Picked up faulty Vader - PSU question.

[Tickled_Pink]

Picked up my first Atari-related purchase in years off eBay a couple of days ago. A boxed Vader with seemingly all the documentation, both joysticks and three games - the original Pac-Man that came with it, Frogger (already got) and Chopper Command. It's in good cosmetic shape and manufactured across the water in Ireland. Less than £50 with shipping. It's known to have a fault and that's why I bought it. I won't be having a deep dive until the weekend but I've just tested the power supply. I have a genuine Atari PSU somewhere that I could compare it with but not sure where it is at the minute. So was wondering if someone here could shed some light on something for me.

 

When tested with a multimeter, the PSU outputs 14v, not 9. Is this normal? Pretty sure I've come across an issue with some power supplies in the past that output more than the rated voltage when not plugged into a device. If not, then I guess I need to hunt for my original PSU. Might have overheated the regulator or something on the unit.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Yes... it is normal.

 

DC PSUs without a load will read higher than they are rated for. When plugged in, it will drop down to about 10v in most cases.

 

[Tickled_Pink]

I took it apart last night. Tested the voltage at the regulator. Looked fine. Then I thought ... maybe I'd better try it first before opening up the RF shield. Tried it on daughter's TV with Pac-Man and ... BINGO. He said it wasn't turning on. I beg to differ. It works.

 

I can only think that he had a TV that couldn't handle the signal or didn't know how to tune it into an analog signal on the TV and was only trying the digital tuner. Either way, win-win.