On Thursday, August 15, 2002 at 12:30:56 AM UTC-4, Stephen Jacobs wrote:
I have an Atari 5200 videogame system. The motherboard is dated (c)1982,
and a stamped label on the RF shield is dated 1983.

The system does not power up.

Surrounding many of the solder points on the underside of the
motherboard is some kind of residue that looks like some sort of brown
syrup-ish substance, a bit like old Coca-cola. Might be nothing.

The previous owner indicated that he received the system with the
incorrect power supply. He obtained the correct power supply, and never
got the machine to work.

I noticed 3 components, labelled C30, C32, & C33. These components look
like discs, mostly olive green, with shiny black coloring at the tops.

A) I'm guessing these are capacitors - am I right?
B) Are these components supposed to be all green, and is the black on
the top indicative that they've fried?
C) Is it reasonable to conclude that the wrong power supply was hooked
up, and it fried these capacitors? If so, could I probably get the
system working by replacing these capacitors?

Thanks for any help,
Steve

I am so sorry if I am sounding like a complete novice in this, but I AM ONE! Rather than learn about circuits, schematics, chips, soldering, troubleshooting, etc., does anyone know of any person or shop that troubleshoots and fixes these Atari 5200 (especially 4-port model) machines? I just had my first major fail at this tonight and it is quite disappointing and disheartening. I'm 64, unemployed, and disabled, and am quite willing to learn anything new, especially electronics, but perhaps I have bitten off more than I can chew with having about 13-15 4-port 5200s that don't work for one reason or another. I thought I could make one good console out of 2 bad ones, but it's not working out that way for me. The only option is to try to get them fixed. Some of you on this board make it sound so EASY..."just pop out this chip, swap it with this chip, if it works then you have found your culprit", etc. But for most of us here, this is total "greek to us". Can someone please point me and others with me in the right direction? I'd even be willing to pay to have these machines repaired (if within reason), it sounds like some of you could do it in under an hour for each console. I've almost mastered refurbishing the OEM CX-52 controllers with new parts....that's mostly just mechanical, replace the old, put in the new, put it back together carefully and hope it works! But please, someone come to my aid and reply to me. Do repair people/shops even exist for Atari 4-port consoles? Thanks so much for your kindness in even reading this far. - Ed Fernandez, South Amboy, NJ - June 22, 2016

On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 18:22:16 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Thursday, August 15, 2002 at 12:30:56 AM UTC-4, Stephen Jacobs wrote:
I have an Atari 5200 videogame system. The motherboard is dated (c)1982,

snip

I am so sorry if I am sounding like a complete novice in this, but I
AM ONE!

....in several ways.

Why _the hell_ did you reply to a FOURTEEN-YEAR OLD posting instead
of starting a new one to request help for your problem(s)?

sheeesh!! google groopers!!

On 23/06/2016 10:30 AM, Allodoxaphobia wrote:
On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 18:22:16 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Thursday, August 15, 2002 at 12:30:56 AM UTC-4, Stephen Jacobs wrote:
I have an Atari 5200 videogame system. The motherboard is dated (c)1982,

snip

I am so sorry if I am sounding like a complete novice in this, but I
AM ONE!

...in several ways.

Why _the hell_ did you reply to a FOURTEEN-YEAR OLD posting instead
of starting a new one to request help for your problem(s)?

sheeesh!! google groopers!!

Well disregarding other "helpful" comments :-)
it would seem you havent googled "repair atari 5200" ??
Theres a heap of posts on that one !!