Fascination Repair Log





Fascination arrived in the Repair Station alive but barely.  The game turned on but only produced a white screen.  Nothing else happened and no sounds could be heard.


I thoroughly cleaned and tightened all connections, reseated the PCB and powered the game up again. This time I was met with a 'stretched' picture but a picture nonetheless!  The picture was stretched side to side and the paddles were either off the screen or shifted over thereby making game play impossible.  I needed to investigate the TV to see if there was anything wrong with the chassis.

 
An obviously defective capacitor was found on the chassis of the  12" Hitachi TV.  The model number for this particular TV is P-021.  I have  never seen a capacitor where the dielectric looks like it had exploded!  Typically I have used burn marks or swelling as the calling signs for visually identifying a bad capacitor.  The rating was 220uf 16v and was upgraded to 220uf 32v.  Soldering on this circa 1973 chassis went very well. Other cold and cracked solder joints were found and repaired.




When the TV was put back together I was met with a 'very clear' screen of jumble.  The good news upon seeing this was the fact my fixes had indeed made a change in the display!



After tweaking all the adjustments on the chassis I was met with a very sharp picture!  Not bad for a 35 year old TV!  Bring on the Pong tournament!