Atari 7800 2600 games suddenly stop

[shear_xear]

Hi everyone. I have an Atari 7800 that plays 7800 games perfectly, but the 2600 games will run for about 7 or 8 minutes then stop. Anyone see this before? Thanks!

[7800fan]

I think TIA is the only chip not used at all in 7800 mode? Can you open it up and check/reseat all the ICs? Some IC in my 7800 were socketed and after about 30 years a few likely creeped out a bit, just enough that it'd still work cold but fail when it warms up.

[shear_xear]

Okay, I will reset the TIA and see if it does the trick. Thanks!

[+DrVenkman]

Another possibility, as I found out with one of my 7800s, is that one or more of the contacts are just a tiny bit too close together, or there's debris in there shorting them. Look closely at the cartridge slot connector on the 7800 - the center bank of pins, inside the two sets of two on either side, are common to both 7800 and 2600 cartridges. However, the outer two pins on either side are 7800-specific. When you inert a 2600 game, those pins make contact with nothing - those pins don't exist on 2600 cartridge PCBs. However, if those pins are touching or shorted by debris, signals will flow between them, the system will not switch over to 2600 mode and will not play 2600 games. I found this out the hard way when I was cleaning the cartridge slot of my older 7800 and accidentally bent pins too close together.