Hello! I've been browsing the forum here, and figured I'd register. Hopefully, someone here can help lead me in the right direction. Anyway, I have an SNES. I'm not sure which model as I have not had it open yet. I have had it for a few months, now, and never suspected anything was wrong with it. Everything looks and plays great on the LCD we have in the living room. I recently found an old CRT and got the results you see in the video. I assumed the problem was the TV and got rid of it. I now have another CRT and get exactly the same results as the first. It still works great with the LCD tv. What could cause this? I intend to recap and clean the board when I get it open, but until then, is this a common issue? Thanks!!!
Not seen that before. Nothing wrong with the cartridge or the system itself, has to be something like a dead capacitor, or faulty video chip or something like that. If you don't have a leaky capacitor (or expanded one) to replace, then hopefully someone can offer an easy solution if there is one.
PAL or NTSC console? Also, is the lead also matching? PAL and NTSC composite leads are different. There is a resistor to ground on the composite pin on a PAL lead, but not in an NTSC lead. Mixing up the console/lead types can cause some issues.
That resistor stops the image looking white-washed (a 38ohm resistor is used), making the image darker so the proper colours show through; it wouldn't have the jittery effect as shown in the video. Also if was a PAL console on NTSC screen or vice versa then you'd get a quickly rolling image, or alternatively black and white not colour. I've used the same video cable lead on NTSC or PAL consoles no issue so doubt it is that. Most likely at a higher level, like chips being faulty or other components on the motherboard is my best guess; or maybe a dry solder joint somewhere.
Before I start, this is likely going to sound like im being a dick or insulting - its honestly not intended that way. I know this sounds like a "I am not racist but...." type comment, but I genuinely dont want to offend. That said, here we go..... The jittering looks like it could be sync related, sync is also within the composite signal. Hence the question and its a 75ohm resistor, not 38. The reason it reduces the brightness is because it brings the signal level down, its also doing the same for sync. If the sync is too high, the tv could be struggling to lock onto it. Here is a link explaining whats in a composite video signal and the voltage level it SHOULD be: http://www.ni.com/white-paper/4750/en/ Also, just because "it worked for you" doesnt mean it will work on all TV's (it also depends on your SNES revision, as later ones were apparently less fussy about this requirement) - the op has no problem with his LCD, but doesnt work on his CRT as a prime example of this. This is why people who know about electronics complain about modders. If it works for you, great. But it doesnt mean its correct or within spec and you will get different results on different devices. So you shouldnt comment on something that is confirming something is in spec, with it worked for you out of spec - it adds nothing to the conversation. You are misunderstanding about the NTSC/PAL question I was asking though, I am not suggesting hes using a PAL device on a NTSC TV etc. I was just checking which console he had, so he can measure some points on the cable to confirm whats within the cable matches the console. I am not even saying this is his problem, but just ruling things out (or at least confirming things are correct to start with). I repair stuff for a living (real job) and do modding work (hobby), so I have quite the fault finding mentality. If we go by the "it works for me, so I doubt its that" attitude, there is nothing wrong with the console as it works just fine on his LCD.
It is a 38 ohm resistor, in the past I have opened up an official Nintendo video cable, removed the resistor and used multimeter to see what it was. I have also tested N64 and SNES and GameCube with 75 ohm between composite and ground; and the image is too dark, 38 ohm is optimum - if Nintendo use that in their cables it must be right! "Working for you" is relevant for modding yes, as one tests with the systems/screens one has; mods can easily only work on some systems but not all revisions. For example, I bought a SNES SuperCIC chip (was it from you a while back?) and although it didn't give better compatibility than a RetroDuo (which isn't great) it didn't save progress certainly in one game I tested, so wasn't any use ultimately. Proves the point though, if a modder makes a whole system, great (it works or it doesn't); if it's a partial mod like a modchip, may or may not work on all boards or be a universal solution; so in that context "working for you" is relevant to modders often.
Regarding SuperCIC, CIC has no effect on saving games or not. It doesnt work that way, it just streams data to the CIC in the cart and if it mismatches, it resets the console.
Also if it's an ntsc console and the cable is a pal one, it could cause the signals to be too low rather than too high as I mentioned earlier (I was assuming pal console but ntsc lead). Or it could be completely unrelated, but let's at least rule that out. For the op, can you post some pictures of the lead and the connector that plugs into the console.
It is an NTSC console. How could I tell if the cable is wrong? I'll get a picture of it when I get home this evening.
As far as I'm aware, the official cables have different colour plugs for NTSC/PAL, at the console end, one version is black, the other is grey
I know that's true for the snes RGB cable. But I have a bunch of composite leads here and they look identical until you open them up. Turns out I have like 5 ntsc ones and 1 pal
I want to apologize for the delayed response. It turns out it was the video cable. I replaced it with an s-video cable, and the flickering stopped. Thanks, guys!
