[Coladam] Problems with the ADAM display

[geoffrey oltmans]

The Video RAM is on the game board... the top board in the set. If you feel 
lucky enough, you can try swapping out the game boards between the two ADAMs you 
have and see if your problem goes away. This is straightforward to do with only 
a phillips screwdriver. There is a ribbon cable that connects the two boards and 
it's socketed on the game board side. Since the other system you indicate didn't 
start at all, it's a toss up whether or not the problem lies between the game 
board or bottom peripheral board (the bottom board holds all the main memory for 
the system, and also contains circuitry to reset the system). I will caution 
that if there is something seriously wrong with the other  board, it may make 
things worse for the mostly working set. I'll leave it to you to decide how to 
proceed there, but I'd wager you're probably okay swapping them out for a quick 
test. On the dead system, if you pull Game Reset, does the CV screen show up or 
is it completely dead?

Now, the RAM may be perfectly good anyway. In my case I had some similar 
artifacts (vertical lines in the display) and the problem was the connector to 
the power supply/printer on the side of the console. They would go away when I 
wiggled the power connector. I don't think the ground connection was all that 
great in my case and replacing the connector fixed my problem.






________________________________
From: Justin Salvato <justin76here at hotmail.com>
To: Geoff Oltmans <oltmansg at bellsouth.net>; Herman L Mason Jr 
<hlm001 at hlm-gmk.com>
Cc: coladam at adamcon.org
Sent: Sun, December 19, 2010 8:55:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Coladam] Problems with the ADAM display

Here are screen shots.  This is the 4th time trying to send these.  Not sure 
if the file size is too big.  And yes, everything screws up, game cartridges 
too.



-----Original Message----- 
From: Geoff Oltmans
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 3:44 PM
To: Herman L Mason Jr
Cc: 'Justin Salvato' ; coladam at adamcon.org
Subject: Re: [Coladam] Problems with the ADAM display

We might be able to narrow things down if it is really a problem in the 
boardset.

Justin: Do game cartridges work properly, or are they messed up as well? Do 
you have some screenshots you can send to me?

On Dec 19, 2010, at 10:30 AM, Herman L Mason Jr wrote:

> My mistake it was the main board, not game board. the bottom board. We 
> sent
> them to Dan Elliott I think. Getting old I guess.
>
> Good Friends are FOREVER... And Thats a Long, LONG, Time.  So, PLEASE Stay
> Intouch...
>
>                                                   H Mason Jr
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coladam-bounces at adamcon.org [mailto:coladam-bounces at adamcon.org] On
> Behalf Of Herman L Mason Jr
> Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 11:13 AM
> To: 'Justin Salvato'; coladam at adamcon.org
> Subject: Re: [Coladam] Problems with the ADAM display
>
> "G" may be correct, I seem to think that it was the game board, (Mother
> board) for the clone folks, that gave me and George that problem. We even
> sent several out, forgot his name, but who was supposedly good at fixing
> them, this was before Dr. D was part of the group. We would get 
> interference
> or garbage at boot up, and it got worse as it went on, ie, Sbasic, as I
> tried to load my bbs up.
>                             -HM
>
> Good Friends are FOREVER... And Thats a Long, LONG, Time.  So, PLEASE Stay
> Intouch...
>
>                                                   H Mason Jr
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coladam-bounces at adamcon.org [mailto:coladam-bounces at adamcon.org] On
> Behalf Of Justin Salvato
> Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 8:57 AM
> To: coladam at adamcon.org
> Subject: [Coladam] Problems with the ADAM display
>
> Most of the time I start my ADAM, the display is screwy.  I have to reboot
> it about 8 times before the display is normal.  Sometimes there are
> artifacts, sometimes the cursor is missing, sometimes the color is
> distorted.  Games and programs dont always appear correctly when loaded 
> too.
> Is there a fix for this or is it time to give this ADAM, which I only had 
> in
> my possession for about a year, the boot?  I have a second memory console
> which does not appear to work at all.
>
> Justin
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