Trying to FIX an ATARI JAGUAR with No Display 

Absolutely love your videos Vince, your so honest with your repairs and happily admit when your struggling. Wife was in the room while watching this video and said you should re-title the video to “Atari Jaguar slowly fixes itself while repair man pokes at it”

The coil in the rf modulator that was misshapen was done at the factory to fine tune the inductance to adjust the output frequency/amplitude. The screw you were messing with is a core to the main coil is the main method to adjust the frequency which is why it affected the reception. Capacitors in digital electronics are mainly used for noise filtering and decoupling. In RF circuits they are also used with inductors (coils) to create tank circuits that amplify the RF signal and to block dc voltages from crossing between stages ( probably why you found a path to ground on both sides of that capacitor).

"where did you learn to fly ?!"

When I seen the Jaguar, I knew this fix would be weird. I'm not disappointed. I'd definitely chalk this as a win, the Jaguar is such a freak of nature.

Vince, really love your content man. I remember you made a poll a couple of days ago about which videos people prefer to watch, I just want to give you some feedback as an average viewer: I think the best way to describe your videos with regards to why some people prefer watching your videos is simple -- tech porn. It's as simple as that. You have this niche corner that ONLY your videos can provide and that's the analytical/troubleshooting of game systems/electronics. People like myself gravitate to these videos because they are well narrated, people can relate to you because it's not TOO techy and isn't deep enough to where people will get lost in the terminology. Yes there are a lot of "let's fix/try to fix" vids out there on RU-vid, but you have this je ne sais quoi about your videos that make them distinct from the rest. I can see you getting to 750k by the end of the year, if not 1mil subscriber. Keep it up mate, don't ever change your format, people like myself have subscribed because your vids are exactly what I want to watch sitting infront of my computer on an afternoon sipping on a pint/coffee at home.

love to see old school repairs like this vince i can see you fixing many retro systems

Hey Vince- I just wanted to say thanks for all of the content you provide. It's been infinitely helpful during these weird times. Watching one of your videos always hits the reset button for me so I just wanted to let you know how much it's appreciated. Friendly reminder that what you do does make an impact and makes people lives better.

I was just watching a wii u trying to fix video from 2018 and man, you've really came such a long way. Gives me hope as I've started small electronics repair. Love your videos and thanks for all the help!

Who leaves hateful comments on someone trying to learn how to fix something people in the repeal Community should be supportive of people trying to be a part of the community because the more people how to become a part of the community the more different Viewpoint we will have and different ways of looking at problems I've been repairing electronics for a while but there's always something new I can learn something new even from someone who just started out

Interesting fact about the Atari Jaguar: when Atari went bankrupt, they sold the Jaguar molds to a dental camera company. If you look it up, you'll see pictures of the flipped silver Atari Jaguar, it's exactly the same, which is hilarious to me. Also, the AVGN video on it is pretty informative.

What an oddball fault Vince. You are a Saint not have started swearing. When I get these sorts of fixes my wife throws me out of the house! 🤣

54:00 - cheap because it's the game that shipped with the console! The gamepad was a nice idea, there was an overlay for the keypad which helped identify what the buttons did...

Vince I've watched you since your broadband instructional videos, long time ago, and your my Sherlock Holmes of electronics my friend! Through the powers of deduction, you fix these issues!

‘ What I’m wondering is....’ I wait for this every video now..keep em coming Vince!

Cheers for the videos Vince, something to look forward to during lockdown.

Another great vlog from Vince,

Yay more retro stuff! I had an Atari Jaguar growing up. Only had one game though: Alien vs. Predator. That start up music with the roar and the little tune is super nostalgic. Now that I started game collecting I've got a few more games for it. The homebrew scene for the Jaguar has gotten pretty popular recently as well.

I loved my Atari jaguar. bought it with doom and wow what an eye opener. what a jump from megadrive graphics. Great video Vince..

I tested 3 jags a couple of weeks ago, none of them were working. I basically cleaned the board a few times with ipa. Still nothing, tried to see if continuity between the board & the pin connector. All fine. I ordered an av out cable & all worked everytime. It puzzled me at the time & still does. I think at the end you mentioning about PAL signal does play into on these boards. The ones I have don't have the same alterations as your board. Superb video btw 👍

Toss the RF box in trash and glue in place a 3.5mm jack for AV out!

With how you went about doing things, turning the Jaguar on and off, leaving it on, leaving it off repeatedly, i think it might have been a bad capacitor after all, reforming itself up to the point where things actually started working again. Capacitors can do that at times when they're powered on for long enough. Apart from that i have no real clue how it's working now when it didn't before *lol* Not my favorite console, but it's always nice to save old hardware ^_^

The semi-angry rant at the end of the video is absolute gold, thank you

Vince you are the best youtuber in the world I love you so much tysm for your efforts you put into your vids

Brilliant…. I have two Jaguars, one working Jag CD and pretty much every released Cart, all boxed. It’s a Labour of love.

Well done these are the one you always remember and is always a nightmare , still great video 👍😊

Hell yeah! I've been waiting for another video. Another obscure item also. Nobody is doing board repair on a Jaguar. Very cool video IMO. I recall when jaguars came out. The ads put so much hype on them and they sucked, i guess. I've never seen one in person. It was something to do with saying they were a 64bit console. Again, awesome video.

the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over again and again, and expecting different results... and then the atari jaguar board said HOLD MY BEER.

I can't solder to save my life, but I can clean well, and it's fixed all my console issues so far!

L is an inductor, coil not capacitors. If it starts playing up again I would suggest you reflow the chips as a dry joint on one of the pins could make it not boot and if you put pressure on the chip say while you were cleaning the game slot. it could make the pin contact.

Great job vince nice to see it works

Hello love your vids keep up the good work

It would be interesting to know if the "overheated" chip is cooler when the console is working vs when it didn't.

Bear in mind the technology of televisions back when the Jaguar was designed. Usually tuned by turning mechanical tuning dials of some description, not something run by microcontroller. I imagine it'll work just fine on your old TVs that use manual tuners (eg the boombox TV). Analogue tuners on modern TVs... Not convinced they're a priority. I mean, none of the reviewers will notice it; and few consumers will notice if the analogue tuner isn't great.

Hey UAE managed to be usefull for once, great job Vince

I have a Jaguar console with the av I like it nice system very awesome video.

I also think it was a dirty cardridge connector. Which also caused a short (maybe with a slightly high resistance or impendance). After cleaning it it was better, the ipa makes a better connection, as it evapuates the connection got bad again. The RF Signal seem to be ok. I live in germany and when I connect a console via RF, I always had (analog TV here is gone) to tune in the Channel by my own. The same with old analog TV Signals. We do not have Channels with fixed RF bandwiths, every channel has the same. To get our TV channels we had to tune in the right frequency. most TV have an automatic Channel finder which goes to all frequencys and stops if the Image is ok.

Great video Vince, perhaps you do a revisit on this where you clean up the entire board.

Consoles and computers that tune in on RF required tuning to a different channel once channel 5 launched. This passed without much fanfare so many people missed it. This is why you're having trouble tuning it on RF.

You could have saved days of work, just blow into the cartridge, that fixes everything 😄

Great job in cleaning BOTH "The Game cartridge" and Game consoles "Cartridge Slot".. APU Dropped a like..

Yes some more retro gaming fixing :D

Nice fix 👍👍

Umm not that i dont appreciate every single video you put out good sir, but.... how am i spose to work this morning with a new My Mate Vince Video !!!! Thanks sir !

Fantastic Channel Mate I Know It`s 3 yrs Old But, Reignite Your Channel Mate!! YOUR GREAT!:)

Forget about the RF. You should just bypass the obsolete RF circuitry and wire the composite video output straight to the RCA jack. Then add a small headphone jack for the audio out somewhere.

Excellent job mate. Now grab your self a copy of tempest 2000 and Rayman (or a jag everdrive and the roms, i don't judge) and enjoy your jag :)

Thank you mentioned my home country man ;) Belgium is awesome :p

Yep I remember those slotted games were a real problem where the receptical would be the issue from corrosion and or Oxidation to soldering joint problems because of the force it takes to insert and remove the cartridge . you've fixed it by cleaning it wayda go there Vince... Also You probably have a NTSC model where you have PAL for tuning the RF is set to NTSC which is why your TV doesn't work on RF out put

The Atari Jaguar if I remember rightly actually came with Cybermorph. It was a particularly crap game and no wonder that it was so cheap. If you can you should track down a copy of Tempest 2000. Tempest 2000 was a real psychedelic showcase for the system in both sound and visuals. However it is quite rare and expensive,but in my opinion one of the few games that can be considered really worthwhile getting.

Great video and well done for sticking it out. Your Logik TV i believe is a tesco brand and I have come across the same problem before on other consoles with Logik. especially the older ones such as the original playstation etc using modulators. 5* and well done again.

I wish I had as much patience as you. It's definitely frustrating to fix something without knowing what you did to fix it.

Love the Vids that game looks pretty crisp.

Good video thanks Here in OZ we have VHF and UHF TV band and I believe in the UK VHF band was discontinued in the 70''s ? Your UK TV is picking up a ghost/harmonic image of the vhf modulator in the unit on UHF.I had the opposite problem once with a UK pong game I purchased in the UK. Changing to Australia on the TV is changing the tuning range to include VHF.The output of the modulator would be between 54 -225 mhz (AU ch 0 to 12) I think the bridged cap would ber for DC blocking on some units.

The first thing I do when I get an old computer/game console/etc. is take it apart and give any PCBs a good clean with electrical contact cleaner. Then if there are any card slots, edge connectors, RAM slots, etc. I hit those with just a little DeoxIT. I can't tell you how many "defective" components I've brought back to life just by giving them a proper cleaning. After I clean everything up I start checking other components, RTC battery, capacitors, etc. By cleaning the whole board first you rule out any minor shorts due to contamination (liquid, flux, debris, etc.) and DeoxIT is great for making sure you have good contact between any game carts, add on cards, controllers, etc.

my personal guess would be the switch is ground connected, and there is a 5v rail (LED to switch), and a 12v rail leading to the switch. so when the switch was pressed it would light up the LED, but dirt or something stopping the 12v rail from connecting to the switch. hense why the LED came on, but the console didn't fully switch on. and also why it is working all the time at the end of the video.

I LOVE your videos. Find myself shouting at my mobile saying do this and do that, even though I know only a quarter of what you do. My wife laughs at me. 😂 😂 😂 😂 I'm half way through this one. Gonna watch the rest now! 😊

Awesome video

That little screw in the tuner is an intermediate Frequency Transformer. Part of the tuning circuitry.

"Where did you learn to fly?" :D

Cybrermorph! A game that's much better with a broken screen! Now if you can break the sound... "Where did you learn to fly?" *sigh* Always fun videos, thanks. FWLIW: To me your frustrating issues smell of cheapness on Atari's part - cut a corner here and there to save pennies on components and this can often be the result. A particular problem with analogue TV - I bet a replacement RF box would work better, if made by somebody more reputable.

DSP is a Digital Signal Processor. Great video btw!

"Where did you learn to FLY" :D damn i was to slow :D Thank for the Video. self repaired Jaguar :D

Where did you learn to fly?

Hey Vince! Great as usual! just a quick one..I would start reflowing joints in suspected areas or even on complete board.

I looked at your rework station you have the exact same one i have. I used that to make a lot of discoveries this month alone. I got it in April

😎 hello and you have a very good videos on RU-vid how to fix some thing you did always a good job I like your videos and that will be nice to see more videos about these fixing options you are great RU-vidr

Those caps on top of that chip on the right look like tantalums. Those are well known for being terrible. They can sometimes fail open circuit, sometimes they become a dead short and explode. I would suggest replacing them. Not sure if they'll cause intermittent issues like you're experiencing.

My Jag has just started doing this. Will give it a deep clean soon

haha i love how it decided to just start working for a bit

Afaik, the UK used PAL-I, whereas most of the rest of western europe used PAL-B, this might explain the compatibility issues. The inductor that's spread apart in the tuner is part of a finely tuned LC tank oscillator. Physically moving the inductor actually changes the oscillation frequency so it's set by hand and then glued/laquered to keep it in place.

Going from memory the Jaguar was released prior to the holiday season in America only (well specifically a New York 'test' market). Europe was meant to get it before the Christmas period as well, but due to manufacture issues it didn't happen. As the Jag was the hottest new hardware at the time (believe it or not!) quite a few places were importing them at astronomic mark ups so it could well in theory be that this console is an import. In theory if you had a another working Jag you could probably turn that pot on the modulator to tune it to the same signal as the good Jag. Cybermorph is the cheapest game because it was the pack in launch game and most consoles came with it (although a few later issues came with no game or Alien vs Predator). The Cartridge slot on the Jag is a bit finicky to say the least, and will often red screen at the best of times, usually it is just dirt. It could be that just inserting the cart enough times and the cleaning you did, did enough to clean it out.

14:41 ...brilliant editing 😂

***Addendum*** If you find out what channel and what Format the RF Box outputs you could set another Device to the same channel and then Tune the TV to it, then plug in the Jaguar and tune the "IF Pot" "the one that you screwed" Not stuffed up mind you - Just TUNED to another channel" So it displays also at that channel.. Just bare in mind that "StillCloser" Below is correct about the various formats and having said that it may be easy to actually change some components to your Jaguars RF Box to output your regions Pal.. of course you will need to open up an RF box with your region to copy from..

For the 1st couple years the jaguar did come with that game included. Forgot exactly when but they did eventually sell the system without it at a discount. Got my jaguar new n still have it, even played that game a fair bit. the keypad had notches on the edges for a plastic overlay for selecting weapons n such ingame. You can probably look them up online.

Using a scope (as you mentioned you have one) instead of prodding and re-soldering is a much better way of finding the underlying fault(s) and repairing it properly. Much more educational too.

"I'm kinda curious if this was brought over from another country..." *Sticker label clearly says USA, where NTSC is the standard. Oh Vince! Never change! This was a very interesting video. I would have given up on it 20 minutes in!

Wow! Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally felt your pain on this video

Hay vince you should do more retro fixes.

I once did some work for a PC manufacturer that had me replacing BIOS' on site with IC's that had a resistor jumping 2 pins.

Oh man, those projects are kinda frustrating ^^ but at least it finally works :P Maybe u ll get another one and make process :P

Hi my mate vince I love your fix it vid I think you should look for a iPad to fix

Vince I feel your pain. I went through so much of this. Glad it's working for you. Thta game came with the system. It's a okay game. Its cheap Cruz it sucks lol. Stay safe my friend.

The Jaguar did have an issue, a very dirty cart slot. This is why the 74AC244 Octal Buffer chip was getting very hot. The Jaguar cart slot can show many issues, from no screen, to red screen, to corrupt graphics and more. The RF Modulator issue is strange as the C100186 I believe is a PAL modulator for the XEGS game system and not the Jaguar, so I am guessing that could have been swapped out by someone. I am wondering now is this started out as a French system with no modulator, and someone added the C100186 to give it an RF signal. That could also be related why the capacitor was missing.

Makes me want to try out at fixing mine again after sitting in with my old school consoles for 20 years. Someone put a wrong power supply in it, blowing the internals around the port

great vidio keep it up

Ive had things mysteriously fix themself on multiple occasions. I had a VCR completely dead after taking it apart magically start working again. I also had a heater do it once, actually on multiple heaters. I was once given this mp3 player that was water damaged from being left out in the rain. it was completely dead for weeks. After me giving up on it and getting frustrated with it thinking "what do I got to lose?" I started throwing it and wacking it and kicking it and it also magically came back to life and never ever gave me problems and never stopped working and worked very reliably for many years after that. Once my PSP randomly stopped powering on and then just fixed it'sself somehow and is still working perfectly. Think it was from a failed softmod. Needless to say it is softmodded and although the optical drive is dead on it it it still works great for playing emulators. I also fixed a stereo once by cleaning the circuit board with alcohol.

Thanks for the vid 👍 and I have not long fixed one myself 😊 but be aware that the dc socket is centre - and the outer ring is + or bad things will happen 😟 maybe fit the diode that’s missing by the dc plug 🤔 I will do it one day 😏

I thought I knew most of the old consoles but this is a new one.

The Jaguar controller will work in the Atari Falcon030 if you are lucky enough to have one of those. That is one of the first units made..... I can see you even have the analog to digital chips but they were never used so unless you write your own game that uses them... those caps across the RAM chips could indeed be original bodge connections. Keep in mind you are dealing with a multi layer PCB and whomever was in there could have damaged the board layers. The problem is certainly with the cart connections. They are not self cleaning either. Just so you understand that. definitely replace those logic chips that were overheating. I'm sure they are damaged at this point. Use the edge of a defunct credit card with an old clean t-shirt dipped in contact cleaner. Shove it in and out carefully. Cut a strip of that old card to fit in the smaller area of the keyed connector and do the same. Make sure you clean the cartridge edge connector thoughly. I'm typing these as I watch so if you solved it already, at least keep this in mind for future reference. IPA is never the best thing to use to clean any metal surfaces. It's corrosive.... De-ox spray is the best.

WheRE dId YOu LEARn to FLY?...

Quick google search says that pin 14 is a 'key' pin, along with pin 13. Pin 16 goes to either a 27C101 (eprom) or a 74hc244 (Octal Buffer / Line Driver). Console5.com has the schematic, archive.org does too.

"what on earth is going on" perfectly defines the video 😂😂😂

well when you said this board is getting stranger and stranger well Vince is getting stranger and stranger

I used to get customers who brought their TV's over from continental Europe and wanted them converted. In all cases the picture would tune in perfectly but no audio. The conversion was fairly easy, just replacing some ceramic filters and a slight tuning. Have a look if you can what it's actually tuned to on the TV. I'm thinking this might be a VHF modulator. Your test TV may disable this when set to UK which would explain why it tunes in when you change country. UK only used VHF for 405 line transmissions and abandoned it for TV use in 1985 when they closed down 405. Other countries (including the Republic of Ireland with PAL-I) continued to use VHF for analogue transmissions. I suspect this console isn't a UK model. By the way the coils and parallel capacitors form a tuned circuit so you will always read a short on that capacitor because of the coil in parallel. The separated turns is how they fine tune that circuit and disturbing that would have a negative effect, which is why they stuck that glue there.

All that weird events made me think of Jumanji and how by the end of the video you would get pulled into the game itself 😂

I have repaired NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. I have fixed a lot of these old consoles. Never had a Jaguar. But I can 100% Confirm that sometimes a thorough deep cleaning is enough to fix a console (Resoldering the pins is also a good idea as well) I don't believe it was so much the corrosion preventing the pins from connecting though. I believe that something was shorting out underneath the slot. This would explain why it was messing up so often and not booting even when you shorted those two pins. The short could have been small enough to let it begin to boot then error out at the red screen as well. When you cleaned it you removed all kinds of dirt that had built up over the years. Also The system likely started working after it had a good while to dry out. Maybe it would be a fun idea to create a way to keep dust out to prevent this from happening again. Many of these die out and no one really takes the time to just deep clean them. I have a feeling that most of the Retro systems that get tossed out as defective or fried just need a deep clean. I say that because I have only ever had 1 NES that was Legit dead in 12 years of repairing them and I'd say half of them just need cleaning and soldering. Great video mate! Also The UK and Ireland use a higher frequency than The rest of Europe. Most of the older consoles are just spec'd to have the higher frequency and generally work but several are not compatible. Newer tv's just kind of work with whatever you put in (A lot of them can detect the frequency and tune in which is why the TV you tried last looked cleaner I'd guess).

Things to do with a non-working system: 1. Check for physical damage. 2. Check for shorts. 3. Measure voltages (supply rails across the board). 4. Isolate fault to a subsystem.

one way to test a cap, is warm it with soldering iron, disconect the earth on your iron, if fitted. a cap will work when warmed, resistors can change in value, when warmed or cooled, ic chip can work again when froze, so get ya self some plumbers frezze spray. i had an lg lcd tv stuck in a loop logo screen then boot again, it needed an updated system, frezzing the chip, made it work long enough to install the new system software, after the chip came to room temp, the tv worked fine.

Two things... it's cheaper for a company to bodge a couple wires to fix an issue than remanufacture a whole new board hence the factory "mod" as you said. Secondly DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing otherwise known as "digital signaling" which can be a number of things, access for peripherals to the cpu/components of the devices logic. It could be a digital video output from the devices DSP "Digital Signal Processor", it could also be a means for the factory to test the unit and its various functions.

Thought that Jag was a goner, starting to think you could fix a rainy day.