Fixing an Astrocade?

[icbrkr]

As some of you might have read, my Astrocade overheated at the OKGE last month. I was initially worried because it wouldn't fire up, but when I got back from the 2+ hour drive home, it fired up without an issue.

Today I went to test out some cartridges and it refuses to fire up - the machine turns on, but the screen is black. I opened it up, reseated a few chips, no go. I know this thing is prone to overheating, but to work after an overheat and then stop? It's hard to believe it's fully dead.

Does anyone have any ideas on what can be done to it to get it working or how to repair one? I don't want to have to go searching for an Astrocade to replace it...

Brian

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Arrrrrggghhh!! Hopefully someone can come up with a fix, because that is the prettiest Astrocade specimen I have ever seen.

[ManekiNeko]

I've got problems with my Astrocade, too. Specifically, the numeric pad on the face of the machine won't work... there's a row of buttons that simply won't respond to input. I'm not brave enough to open the machine and attempt to repair it, but if there were a schematic available for the Astrocade somewhere, I might change my mind.

JR

[icbrkr]

Arrrrrggghhh!! Hopefully someone can come up with a fix, because that is the prettiest Astrocade specimen I have ever seen.

Thanks! Suprisingly, I just bought another Astrocade after I posted that... I just found one online.. for $20!!!

I'll take the "pretty" parts and put them on the new one

Brian

[congobongo]

II'm not brave enough to open the machine and attempt to repair it, but if there were a schematic available for the Astrocade somewhere, I might change my mind.

The schematic is available as part of the service manual here: http://www.classicgaming.com/ballyal...misc_docs.html

I just bought one that was "broken." When I opened it up it turned out that over time the power supply wires had contracted pulling the plug from the pins. Plugged it back in and BINGO I was enjoying a round of Incredible Wizard.

[WizDawg]

Did you try taking it apart and replacing the RF cable?(it just plugs in).

This fixed an intermittant black screen problem I was having.

Mike

[icbrkr]

Did you try taking it apart and replacing the RF cable?(it just plugs in).

This fixed an intermittant black screen problem I was having.

Mike

It's worth a shot - thanks for the tip!

[icbrkr]

Well, I got the new one in (btw, I got it from half.com for $20!). It works, but it had a bad keypad and has an odd blue "line" about 1/4 of the way down on the screen. It shows up on all games unfortunately. I swapped the case and keyboard over from the old one so it looks as good as new now. I also swapped all the socketed chips from one machine to another, to see if it made a difference. None - the dead one is still dead, and the new one is using the dead one's chips (and works fine) and it still has a stupid blue line going across it. I guess you can't have everything!