certainly imagine ways it might happen. But I'm a bit mystified as to what on earth could actually cause this. There isn't anything terribly unusual in either game, and you've got both a Mattel release and a 3rd party release, so you're not running into some bizarre edge condition with a specific company, or EXEC problems... I don't think.

 

The good news is, if it's just those 2 games, they're very common and cheap to replace. Who knows, maybe you're seeing some bizarre form of bitrot or other age-related physical defect that's just starting to manifest. Hard to really diagnose without a lot of other testing.

[ataridave]

No, you were not too harsh. I just bought another copy of Astrosmash on Ebay, so I'll give it a go once it arrives.

Edited January 8, 2015 by newataridave

[mylok]

He did the modding himself, and no, he didn't get as specific as a chip. You'd think that someone who's knowledgeable enough to mod one of these older consoles for AV out would notice something like that, and fix it. What's worse is that he's a top-rated seller on Ebay. I think he's on this site. glennfre is his Ebay name.

 

I feel the need to respond to this since I am the person on eBay that you bought the console from. I do test the consoles and replace chips, caps, diodes and so forth. I do extensive testing on my consoles before I list them. I did not test the 2 games you are having a problem with but what I do test should bring any problems out.

 

One thing you left out is that you have/had another console that has/had a problem with the same exact 2 games (Astrosmash and Atlantis). This would indicate a problem with the games. Is it possible it is a problem with the console? YES. But is it more likely a problem with YOUR games. If you are going to bring my ebay user id into this forum discussion in the way that you did I wish you would give the full story.

 

Since you have had a problem with the exact 2 games on another Intellivision console it is more likely a problem with the games.

 

Don't forget I also offered you a complete refund (including return shipping if I can duplicate the problem with my copies of Atlantis and Astrosmash).

 

Glenn

[mylok]

Just wanted to update this, newataridave received a new copy of Astrosmash and it works fine (he messaged me via ebay). Problem solved YEAH!

[freewheel]

Cool! It'd be neat if someone could test out the bad cart and see wtf is wrong with it (maybe dump it and see if it's rotting). Always good to know about possible failure modes in advance.

[ataridave]

Well the only games I was having problems with were Astrosmash and Atlantis. Yesterday, I got a different copy of Astrosmash, and it works just fine, proving that it was the games themselves which were the issue all along, not the console. And that's great news! Now, I want to get some more imagic games for my Intellivision!