help My Atari doesn't like to show color. What's wrong?

[Xander_eight]

To clarify I have an Atari 2600 4 switch Darth Vader console. On Sunday I turned on my Atari to play a bit of missile command and asteroids. When turning on the console my Tv was displaying a black-and-white image but the black-and-white switch was in color. I tried resetting the console and turning it on and off to no avail. I then proceeded to fiddle with the rf cable on the back of my tv. I have one of those screw-on adapters. As I was fiddling with the cable the color returned. Unplugging and plugging in the inside cable slowly works too. After I finished playing missile command I turned off the console to put in asteroids, after I turned it back on it was displaying in black and white again. Upon testing it later It has come to my attention that the problem is weirder than I thought. With my Atari on channel 3, I cannot get a color signal. but on channel 2 I can only by fiddling with the channel switch. I have also noticed the strange occurrence of Picture in picture mode displaying color when I am not getting color. I have even tried a replacement video cable. What's the meaning of this? 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Xander_eight

[alex_79]

The first thing I'd try is to open the console, reconnect it to the TV and power supply, plug in the game cartridge and power it on.

After letting it "warming up" for a couple of minutes, adjust the color trimmer on the PCB:

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by alex_79

[DragonGrafx-16]

We were discussing this on Discord. I think we've figured out that the problem is the TV. He tried the console on a different TV (a LCD or something like that) and the color was fine.

[alex_79]

I'm not convinced the TV is the problem, and I would still try to adjust the color pot.

I experience that exact same symptoms if the pot is tuned at the very edge of the usable range (which is a very limited portion of the full range).

Different TVs have different tolerances, and so some might not be affected and still consistently display in color.

I think it's worth trying getting the console to work with that CRT, which will surely give a much better experience than any LCD TV (no de-interlacing filter that messes up games using flicker, no lag, etc.)

Edited April 2, 2023 by alex_79