2600 Power Supply Problem

[swandy]

Within the past few months I got back into Atari. (Shame I got rid of all my stuff years ago ) I got on Ebay a 6 switcher and a 4 switcher. I recently had the 4 switcher modded for composite video.

When I got the two units, one came with an Atari power adapter and one with one made by RCA. I have noticed today that when using the Atari one, I would get interference (multi-colored horizontal bands that move from the bottom to the top of the screen). I tried it the unit on three different TV sets with the same result.

Just out of curiousity, I tried the RCA adapter and the interference dissappeared.

When I re-plugged in the Atari adapter, it would be fine, but the interference would start up again after a few minutes of play. The Atari adapter does not seem to be getting hot to the touch.

Any ideas? Does this mean that the Atari one if wearing out/going bad?

Any suggestions of a replacement?

Thanks,

Steve

[A.J. Franzman]

Probably a bad filter capacitor in the Atari power supply. The Atari VCS units themselves also have filter capacitors, and we're now approaching what's considered the upper limit for reliability of aging electrolytic capacitors, so you probably have weak ones in the consoles too. There are several ways to work around this problem, including replacing the capacitor in the wall wart (if you're not afraid to crack it open), replacing the capacitor in the console with a higher-valued modern low-ESR part, or just buying a new power supply.

[swandy]

Thanks for the reply.

That's sort of what I thought.

Too bad the power supplies that come with the Flashback 2

won't fit. Oh Well,

Steve