I’ve recently started a refurbishment on an Atari Lynx Gen 1, before I powered it on for the first time in my ownership, I replaced the Q11 power MOSFET, The ZD1 Zener Diode, and all the capacitors on the board in order to give it the best chance of working because i know the lynx has a tendency to nuke itself if powered on with bad power components.

After replacing all these parts and trying to power the console on, i get greeted with a black screen, reinserting the cartridge and powercycling the console a random amount of times will finally get the console to play, however, after about 8 minutes I notice that the screens contrast/brightness has adjusted itself without prompting from the wheel, the brightness will adjust via the wheel, but eventually it fades to where the wheel doesn’t do anything, then the game crashes and the console powers off without obvious cause.

This whole process takes about 15 minutes before it powers off on its own. The console wont turn back on unless the batteries are removed and reinserted. Then the cycle repeats itself with the black screen, having to power cycle and mess with the cartridge in order to get it to run again.

The game works fine in my Lynx II and this issue happens in the Lynx I regardless of the game I have inserted.

Im honestly at a loss here and would appreciate any advice or suggestions anyone could provide.

More information if it helps, after more testing ive found that this issue only happens on battery power.

Ive also found that removing the cartridge while the console is on does not shut the console off like it should. The screen just goes black. Power is run through the cartridge so when the cartridge is removed the entire console should power off.

Super confusing

⟐ Answered November 30, 2024 at 19:12 MST

⟐ Answered June 13, 2022 at 1:02 MST

without having to open it?