Well I got my 7800 now what?

[marc.teeters]

So I picked it up yesterday and spent an hour with qtips and rubbing alcohol cleaning the port and the carts inside and out. Fired it up and was able to play the 7800 version of ms. Pac Man. I tried one other 7800 cart and about 5 2600 carts and venture is the only one that would boot up but it doesn't play. The port feels fairly loose and the controllers are pretty unresponsive also. Is it a game and peripheral problem or a console problem? I owned a 2600 as a kid in the early 90s and haven't touched one since so I have no idea how the cartridges should fit and what the controllers felt like new.

 

Sent from my LG-M153 using Tapatalk

[fiddlepaddle]

So, you know the 7800 works...that's the hardest part. Most likely you need to clean the cart connectors on your games with rubbing alcohol (91% preferred) on a q-tip by rubbing back and forth until the q-tip comes off clean. Stubborn cases use Caig Deoxit. Search these forums for cleaning for more information and details.

[marc.teeters]

Well I plugged it back in and the power button flashed once and then nothing. Took it apart and found nothing obvious wrong tried it again and got a single flash and nothing after.

 

Sent from my LG-M153 using Tapatalk

[+H454]

So I picked it up yesterday and spent an hour with qtips and rubbing alcohol cleaning the port and the carts inside and out. Fired it up and was able to play the 7800 version of ms. Pac Man. I tried one other 7800 cart and about 5 2600 carts and venture is the only one that would boot up but it doesn't play. The port feels fairly loose and the controllers are pretty unresponsive also. Is it a game and peripheral problem or a console problem? I owned a 2600 as a kid in the early 90s and haven't touched one since so I have no idea how the cartridges should fit and what the controllers felt like new.

 

Sent from my LG-M153 using Tapatalk

 

Q tip / cotton swabs will leave stuff(cotton) in the cart port and cause problems ( like games not working / glitching) - flush it out with Detoxit.

Available at Micro center if you have one by you.

 

 

Well I plugged it back in and the power button flashed once and then nothing. Took it apart and found nothing obvious wrong tried it again and got a single flash and nothing after.

 

Sent from my LG-M153 using Tapatalk

 

The 7800s are notorious for the switches on the board go bad.

Best has them for $1.5 but has minimum ($5 or $10) order amount. Plus shipping.

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/7800.htm#Switch

Mouser has them for $.32 and $5 shipping

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=SKHCBFA010virtualkey68800000virtualkey688-SKHCBFA010

[marc.teeters]

 

Q tip / cotton swabs will leave stuff(cotton) in the cart port and cause problems ( like games not working / glitching) - flush it out with Detoxit.

Available at Micro center if you have one by you.

 

 

 

The 7800s are notorious for the switches on the board go bad.

Best has them for $1.5 but has minimum ($5 or $10) order amount. Plus shipping.

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/7800.htm#Switch

Mouser has them for $.32 and $5 shipping

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=SKHCBFA010virtualkey68800000virtualkey688-SKHCBFA010

Thank you very much.

 

Sent from my LG-M153 using Tapatalk

[+-^CrossBow^-]

If replacing the power switch, you might as well replace all of them out just to avoid any headaches down the line with reset button...and the select switch etc. Mouser is excellent as I've used them several times to get stuff I can't find locally or don't want to risk getting from Ebay.

 

Now if the switch replacement doesn't work, then you have to start looking at other stuff. I can't recall off the top of my head, but there is a MJE201 transistor in the mix and I've had to replace one of those before on a 7800 that was giving me power issues. I think there is a flip-flop in there as well since the power button is a monetary switch and the flip-flop IC is needed like on the 5200 to cycle the power.

 

Again I'm not looking at schems at the moment nor have a 7800 in front of me to verify...but I seem to recall one of both of those being things I've looked at with other 7800s.

[Airshack]

Thank you for the Mouser switch tip! I just picked up my first 7800 today with an iffy pause switch.