Steven Pendleton Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 (edited) Alright, thanks. I'll see about taking a look at it, but I need a longer screwdriver than what I have to open it, so I will have to go buy one on Wednesday when I get some time. Bad caps might explain the loss of video, as well. Edited May 9, 2022 by Steven Pendleton 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 The Vector Gaming board and the Facebook group are probably the best places to get a diagnosis. I’m happy to act as a gobetween there if you don’t want to use them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 Alright, thanks. Not much I can do right now, but I'm going to go the hardware store tomorrow as soon as I can and get a longer screwdriver and open the Vectrex and take a look. Hopefully the sound chip is in an IC socket so I can just get a chip puller and rip it out and replace it, but I won't know for certain until tomorrow. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vectrexer Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 Another way to get help is via the VEXTREME discord . https://discord.gg/5Q6CxuxJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted May 19, 2022 Author Share Posted May 19, 2022 An update! My update is that I bought some screwdrivers, but then I became lazy/have stuff to work on in real life, so there isn't an actual update. I plan to stop being lazy sometime this year. Possibly. But probably not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted May 25, 2022 Author Share Posted May 25, 2022 (edited) Okay, an actual update: I opened the Vectrex and the sound chip is soldered to the motherboard. I'll have to learn how to solder and get some equipment, apparently. Apparently a lot of stuff runs through sound, so hopefully fixing the sound will fix the video. It turns out that the brightness knob was inside the case. The tiny little board that it's on is cracked in half, but hopefully it still works. Everything seems to be intact otherwise. I don't see any bad caps or anything... my camera is too poor for me to take any decent pictures, and of course my trash-tier photography skills, which are on par with that of a newborn baby, would prevent me from doing so anyway. Now that I have recovered the brightness knob, I plugged it in to see if changing the brightness changed anything and it did not. Edited May 25, 2022 by Steven Pendleton 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 12 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said: Okay, an actual update: I opened the Vectrex and the sound chip is soldered to the motherboard. I'll have to learn how to solder and get some equipment, apparently. Apparently a lot of stuff runs through sound, so hopefully fixing the sound will fix the video. It turns out that the brightness knob was inside the case. The tiny little board that it's on is cracked in half, but hopefully it still works. Everything seems to be intact otherwise. I don't see any bad caps or anything... my camera is too poor for me to take any decent pictures, and of course my trash-tier photography skills, which are on par with that of a newborn baby, would prevent me from doing so anyway. Now that I have recovered the brightness knob, I plugged it in to see if changing the brightness changed anything and it did not. Most likely the cracked board means cracked and broken traces hence why the knob didn't make any change. So that will also have to be looked into to be fixed. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. No Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 (edited) Cracked, or snapped off in half? Either way, that sounds pretty bad... either way, sorry to hear about that... Edited May 26, 2022 by Dr. No 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razzie.P Posted June 3, 2022 Share Posted June 3, 2022 I was reading this last night before I fell asleep, and I ended up having nightmares about having a Vectrex that didn't calculate my games' scores and lives properly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamemeister Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 Appreciate the tip on always leaving the Vecrtrex on and just use the power socket to power on and off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted August 1, 2022 Author Share Posted August 1, 2022 Yes, I still need to fix my Vectrex. I've gotten sidetracked by other stuff. For now, I am going to be working on cleaning up the New Astro City that I got in the mail today, but I'll get around to the Vectrex soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.