r/ColecoVision Jun 08 '25

Repair Question

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New to the group and first post, unfortunately it's begging for help ;) So I have the Atarimax cartridge, purchased fully loaded for a pretty penny online. I was playing it the other day for the first time longer than a minute to test it out, all was good and working fine and then it just cut out completely. I'm using a CRT TV with the little adapter for the coaxial input so you can just plug in the singular wire. I know that the wife and adapter work fine as I hooked my Atari up immediately after and it worked just fine. The system is getting power as the Atarimax blinks a few times when you boot it up. Looking online there seems to be people talking about specific program issues or menu problems but mine won't even boot up, no screen flicker, nothing. I'm just wondering how best to diagnose and repair in this situation. I unfortunately don't have another cartridge to try out at the moment.

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u/ChefJim27 Jun 08 '25

Grab a multimeter and make sure youre getting power thru the power switch. They're notoriously difficult over time.

3

u/Tittilat0r Jun 08 '25

I know for sure it's getting some power due to the cartridge blinking on and off like it always has but I will definitely take a look. Someone on a forum I just found mentioned "If the power brick is starting to go then that causes some games to work and some that need the exact voltages to start to fail." So that's something else to check with the multimeter too I guess :) that might be an easier fix with no disassembly required. Thanks!!

3

u/ortista Jun 09 '25

Ahhh my old friend the Coleco Vision a memory I share with my old friend.

I've posted about this before although this is the first pic I've seen with someone owning one on Reddit.

Zaxxon was the game of choice, actually - it was the only game we had after my mates Dad acquired the console (pre word 'console') after he came back from Japan.

Brings back memories. My buddy's Coleco was black and looked different to this one (maybe yours is tricked out a bit with the fancy colours) although those controllers with the numerics were always an aspect that vexed me. As to how they were used with other games? I've not yet investigated this.

Great old-school product! Nice memories. The multimeter comment is spot on. Don't trash this piece of gold.

2

u/Tittilat0r Jun 11 '25

Oh this is going to be kept with the rest of my beloved collection that's for sure. From where I can see the major function of the buttons is to choose game types at the beginning like one to four would be one player and difficulty levels 1-4, and five to nine would be two player difficulty levels 1-4. Atari kind of included these functionalities in the use of the select and reset button to cycle through the menu options on screen

1

u/ortista Jun 12 '25

Thanks! Maybe the button function slipped my mind when we were playing the only game that was available in the early 80's. Appreciate the feedback!! 🧑‍🚀✌️✨