My Lynx's screen is all scrambled

[figazin]

Hi! I found this forum while searching solutions for my Lynx II issue and it's been really informative!

 

I came into the forum with complete ignorance and I've picked up some great information about the system. Let me tell you my story:

 

I bought a Lynx II for cheap about a year and a half ago, tested it and stored it for some time. A couple of days ago I picked it up to play for a while and to my dismay I saw that even though the text on the Retro HQ and Kung Food was clean, the rest of the image was all scrambled! I cleaned up the contacts on the cartridges and on the console but it's still the same.

 

I did peruse the forum and saw that everyone recommended changing the MOSFET (still have to read about what this is), changing the capacitors, replacing the LCD screen or replacing the Suzy and Mikey. I understand this would be the order in which to check everything, right? I'm not particularly skilled at soldering and using a oscillometer oscibut I can get some help with that.

This is very hard for me since I'm in Argentina and getting anything videogame related delivered here comes with great cost but I do want to get my console to work.

 

If anyone has a recommended place to start for figuring out how to get my console working, I'll really appreciate it!

 

Here's some videos and photos of how the console is working right now.

[Fadest]

Is it the only game with problem ? Did you test different ROM ?

Because it is strange the menu is displayed correctly but there are problems in game. I would first think of a corrupted ROM.

 

 

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

I've seen stuff like this happen with homebrew carts and flash carts. I think it might just be some bad and/or dirty contacts, or some thicknes variation compared to original carts. If that happens just turn off the Lynx, remove the cart and insert it again. There's some viggle-room with the carts, so you can try to insert them slightly differently (before turning on obviously). Sometimes I've had to insert my flash cart 10-20 times before getting it to work, so I rarely remove it anymore from my "work horse" Lynx.

 

Obviously it could be something worse like ram going bad or whatever, but worth a try at least. It's a bit weird that the menu works but not the game, but I'm fairly sure I've seen stuff like that even though there apparently only was a bad contact.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Turbo Laser Lynx

[figazin]

21 hours ago, Fadest said:

Is it the only game with problem ? Did you test different ROM ?

Because it is strange the menu is displayed correctly but there are problems in game. I would first think of a corrupted ROM.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Turbo Laser Lynx said:

I've seen stuff like this happen with homebrew carts and flash carts. I think it might just be some bad and/or dirty contacts, or some thicknes variation compared to original carts. If that happens just turn off the Lynx, remove the cart and insert it again. There's some viggle-room with the carts, so you can try to insert them slightly differently (before turning on obviously). Sometimes I've had to insert my flash cart 10-20 times before getting it to work, so I rarely remove it anymore from my "work horse" Lynx.

 

Obviously it could be something worse like ram going bad or whatever, but worth a try at least. It's a bit weird that the menu works but not the game, but I'm fairly sure I've seen stuff like that even though there apparently only was a bad contact.

Hi! Thanks for both your answers! This happens with the Flash Cart but also with my original copy of Kung Food (first video). I've cleaned everything with Isopropyl Alcohol and a toothbrush but it's still happening.

I'll open the console and clean everything again with a different toothbrush just in case but I think since the same thing happens with Kung Food (text is sharp but image is scrambled) we can discard the flashcart being the issue.

 

Regarding this, speaking from complete ignorance, could it be that the text is actually generated by the console and the images are processed from the cartridge? If this is the case and the contacts are clean I would think the GPU is the issue.

[+karri]

This looks like a bad Suzy chip. They sometimes get corrupted over time.

[figazin]

I tried cleaning the contacts again with no luck. I'll have to start buying parts and trying.

 

Is the Suzy chip the main suspect? Is there a recommended store to buy the Suzy ?

[+karri]

Suzy is really hard to find. I managed to buy two years ago from China.

 

Edit. I looked at DHL. Just shipping something there costs more than €160. And I really do not trust ordinary mail.

 

My guess is that your best bet is to find a broken Lynx nearby that still has a working Suzy.

[figazin]

9 hours ago, karri said:

Suzy is really hard to find. I managed to buy two years ago from China.

 

Edit. I looked at DHL. Just shipping something there costs more than €160. And I really do not trust ordinary mail.

 

My guess is that your best bet is to find a broken Lynx nearby that still has a working Suzy.

Yes, shipping costs to Argentina are sky high. I do use international regular mail all the time and it works fine.

 

Sadly mine is the second every Lynx I've seen around here and the other one was a couple of years ago and it was well over 400usd.

 

I'll try my luck finding a Suzy or for parts Lynx on Ebay, zenmarket or aliexpress.