Another Dumb Project Atari lynx

Once again I have something broken. I have a Atari Lynx 2 here and when I put the ton of batteries in it the red power light comes on for a sec then goes right back off. It also does this when plugged in. I picked it up for 5$ and really would like to get it working. Please tell me its something easy to fix lol.


Edit i think its a Atari Lynx 2

 

I'm going to blindly throw a dart and say: bad capacitors.

 

Okay I did a little reading and some testing and found that the negative to negative trick works great. The system comes on with batteries with no problem and the screen is in great shape. How to I fix the transistor that i bypassed with the straight wire?

 

Does the transistor in question have any writing visible on it?

I'd also suggest replacing any capacitors you can read the values of and feel comfortable removing/replacing. Any SMD capacitors are a ticking time bomb in equipment that old.

 

???

SMD caps can be ceramic, I think you just mean "Any electrolytic cap"? Doesnt have to be SMD and its not all SMD that are the issue.

 

I should probably make note of that for the next time this comes up, because you're 100% correct. I've never had a problem with SMD ceramic capacitors, just electrolytics.

And furthermore correct, through hole capacitors can also leak (and do) but in terms of late 80s/early 90s hardware I don't usually see them leak anywhere near as much as SMD capacitors. Seen plenty of through hole capacitors age to the point where they no longer fit original specs though.

 

Does anyone know if soldering the negative to headphone jack to bypass the transistor would damage the system. I know people say use it to test the system is still good but if I just soldered the cored in with a switch to turn it on and off would it hurt to have it always bypassed

 

I always assume that if it was there to start with it was there for a reason. Might not kill it today but it might tomorrow.

 

Yea I was just trying to take the easier way out and put a switch on the wire and just mod the system so I can turn it on and off with it. I guess im going to have to attempt to replace the chip. Lol