livingonwheels Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) Can anyone explain why this Atari 7800 has a clear picture (as far as RF is concerned) but as soon as I plug in an Atari 7800 controller (or even a standard Atari 2600 controller), interference occurs. See the below pictures for before and after. I noticed that the closer the controller is to the console, the worse the interference. Edit: I just opened the console and noticed there is no shielding at all. Could that be the issue? I thought I've had other 7800s with no shielding, but perhaps I'm not remembering correctly. Where would I start in order to see if that's the issue? Edited June 29, 2020 by livingonwheels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SmittyB Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Does your controller happen to be a vacuum cleaner? I can't say I've ever heard of something like that happening. From where you've said it gets worse as you move the controller to the console it makes it sound like the controller itself is emitting the interference for some reason. If it was just acting as an antenna then I wouldn't think it would matter how close it was to the console. It's possible one or more of the chips or other components is dying and that the extra power draw from the controller is the issue. If the same thing happens with another controller it might point towards that. Can you confirm what sort of controller it is, and if possible can you try the following: Try the controller in both ports Try a different controller in both ports Try the controller plugged into a different machine (maybe not a 7800 specifically but something compatible) and see if it affects the 7800 when held up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingonwheels Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) I tried with a 2600 controller - same issue. Both controller ports - same interference. I tried the controllers in another 7600 (composite modded though) and don't have this issue. There is no shielding in this 7800 though. Edited June 29, 2020 by livingonwheels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SmittyB Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Are you able to put shielding into the affected 7800? I'm guessing it's probably a chip going bad somewhere but it's worth a shot until someone more knowledgeable about these sorts of issues chimes in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingonwheels Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 I took the shielding out of my composite modded 7800 and put it into the 7800 with the controller interference. All the controller interference went away! No shielding doesn't seem to affect my composite modded console, so I guess I'll leave things as they are. It seems having no shielding will affect RF output for some reason (my composite modded 7800 has no RF anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SmittyB Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Must be picking up something from the controller circuitry then. How strange, but at least you now have 2 usable 7800s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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