No audio on my C-V on my Atarimax multi-cart.

[BIGHMW]

I just most recently tried my newly-acquired ColecoVision I picked up in December, and tried her out with my Atarimax SD multicart, in which arrived today in the mailin which I have over 300 titles on, except, no audio. 

 

Is it the Atarimax, the programs on the SD card, or perhaps maybe my unit needs repair. I bought her used on eBay for about $180.00 and while I can finally play C-V for the first time in over 20 years I am quite disappointed that there is no audio other then the RF buzz.

 

Please help. 

 

Thanks!

 

Ray Jackson

[128Kgames]

Regular carts work fine?

[TPR]

13 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

I just most recently tried my newly-acquired ColecoVision I picked up in December, and tried her out with my Atarimax SD multicart, in which arrived today in the mailin which I have over 300 titles on, except, no audio. 

 

Is it the Atarimax, the programs on the SD card, or perhaps maybe my unit needs repair. I bought her used on eBay for about $180.00 and while I can finally play C-V for the first time in over 20 years I am quite disappointed that there is no audio other then the RF buzz.

 

Please help. 

 

Thanks!

 

Ray Jackson

I've never heard of an AtariMax cart being the cause of no audio.  I would assume that's an issue with your ColecoVision unit or something else.  Do you have a regular cart to rule out that it is the AtariMax causing it?

[BIGHMW]

8 minutes ago, TPR said:

I've never heard of an AtariMax cart being the cause of no audio.  I would assume that's an issue with your ColecoVision unit or something else.  Do you have a regular cart to rule out that it is the AtariMax causing it?

No I don't I never bought one in lieu of the multicart being available, but there is the RF buzzing present, but no game audio, no sound effects, mind you I got all of my ROMs through https://cvaddict.com/list.php and I am so excited t have BOTH a 5200 AND a ColecoVision, was SO looking forward to playing Pepper II and others on a C-V for the first time in over 20 years, I'm bummed to have no audio and also she seems to go a little haywire as far a both the power supply jack and the RF jack as well, anyway to get those looked into? I live in a rural area with no electronics repair shops around for miles.

[nick3092]

What do you mean it goes "haywire"? IMO you need to acquire at least one standard OEM Coleco cart to test before blaming issues in the flash cart. 

[NIAD]

Turn on the system without the AtariMax Ultimate SD Cart installed. The system should display the CV Bios screen that instructs you to turn off the system and insert a cartridge. You should not hear any audio whatsoever, so if the “buzzing” is present, you know for sure there is something wrong with the system.

 

I highly doubt the issue is due to the AtariMax cart and while sound issues are probably the rarest of CV issues, I did have one system years ago with no sound and ended up being a bad sound chip.

[Ruggers Customs]

It wouldn't be a bad sound chip.  The sound chip either works or it doesn't and if it's bad it won't do anything usually.  What's probably the issue is the sound pot on the rf module is out of adjustment.  This is a simple fix.  Get a non metallic flat head screwdriver and adjust it until the sound comes back but be careful and done force it.  The ferrite core inside is fragile and will break.  Then bad things will happen.  Good luck! ?

[BIGHMW]

There is definitely both a buzzing and also some scratching sound going on as well as somewhat of a short in the RF jack, sometimes I get a solid pic, other times a malfunctioning look and either way, no matter what game I play on my multicart (yes even the free ones Atarimax bundles in there) there is still no game audio at all whatsoever. Now I paid $180.00 for my C-V back in December only to find out that it and its power supply were loosely shipped (no padding can you believe that???) in a USPS box that was inverted and used for UPS shipping, and it was not in good shape, the expansion module interface looked a little corroded and the port door was stuck open (I had to work on her to get her back aligned right, buy yes she also has issues with (you guessed it!) the power jack shorting out as well.

 

Now sine I live in a very rural area miles away from any electronics repair center, is there anyone that you guys may know of that can do the repairs to get my newly-obtained C-V unit back to glory??? Cost does not matter in this case as I do not want to go back on either eBay or Mercari and take a risk of winding up with one that is D.O.A..

 

Thanks,

 

Ray Jackson

[Ruggers Customs]

I'm a full service repair shop that specializes in Coleovision repairs along with most other electronic repairs.  I'm closed until the 24th so contact me then on my Facebook business page.

 

Ruggerscustoms.net

[BIGHMW]

17 minutes ago, Ruggers Customs said:

I'm a full service repair shop that specializes in Coleovision repairs along with most other electronic repairs.  I'm closed until the 24th so contact me then on my Facebook business page.

 

Ruggerscustoms.net

I can do that. Thanks!  

[ChildOfCv]

23 hours ago, Ruggers Customs said:

The ferrite core inside is fragile and will break.

Yeah that's what I'm betting is the problem.  Replacement transformers aren't easy to find, but it might be possible to transfer a good core from a different tuner into it if necessary.

[Ruggers Customs]

6 hours ago, ChildOfCv said:

Yeah that's what I'm betting is the problem.  Replacement transformers aren't easy to find, but it might be possible to transfer a good core from a different tuner into it if necessary.

I've only broken one myself but I've had dozens come in for repair where the customer or someone before them (in some cases another tech) tried to adjust it and broke them.  At that point I just toss in an AV mod which bypasses all that RF nonsense.  Saves time and yields a better over all result in my opinion.

[BIGHMW]

I would love to get it fixed and maintain the compatibility with RF so I can (still) use it with my RF-to-HDMI Converter I have owned for over a year-and-a-half that I have hooked up to my home theater system through my 8-input HDMI switcher. I'll definitely give Ruggers Customs a PM on the 24th. In the meantime I wait, by then, I'll have both ROM packs purchased from CollectorVision ready and downloaded onto my Atarimax multicart as well as all those I got from CV Addict..

 

Here is my video I did last year on my RF-to-HDMI analog TV receiver I already use for classic gaming on my HDTV, so watch & learn:

 

 

[BIGHMW]

On 1/14/2022 at 9:51 PM, Ruggers Customs said:

It wouldn't be a bad sound chip.  The sound chip either works or it doesn't and if it's bad it won't do anything usually.  What's probably the issue is the sound pot on the rf module is out of adjustment.  This is a simple fix.  Get a non metallic flat head screwdriver and adjust it until the sound comes back but be careful and done force it.  The ferrite core inside is fragile and will break.  Then bad things will happen.  Good luck! ?

I just got finished trying the audio adjustment, no dice. I'll have to send her in, although she did have staticky audio when turning the trim pot all the way left and all the way right, but nothing in-between.

 

I'm also eyeing up another C-V unit but don't want to have to buy another one as it might arrive DOA or with some problems, when I took a look inside this unit she looked really dusty and in definite need of some TLC, as I always give all of my electronics. Maybe @Ruggers Customscan help me out with that but I wonder if it'd be cheaper to just take the risk and get yet another one, I feel duped on mine, especially since it (and its controllers and power supply were poorly-packaged loosely in a reversed Priority Mail box with no padding whatsoever in it, I will ship it myself with plenty of padding but she's definitely gonna need some work done to her.

[BIGHMW]

Well, eventually I DID get another one. At first, she had a black screen but probably because she was in cold storage with FedEx but once she got warmed up she started to run great, even though she has some issues they're pretty minor at most, so, problem solved, it cost me about the same if not less than getting the other one repaired, plus, she also came fully equipped, now I'm headed over to CollectorVision.com to get those 95 ROMS for $150.00, I just got my income tax refund but cannot take the chance the ROMS would be discontinued anytime soon.

 

Atari 5200 AND ColecoVision...... what were once adversaries are now allies, 40 years later this fall.  

[RichinCT]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:51 AM, Ruggers Customs said:

It wouldn't be a bad sound chip.  The sound chip either works or it doesn't and if it's bad it won't do anything usually.  What's probably the issue is the sound pot on the rf module is out of adjustment.  This is a simple fix.  Get a non metallic flat head screwdriver and adjust it until the sound comes back but be careful and done force it.  The ferrite core inside is fragile and will break.  Then bad things will happen.  Good luck! ?

Thank you for this response to original poster.

I suddenly starting having a horrendous humming in the audio when the console was turned on with or without cartridge.  Following this advice and being aware of  the fragility of the cores I minutely adjusted the “Audio subcarrier alignment” and what do ya know, it worked great, clear sound.

 

thanks

[rietveld]

On 1/16/2022 at 6:53 AM, Ruggers Customs said:

I've only broken one myself but I've had dozens come in for repair where the customer or someone before them (in some cases another tech) tried to adjust it and broke them.  At that point I just toss in an AV mod which bypasses all that RF nonsense.  Saves time and yields a better over all result in my opinion.

I had a problem with 'no audio' using RF.  I just soldered a wire to cap c88 and ground and used a RCA jack for audio via a set of computer speakers