Atari 7800 Proline Controller Problem

[thegamezmaster]

Greetings! Picked up an Atari 7800 system the other day and in testing out one of the controllers,it seems like the right side fire button seems to be "on" all the time.Like when I play Asteroids the ship keeps hyperspacing.I took the controller apart and saw nothing wrong like unplugged or smashed wires.Anyone have any suggestions as to what's wrong with it and how to fix? Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.

[Tifany]

Hi there!

 

It may not be the controllers that are the problem... mine was doing something similer not too long ago. Check all the pins on the joystick port on the 7800 itself... on mine, a few pins had gotten pushed in a bit and werent making good contact causing strange stuff to happen. All i had to do was pull them back out where they are supposed to be with a pair of needle-nose pliers and problem fixed!

 

Worth a shot!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I will also state that while all the wires and such might have looked okay, one thing to check for is on the fire button contact discs. These discs over time will tend to "slide" down through the tape they are held in place with. What happens is that the disc will actually be making constant contact with the pcb underneath it because it has slipped in such a way where it is touching both the center and outer edge contacts on the PCB it is taped to. I actually picked up a lot of 3 "bad" prolines in an Ebay auction years ago. Turns out all three are now working again. 2 of the controllers had the exact same fire button problem you are describing. Realigning the contact discs on the fire button PCBs and retaping them with some stronger Mylar shipping tape fixed them right up good as new.

 

Just take a look and see.

 

[thegamezmaster]

Thanks for the info about the controllers! I'll have to check them and see if this helps.Thanks again!