SNES video problems RF and Composite.

[Kotomo]

Hello, I'm totally new here, but looking to see if anyone else has experienced this problem and if not, bring it forth and report what my findings will be if I ever do get it fixed.

So, I've had my SNES since the mid '90's. For the past 10 years it's mostly just sat around collecting dust, but for the most part has been known to be in fine working order. So I recently picked up a copy of Chrono Trigger and went to go test it out. After hooking everything up and getting to the save selection menu, there are these red horizontal bars across the entire screen.
Chrono Trigger Menu

They are not scanning down the screen, they stay static in the positions they're in. In Chrono Trigger they only appear in the menus, which includes battles. Following are more pictures of F-Zero, Super Mario RPG and where they cause the system to produce this behavior and where it does not. More of the pics are of Super Mario RPG.

F-Zero Title pic 1
F-Zero Title pic 2

F-Zero actually has half the screen with a red bar when you are actually in a race.

Super Mario RPG pic 1
Super Mario RPG pic 2
Super Mario RPG pic 3
Super Mario RPG pic 4
Super Mario RPG pic 5
Super Mario RPG pic 6
Super Mario RPG pic 7
Super Mario RPG pic 8

As you can see I am using a ViewSonic HDTV. The SNES is hooked to it via Composite. I have also tried RF and get the exact same result. Other game consoles, like my NES and Genesis have no trouble displaying on this TV through composite or RF. I have taken the SNES and hooked it to other HDTV's, including a newer 65" LG at my work and they all exhibit the same behavior on the same games.

I have cleaned the game contacts using steel wool and the contacts on the SNES connector with contact cleaner. No changes in the result, of course the games make perfect solid contact with the SNES main board and don't lock up when you wiggle the cartridge. The games I have shown also do not do this on a friend's SNES console. Also, some games do not show this behavior at all, such as Super Mario World and Super Mario Cart.

Other things I have tried is to go so far as tacking on another 1000 micro ferrad capacitor in parallel with the one that's on the main board of the SNES, re-touch all the pins with solder of the main cartridge connector and even retouch all the joints inside the AC adapter brick.

The only thing I have not had the chance to try is entirely different AC adapter. Admittedly I did not think to bring my own SNES last time I was at my friends house. I do have a replacement on the way from Nintendorepairshop.com so I'll see what happens when that comes in.

So just seeing if this is something that quite possibly is very simple and I am overlooking it, in which case I would be thankful for having someone point it out, or if this is an issue that no one else has yet seen and may possibly be irreversible.

Thanks.

EDIT: Should have also noted that this is a SHVC-CPU-01 SNES motherboard, in case that changes anything.

[Polygon]

I would say you have a capacitor issue or a video encoder issue. I suppose this could be caused by a bad power brick. After you get the new one, if it continues to do this I would guess it's one of the former two. I would inspect the board for any leaky caps. If they've leaked and been sitting there long enough that fluid can eat through the PCB and traces, causing pretty bad damage.

[theclaw]

Another power brick is pretty easy to hook up. I agree capacitors are worth looking at.

Have you tried an s-video cable? At least that'll reduce jagged edges.
RGB usually takes extra devices to use here, tens of millions more consoles (considering PS2's runaway success!) support that here than TVs.

[Kotomo]

Guess I forgot to mention, I have tested the capacitors with a multi meter by charging them up with the Ohm setting, and then reading the DC volts after they are charged a bit and watching them slowly discharge through the multimeter. Even the cap in the AC adapter brick still holds a good charge.

No leaks either on their tops, from what I can see. That's not to say I can tell what may be leaking on the bottom of the caps, but again, I did wire up a second cap for the motherboard in parallel to the original one, which should double the capacitance for that circuit. All the other solid state caps also look perfectly clean. Also, no notice of leaked electrolytes on the PCB or disolved circuits.

I'll have to try some replacement therapy, I suppose, if the replacement AC adapter brick does not change anything.

EDIT: Thanks for the reply's. I appreciate having some other folks look in to this issue as well.

[Kotomo]

Another power brick is pretty easy to hook up. I agree capacitors are worth looking at.

Have you tried an s-video cable? At least that'll reduce jagged edges.
RGB usually takes extra devices to use here, tens of millions more consoles (considering PS2's runaway success!) support that here than TVs.

Thanks for the suggestion of using S-Video to help with the jaggedness. That does not bother me so much, and right now my main focus is dealing with those red bars that should not be there.

[Kotomo]

Well, I got the replacement adapter but that has not made a difference. Since then, I managed to short out the fuse. So now I decided to order the Capacitor replacement kit from Console5.com along with 4 pico fuses. Hopefully this replacement therapy will yield some positive results.

[Polygon]

Well, I wish you the best of luck. If that doesn't fix it, I would assume the video encoder is causing the issue. But I could be wrong. I know that if you asked this on Sega-16 there are some seriously smart guys over there that would know much better than I would.

[Kotomo]

Well, I wish you the best of luck. If that doesn't fix it, I would assume the video encoder is causing the issue. But I could be wrong. I know that if you asked this on Sega-16 there are some seriously smart guys over there that would know much better than I would.

Thanks for the lead. I'm going to ask these guys and see what I get.

[wiggyx]

Have you hooked it up to a CRT yet?

[Kotomo]

Have you hooked it up to a CRT yet?

I have, I took it to a friends house and he happens to have a CRT. Hooked it up, same exact problem.

I recently had one of my brothers friends check it out, as he is a serious hardware geek. He believes it's the video encoder, or worse the CPU itself. That makes me think it might be one of the PPU's.

I haven't asked around Sega 16 forums yet, as it took them a week to finally aprove my account. Though, I am pretty certain I may already know the answer to my problem with knowing that it might be the video encoder.

So for now I have put it to rest until I feel like digging into it further. Everything is still playable so long as I look past the all red. If I ever dig back into it, I'll try and post my finding here.

Thanks.