Super Nintendo Only plays in Black & White..?

[Videogamerdaryll]

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Super Nintendo Only plays in Black & White..?

I picked up a loose mint SNES out of the flea market awhile back...but it only plays in Black & White.
I've done everything from cleaning the connectors/connections...Tried all kinds of carts/different hook ups etc.
I had this and another SNES system side by side to make sure everything I was using with this SNES worked fine and played in color on the other system..

Looking inside I see nothing different BUT this little RED adjustment pot/knob that I have no clue what it does .on the Only plays in Black & White system,.
I don't find this little RED adjustment pot/knob in any other of my SNES systems..




Left System is"dirty"the working one plays in color-with no red knob as my others..The right has the knob but only plays in black and white/every game..


This is the system..little RED adjustment pot/knob




What's the problem with this system..?..Fixable..?

[§ Gideon §]

From the pics, I can see that more than just that little red knob is different. It's a different board entirely.

I wonder if it's modified... Probably not, but that's a cool thought. You did try flicking the Ch. 3/4 switch in the back, right?

[blackpanther]

have you tried the knowledge base,send the question to them im sure they'll no

[Videogamerdaryll]

From the pics, I can see that more than just that little red knob is different. It's a different board entirely.

I wonder if it's modified... Probably not, but that's a cool thought. You did try flicking the Ch. 3/4 switch in the back, right?

You did try flicking the Ch. 3/4 switch in the back, right?

Yes,no change...(is on 3)....tried switch to 4...TV on 4..also..

Your right about the board..the chip layout is different..

[Videogamerdaryll]

have you tried the knowledge base,send the question to them im sure they'll no

Hmm...Link to that Please....Thanks..

[Push Upstairs]

I ran across an SNES that had this same problem. No matter what type of connector used it always played in B&W.

Unfortunatly I was working at a gamestore at the time and I couldnt spend any time figuring out what the problem was.


At best i can say that its not a solitary incident.

[blackpanther]

go to the digitpress home page and try the knowledge base,its near the top left hand corner wer the list is,ive posted a few problems in the last couple of weeks and they've helped me loads

[almostgotthemall]

Check the back to see if it is PAL. All my PAL snes's play in black & white no matter what game I use.

[InsaneDavid]

Check the back to see if it is PAL. All my PAL snes's play in black & white no matter what game I use.

Was just about to say that while I was scrolling through the thread. If almostgotthemall could open one of his PAL SNES systems and look at the board and compare it to the chip layout of the "bad" SNES then you'd have a more solid answer, but it seems like the PAL / NTSC incompatibility to me.

[Enixis]

I'd say thats definitely a PAL console. My PAL n64 plays in black and white on my NTSC-only TV.

[blackpanther]

ok have a look at this http://www.robwebb.clara.co.uk/shop/snes/snes.htm

thers a pal booster ther-provides a pal-60 output compatible with many uk tvs,if your getting a black and white picture from your import console then this will give it colour

[FABombjoy]

Wasn't the US the only country to get the bizarrified SNES design? If it was a PAL console, wouldn't it be smaller and have a different eject button like the JP design?

[blackpanther]

the pal version is like the jap one but the board in the console he has looks the same as my ones and my ones are all pal,i cant see any other reason why he would have the black and white screen allso why ther would be a pal board in a US one unless its a pirate version ,does your snes have the same board as his?like i said maybe the pal booster will help

[almostgotthemall]

Check the back to see if it is PAL. All my PAL snes's play in black & white no matter what game I use.

Was just about to say that while I was scrolling through the thread. If almostgotthemall could open one of his PAL SNES systems and look at the board and compare it to the chip layout of the "bad" SNES then you'd have a more solid answer, but it seems like the PAL / NTSC incompatibility to me.

Sorry, the last of my PAL snes's are sold.

Out of curiousity, I pulled out a couple of snes boards from NTSC decks. I found that my boards (got 2 non working) are a completely different chip setup than Videogamerdaryll's boards.

How many different snes boards are there?

They seem to have the red knob.







To InsaneDavid: Thank you very much for the meseta!
Im still working on a question worthy of the random video game trivia thread.

[blackpanther]

How many different snes boards are there?

im not to sure ther,i hav 3 diffrent types 2 with the red knobs and one without,all my ones are pal tho.

maybe they changed them over the years they wer out,its like 1 of my ones came out when the snes was first released that one doesnt have the red knob but the other which came out a few years later does

[InsaneDavid]

the pal version is like the jap one but the board in the console he has looks the same as my ones and my ones are all pal,i cant see any other reason why he would have the black and white screen allso why ther would be a pal board in a US one unless its a pirate version ,does your snes have the same board as his?like i said maybe the pal booster will help

Could always be PAL internals put into a US SNES shell. Dunno how well things would match up though, never opened my SFC or a PAL SNES.

[Push Upstairs]

I know there are at least 2 different versions of the SNES board because i have seen some with a small board that plugs into the upper right corner (i think it was the sound chip) while others do not have this.


I thought PAL systems would show up smaller on an NTSC TV (less lines of resolution?)

From what i can recall there was nothing different about the SNES i saw other than it played only in B&W.

[blackpanther]

I thought PAL systems would show up smaller on an NTSC TV (less lines of resolution?


hehe i cant believe no one thought of that,yep your spot on,if you play a pal snes ther will be a black banner at the top and bottom.most likely if its play'n in full screen then its probly a pirate

[FABombjoy]

A PAL console will almost always generate a rolling picture on an NTSC TV.

PAL has greater resolution than NTSC, but a lower frame rate.

Some PAL consoles appear letterboxed on PAL TVs because of the way the changeover from 60 to 50Hz refresh was handled (i.e. not very well).

I believe it is unlikely that this is a PAL console. A more likely possibility is a problem with the color subcarrier portion of the RGB encoder.

[InsaneDavid]

I believe it is unlikely that this is a PAL console. A more likely possibility is a problem with the color subcarrier portion of the RGB encoder.