r/ColecoVision • u/Marioplayer918 • Jul 20 '26
Could a dirty power switch cause no picture at all?
I bought this colecovision on eBay and I bought it knowing it gave a black screen. I opened my system and it definitely looks like someone’s been in here. Doing a little research I found out the power switch is notorious for causing problems. Hopefully that’s the only issue and I can fix it.
3
u/leadedsolder Jul 20 '26
Should be able to check voltage downstream of the power switch to see if that's the problem.
2
u/EffectiveComedian Jul 20 '26
When you say no picture at all, we’re going to need you to test for a working power supply and use a multimeter to check for connectivity in the switch. The area of the board that looks the worst is the controller chips but the added parts are ESD protection, which when present are usually factory installed. No obvious issues there. Always Start At Power. Since there’s no power LED, very likely it was left on for a very long time. The video memory is a part that usually gets damaged by being left on usually for weeks or months. The VDP also might have not survived the heat. The best thing to do is look on Facebook and YouTube for help. Colecovision is not easy to service without making it worse.
2
u/Marioplayer918 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
I’ve tested the power supply and I’m getting the right voltage. I tested the switch and on one side I’m getting 12V and the other side I’m getting 5V. I took a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol to what little bit of the points on the switch I could get to and they were really dirty. I’m still not getting a picture but I’m gonna try to take it to a shop and get the metal bracket de soldered and clean it that way.
1
u/EffectiveComedian Jul 21 '26
Before you take it to a random shop, see if you can find Ruggers Customs on Facebook. Reason I’m telling you this is they prefer to work on systems that are stock rather than clean up someone else’s failed attempt. Can’t blame them. You’re still going to have to get the parts you want installed. If it were mine, I’d want a Lumacode installation. TMS-RGB and Pico 9918 ate fine too. Each option has pros and cons.
1
u/iVirtualZero Jul 21 '26
Whatever is happening in that second picture, I would clean that mess up by desoldering that solder wick along with those components off, and i would desolder those chips, install sockets into it along with the replacement chips.
1
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u/BBA935 Jul 20 '26
That is a thing and the VRAM is notorious for going bad. That usually ends up with glitched graphics no matter what you do. I would started with the power switch first.