Esc Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 Here is something interesting, i'm fixing some old joysticks I had lying around and i've got the bare joystick assembly in my hand and its plugged into the 2600 while playing Donkey Kong. OK maybe not a good idea to begin with. So, I'm playing Donkey Kong with the bare joystick (pressing directly on the silver pop-up springs to move Mario) so I can test the joystick is working OK. As i'm doing this, the screen flickers and I see some crazy graphics and then the screen goes black. So, I turn everything off hoping I didn't just fry the 2600. I turn it back on. Donkey Kong appears OK and I play for 10 seconds and then it goes crazy again and black screen. (This time the joystick is back in its case) So, I'm thinking I fried the 2600. I turn everything off again, I unplug the cartridge, unplug the power and insert another cartridge. Plug everything back in, and everything is back to normal. Game works fine. Now, I turn it off. Plug back the Donkey Kong cart, play for 10 seconds..crazy screen and then black screen. So I try again with another cartridge, no problem. So, could I have fried a cartridge by playing with the bare joystick? Whats even more interesting, ..the next day I try the same Donkey Kong cartridge....NO PROBLEM! it works ! So what happened? Did I temporarily zap a Donkey Kong cartridge ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 I have no idea if this was it or not, but sometimes the voltage regulator gets really hot, and maybe this was causing a power fulxuation when it was hot and when it cooled it didn't do it anymore. I tried one of the Atari Jr. A/V mods and the voltage regulator got extremely hot, so I unsoldered the wires and gave up on that crappy mod. If it starts doing it again and you have the system open and, feel the voltage regulator and see if it is really hot. If so it might be failing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarinvader Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 The voltage regulator is likely to be hot anyway, because dropping the voltage is done by dissapating heat through the bit of metal it's mounted on. You wouldn't have done anything by having the controller open, unless say, you were putting a high voltage back in to the system via some extrenal supply. What is more likely is that you had a dodgy conection either from the cartirdge or from the port. Probably giving them a clean may help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Primus Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 It could have been such a thing that the Donkey Kong cart was just dirty, and it was becoming dislodged slightly, either that, or your voltage regulator is on it's way out, and it just happened to present problems while playing Donkey Kong. It's really hard to fry a cart, I have actually tried. I wanted to see just how static sensitive these things were, so I took a Pac-Man cart apart, and held the circuit board in my hand, and shuffled my feet (wearing socks) up and down the carpeted hall about ten times (this was in the winter, so I was able to build up quite a charge.) Then, I held the board by the contacts, and brought the solder pads on the back of the ROM close to the screw on the lightswitch cover. When I was an inch away, a big blue spark jumped the gap, and I could easily feel it through the board. Plugged it back into the Atari, and it worked fine. I did this three times, and then finally killed it on the fourth. Those critters are pretty hard to kill, as are the consoles themselves. I wouldn't worry too much. Ian Primus ian_primus@yahoo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esc Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 I don't think it could have been the voltage regulator, because it would only happen with that one Donkey Kong cart. All other carts worked fine, including another Donkey Kong cart I tried. I was thinking that it was a possible dirty contact too, but I was playing the Donkey Kong for a good 15 to 20 minutes before this happened. Plus, when a reinserted the cartridge it would reproduce the same problem, at the exact same time. I should have tried that Donkey Kong cartridge on another system of mine, but I didn't think of it at the time. That would have confirmed if the cart really was toast?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 Could be worn contacts. I've come across a cart or two that were so unbelievably worn that the metal contacts on the edge connector had actually become rounded at the ends and the PCB traces showed through in some areas of the contacts. No amount of alcohol or pencil erasing was able to resurrect it -- this required a trace pen to fix, and even that's only a temporary solution as it'll eventually wear off, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Csonicgo Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 what do you do with a cart that is just "dead"? I've tried everything to get Jr. pac man to work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vb_master Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 has anyone tried putting a Intel heatsink fan on it That would be cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Primus Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 has anyone tried putting a Intel heatsink fan on it That would be cool! A fan would be really overkill. I have, however, fitted a better heat sink on the regulator before, since the original design just had it screwed to a metal pad on the board, but if you put on a small metal heat sink and some thermal compound, it helps dissipate the heat a little better. Heat, however, is not a big deal, the 7805 heats up, that's just how it works. It doesn't really need better cooling. If you regulator is heating up too much, hoewver, it should be replaced. Ian Primus ian_primus@yahoo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBoris Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 what do you do with a cart that is just "dead"? I've tried everything to get Jr. pac man to work! In my experience dead carts are pretty rare. Most can be brought back to life through aggressive cleaning of the contacts and re-soldering of the components on the cart. I have gotten around 400, 2600 carts in my time collecting and have only found 2 that could not be brought back to life. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Csonicgo Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 resoldering? did I break something? these contacts- I can see my reflection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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