Super NES Signal trouble

What is it with me and doomed consoles...?

Anyway, I plugged my SNes, which had been working perfectly for years, and I get video and audio... but with VERY weird interference. Some sort of green bars, two parallell ones, that scroll down the screen continously. I'm using the official Nintendo AV cables.

¿What would you attribute this to?
Thanks

 

Power supply, weak cable connection or new interference from RF, dirty cart connector, damaged VDP, too many causes.

 

We can rule out weak cable connection and RF interference. I would attribute it to either the dirty cart connector or the power supply... I'm using an unofficial power adaptor, since mine died. It's the same specifications, only chinese.

No idea what a VDP is, though. Would you please explain the term?
Thanks!

 

Video display processor, or PPU (picture processing unit) for SNES. It's very unlikely that it's damaged by your description but I suppose it's possible. Please try another power supply.

 

The problem was sort of solved.

IWTLSX problem
IWTLSX= It Was the Lead, Stupid Xerdo

I got a clean signal out of RF, from the same old RF switch I was using to test my Intellivision.
I'm getting a used N64 tomorrow, so, for sure, I'll have a new lead to see if it was only the cable that was faulty, or the SNes AV port. Please, let it not be the AV port... I like Snes to be in Stereo and have crisp image.

Thanks a lot, Kyuusaku. You rock!

 

Hmm, I don't think you'll find SNES is stereo, more pseudo-stereo, like the N64, too, IIRC.

Yeah, I would have said lead, although are you sure the PSU is of the same spec? both AC, or DC if that's what you DEFINATELY have on your consoles? (UK SNES is AC).

Interference on composite is still possible, albeit rarer.

 

Along these same lines my snes no longer shows color only black and white, any ideas?

 

Turbocozmo, if you're using S-Video likely your chrominance pin is the culprit. If you're using composite/RF maybe the chrominance line before the Y/C mux is causing a problem. Maybe your video encoder is set to PAL/60hz (no idea in hell how this could happen.)

 

Everyonce and a while it will show color, but that's like one out of every 20 times.

 

And what type of lead are you using? RF? Composite? S-video?

 

I recall the Snes being stereo. Playing games with good sound, like StarFox or Illusion of Gaia, I remember different sides having different sounds, independently. Lots of the music from Chrono Trigger also has really cool stereo effects, with different instruments coming from one or other side, or the song "moving" from left to right .

Then again, the rosy tinted glass of nostalgia gets us all...

I'm very sure it was stereo, though, and even some games had some surround sound option.

 

http://www.gamesx.com/avpinouts/snesav.htm

Yeah, but an odd way to do stereo

 

The official one I have from my GCN.

 

Sorry, don't know what comes with a GameCube as standard in the US! Which of these?

 

It looks like that.

 

That's composite.

As Kyuusaku said, that sounds like an internal fault.

Video is handled by chip U7, a BA6592 RGB processor. Of course, there are components between this and the AV connector, so take your pick as to what's faulty!

If it is an issue where your console has become PAL, that's an odd one indeed!

 

Mine is that one lead as well. I'm testing it with a new one today from an N64 I'm getting (transparent green! sweet!) and I'll tell you what happens.

 

Xerdo, a composite lead is just 2 connectors. I guess it is feasible that a dodgy one might cause some interference, but not on the same scale as with RF. It sounds to me like it could be an internal fault for you, too.

If you can use RGB or S-Video, then I'd do that. Great if the new lead works, though

Let us know.

 

Thanks, Retro!
So I get the new lead from the N64 (which works flawlessly).... and the Snes keeps getting the green bar thing.

So... well... I guess I'm really fucked now...

Now, not really completely fucked, the new RCA lead does also give me the parallell green bars but I get a clean signal through RF.

No luck finding a power supply not identical to mine, either, but I know for sure the problem is not the RCA cable. Other than using (ugh...) RF from now on, I don't see any options as long as I don't find a different brand power supply (the problem DOES seem to be situated there. If I move the power cable plug, the intensity and motion of the green bars varies a little. Who knows).
It's likely to be internal. I'd love to have a go at opening the thing, but those damn screws are, well, screwy.
Damn.

Any idea on how to proceed?

 

Get a new power supply. You can use the biro trick if you really want to get inside the SNES, not sure what you'd see though