Famicom in B&W? [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

sisko

10-06-2003, 11:39 PM

I just got a famicom in a trade and for some reason, it only plays games in back and white.

Does anybody know what causes this or even better, how to fix it?

I don't know if this better belongs in the Restoration folder, but if so could someone move it? Thanks.

kai123

10-06-2003, 11:45 PM

Sounds like a Pal system to me.

sisko

10-07-2003, 10:30 AM

The guy I had traded it from said he had it working in color before he sent it, and he lives in the US.

Also, the image takes up the entire screen, so this leads me to believe that the unit is indeed NTSC.

Also the model number is 001.

He said that the problem may me a pot adjustment in the RF Switch....

omnedon?

Querjek

10-07-2003, 03:13 PM

He said that the problem may me a pot adjustment in the RF Switch....

I Know this may sound stupid, but it's the only thing I could think of: Try doing channel 2 instead of 1 (I think that's what a Famicom has on it).

omnedon

10-07-2003, 03:16 PM

I have no hands on with a Famicom.

The only time I've seen this issue come up was with SNES's and ColecoVisions. 'Sometimes' the problem was caused by the RF shield (internal sheet metal shielding) shorting something out. In these instances it was remedied by removing the not necessarily necessary RF shielding. Re-seating it could help too.

It's an easy thing to try, with little risk of doing any damage.

Good Luck!

FABombjoy

10-07-2003, 03:57 PM

Is this a Japanese Famicom system? Is it an original model Famicom without A/V jacks?

The frequency used by the Famicom does not actually line up with any US TV channels, so it's a real crapshoot as to whether your TV is smart enough to tune-around and locate the color/audio carriers. If you have a fine tuning adjustment, or an 'AFT' setting, try using it. Otherwise, try every channel on the set and see what happens. Some people report luck with channels in the 90s (apparently while the set is in cable TV mode, since there is no broadcast channel 90).

sisko

10-07-2003, 03:59 PM

Bratwurst

10-07-2003, 04:11 PM

The only time I've seen this issue come up was with SNES's and ColecoVisions. 'Sometimes' the problem was caused by the RF shield (internal sheet metal shielding) shorting something out. In these instances it was remedied by removing the not necessarily necessary RF shielding. Re-seating it could help too.

Holy crap, this is what I did too with a Sega Genesis, I just didn't put two and two together until just now. I removed the RF shielding trying to get inside there and just never put it back.

FABombjoy

10-07-2003, 04:57 PM

I tried every channel combination and it wouldn't work.

I have even worse news now, I turned it on today to see if I could get it to work, and it popped, and now it won't work at all =(

I think I just need to settle and get an AV famicom =/

Popped? Yikes!

If it's totally gone, I'd love to dissect it. PM me if you're going to toss it.

The AV is definitely the way to go stateside. Too bad it looks out of place on top of the disk system.

sisko

10-07-2003, 05:34 PM

I took the unit apart and it is farily simple compared to the regular NES here. just two small circuit boards...on for the inputs and one for the actual unit. I was however pleased to see that the controllers are in fact not hard wired into the circuit board, rather they use concealed mini connectors. This way if your controller goes bad, its not a huge pain to replace.

I don't know what I am going to do with it now. I looked all over and I couldn't find anything physicall wrong with the unit (no broken components or black marks anywhere). I think a capacitor just crapped out which is a fairly easy repair, provided I find the right one =)

I need to go find a multimeter and soldering iron before I can even try. If not, I might sell it off on eBay as an as is auction to help fund my AV famicom.