I picked up a Sega Master System and an Atari 7800 today in a box. The owners had no idea what they were.

I got them home and hooked them up. The Atari works flawlessly! The SMS, well... not so much. I can't get the video to display and I'm looking for a bit of help.

First off, it came with both an RF switch and AV plugs. I tried the AV plugs first - when I turned it on, nothing registered. My TV wasn't receiving a signal (I know this because when it isn't receiving a signal, it says so).

So I tried the RF switch. The only thing that comes up is a black screen with a white band through it. Now, I don't have a game to try it with, but it's my understanding that if you boot a SMS without a game, it should display a SEGA boot screen, thus allowing you to access the snails game. But all I get is the black screen with a white band. I tried another RF adapter and got the same results.

Here's what it looks like:


And here's my Master System:


Note: I searched for this problem and found two posts in which the poster seems to have the same problem as mine, but neither was given an answer. The posts are here and here.

Please help!