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Atari 7800 troubleshooting


Jasonhrb

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Hi all, apologies for the thread asking for help, but I was wondering if anyone might have some ideas.

 

I have had a 7800 since the 90's. It has actually "lived" at my Mum's house until she passed away a few years ago. Up to that point, it was still working fine. When I packed up her house after she died, the 7800 went into my attic, where it stayed until a few weeks ago.

 

This weekend, I finally got round to trying to hook it back up. I plugged it in to the TV (our TV still has an "old style" ariel socket), and powered it up. Well the power up bit seemed fine, and the power light came on, but other than that . . . .nothing.

 

Difficult question to answer from afar I know, but is the issue that I'm doing something wrong here (and if so, what), or has 4 years or so in the attic killed my 7800 ?. Any thoughts that people might have, or ways that I could check this, would be really useful.

 

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions :)  

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Assume you have a UK/PAL console, if so it should have Asteroids built in (I think).

 

Are you plugging in any cartridges? if you are (and it's a UK model with Asteroids built in) remove the cart and try manual tuning on the TV & go from there.

 

It can sometimes be a bit of a pain to get modern TV's tuned in with the RF console output.

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Cheers guys. Yes, it's a UK console with Asteroids built in. No reaction at all from the TV when the console goes on. I know this is a silly question, but does a 7800 make any noise when it is turned on ? (I'm thinking maybe something similar to a PC fan or similar). The 7800 is completely silent when powered on, so wondered if this meant anything

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17 minutes ago, Jasonhrb said:

Cheers guys. Yes, it's a UK console with Asteroids built in. No reaction at all from the TV when the console goes on. I know this is a silly question, but does a 7800 make any noise when it is turned on ? (I'm thinking maybe something similar to a PC fan or similar). The 7800 is completely silent when powered on, so wondered if this meant anything

No, there are no moving parts, fans etc. Totally silent 

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If you have no luck, send it up to us and we'll take a look if you like. Most PAL 7800's have pretty bad RF output and will look really bad even if you manage to get it tuned in to a later panel with poorer analogue signal handling. It's easy enough to mod for composite video or S-video whichever your TV can handle.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So, my 7800 now lives :) . I have been able to get a signal from my TV, and it plays just fine. However, some of the carts are very tempremental. I'm assuming that a few years in a dusty loft will not have done them any favours. Is there a technique / product that is useful for cleaning both the cartridge slot and the vatridges themselves, or is this just an irreversable consequence of the time that the stuff spent stored in not the most equipment friendly environment.

 

Also one other thing. I often see references to the 7800 playing 2600 games in "2600 mode". Is there something i need to do to put it in 7800 mode, or does this happen automatically when the machine is turned on with a 2600 cartridge in it ?.

 

Sorry for the daft questions, but any useful input would be much appreciated.

 

 

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17 minutes ago, juansolo said:

Contact cleaner and cotton buds on the carts edge connector. A thin card with paper around it sprayed with contact cleaner for the slot. (A CEX card is ideal). You could use IPA, but contact cleaner would be better in this instance.

Basically what I do. I spray a little contact cleaner into the slot directly and then use a white cotton t-shirt with a fake credit card like you get in the mail for promotional stuff. I cut it to the width of the slot and use it and the T-shirt up n down in the cart slot to clean them. I have a smaller piece only about a .5cm in width that I use for the extra pins on the sides. I then follow it up with a clean section of the t-shirt, the cut up credit card, and alcohol to remove any residual. I should make a short video of it sometime LOL!

 

 

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14 hours ago, Jasonhrb said:

Also one other thing. I often see references to the 7800 playing 2600 games in "2600 mode". Is there something i need to do to put it in 7800 mode, or does this happen automatically when the machine is turned on with a 2600 cartridge in it ?

Just stick a 2600 cart in and turn on the console 

Edited by mimo
Memory meltdown
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  • 2 months later...
On 7/26/2022 at 2:09 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

Basically what I do. I spray a little contact cleaner into the slot directly and then use a white cotton t-shirt with a fake credit card like you get in the mail for promotional stuff. I cut it to the width of the slot and use it and the T-shirt up n down in the cart slot to clean them. I have a smaller piece only about a .5cm in width that I use for the extra pins on the sides. I then follow it up with a clean section of the t-shirt, the cut up credit card, and alcohol to remove any residual. I should make a short video of it sometime LOL!

 

 

Cool. Next time I see someone with a white cotton T-shirt that has a dirty line on it carrying a cut up fake credit card, I will recognize you. :)

 

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On 7/10/2022 at 1:55 PM, Muddyfunster said:

Assume you have a UK/PAL console, if so it should have Asteroids built in (I think).

 

Are you plugging in any cartridges? if you are (and it's a UK model with Asteroids built in) remove the cart and try manual tuning on the TV & go from there.

 

It can sometimes be a bit of a pain to get modern TV's tuned in with the RF console output.

Unless you are lucky like me that is! Mine (and my friend's) tv's play ball well with the 7800.

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12 hours ago, SIO2 said:

Cool. Next time I see someone with a white cotton T-shirt that has a dirty line on it carrying a cut up fake credit card, I will recognize you. :)

 

Well I don't exactly keep all of that on me at all times... This is just the method I've used for many years and it seems to do the job.

 

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Ignore me* Just randomly responded to a post I'd already responded to without reading the rest of the thread anyhow to see that not only was it resolved but I'd responded again after that. I'm blaming old age.

 

 

*Quality use of my 1000th post... ;)

Edited by juansolo
Because I'm an idiot.
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