Darren01274 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Hi got another woody with a problem. Last night it was on for about 30 minutes when the screen started flickering and then on pacman the screen was changing colours. So I took off the cover this morning and left it running for about 40 minutes and everything seems fine, can not generate the same issues. I checked the voltage regulator while I had the cover off and although seems to be quite hot, it is outputting a consitent 4.90 volts. When I had the issues it was inside my media unit, could it be an overheating issue? Not enough ventilation? Also should the regulator be quite hot? Looks like the regulator has been replaced at some point, seems to be quite a bit of silver compound around the metal plate. Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimakis Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 A lot of Atari games cycle colors after you die. if you leave it on, the screen will just keep changing colors every few seconds. Try losing in Pac-man and then leaving it on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren01274 Posted August 14, 2015 Author Share Posted August 14, 2015 A lot of Atari games cycle colors after you die. if you leave it on, the screen will just keep changing colors every few seconds. Try losing in Pac-man and then leaving it on. Hi no sorry, it was when I was playing the game after about 30 minutes and then it was doing it on Dig Dug during gameplay, the screen was flickering. I have checked all connections, even today replaced the big main cap and the small cap but still does it. Seems to be after it's been on a while, like something is overheating. Might change the voltage regulator and see if things clear up. Although the regulator seems to be ok getting 4.90v output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RichG1972 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Maybe it might help if you showed us a photo of the enclosure you usually have it in while it's on, just so we can get a better idea. Because some things were not exactly designed to be in how shall I say.......close quarters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren01274 Posted August 14, 2015 Author Share Posted August 14, 2015 No the Atari been in the unit not the problem, had it out of it and still doing it. Replaced the main cap and voltage regulator and new chicklet, still doing it. Wondering if it is another dodgy TIA chip. :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Download the VCS Field Service Guide and follow the troubleshooting flow charts towards the back. It might well be the TIA. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RichG1972 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Very possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zylon Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Sounds like either a bad regulator or decaying flat wire from motherboard to switchboard. I would check those especially if it is a channel 3 only system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren01274 Posted August 14, 2015 Author Share Posted August 14, 2015 Hey thanks all, I really love this forum. I changed regulator, delved deeper into this and looks like it is some kind of custom TIA, the writing is upside down and deff not a normal factory TIA chip. Anyhow, took it out cleaned all prongs and reseated it and still same all though at the minute not as bad. But still does flicker on a few games but nothing that kind of spoils the gameplay, for me anyway. Seems to be worse on PacMan and Dig Dug but them carts run perfect on my other systems, so I know it is now a fault with the carts. I deff now thinking it a TIA issue. Not having the best of luck at minute so wouldnt suprise me lol. I bought a woody last week, everything looked kind of grotty inside and out, cleaned it all up and changed all the caps, everything running great for about a week! Then, all of a sudden half of the game sounds went, like somebody had turned a sound balance from centre to left or right, if that makes sense. Tried everything with it, then swapped the TIA to a known working one and everything was perfect again! So now have two woodys 6 switch with two bad TIA chips! GUTTED lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zylon Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Would not surprise me if the hex buffer was acting up in those as well. Usually that starts malfunctioning before a TIA fails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 (edited) Hey thanks all, I really love this forum. I changed regulator, delved deeper into this and looks like it is some kind of custom TIA, the writing is upside down and deff not a normal factory TIA chip. Anyhow, took it out cleaned all prongs and reseated it and still same all though at the minute not as bad. But still does flicker on a few games but nothing that kind of spoils the gameplay, for me anyway. Seems to be worse on PacMan and Dig Dug but them carts run perfect on my other systems, so I know it is now a fault with the carts. I deff now thinking it a TIA issue. What exactly do you mean? Can you post a pic? Atari produced millions and millions of 2600's in various versions. TIA chips came in numerous revisions, from several different manufacturers and chip fabs around the world, over almost 15 years. Markings were not always identical or oriented the same way - that doesn't mean they were custom chips, just that the tray of DIPs were loaded into the ink stamping machine one way versus the other. And for what it's worth, I think Zylon is onto something - the hex buffer seems to be a first point of failure in the systems that use them. Heck, the same 4050 type chip is used in the 8-bit computer line. The hex buffer on one of my 800XL's died a couple weeks ago and created some weird video problems. A swapped one in from another system and voila, problem solved. Edited August 15, 2015 by DrVenkman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RichG1972 Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 I think Best Electronics sells TIA chips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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