Uncreative Labs

Joined: 21 Jul 2017 Posts: 2

Hey there,

I tried to power up my HX the other day, hooked to a CRT Television with a video RCA composite cable and am getting no proper picture.

There are no error beeps on start-up, unit seems to power up fine. Power light comes on and stays on. 3.5" drive light comes on and stays on Number lock and Caps lock lights respond to their button presses.

Screen, however, is black with garbled white lines. These lines could be the white Dos text scrambled or could just be interference, I can't tell.

I've tried hitting F2 when starting the Tandy to see if that will restart TV mode with no luck.

I've also tried typing MODE TV once the computer has booted with no effect either.

I made a video of the booting process for reference: https://youtu.be/AGH4LsxKfJQ

Unfortunately I have no Tandy monitor to hook it up to test and see whether or not it is only the composite output affected.

Hoping someone can offer up some advice!

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:17 am

You might be getting a different signal from the Tandy than the TV expects. As I recall, computers from that era put out a combined video & audio signal like a VCR. You'll need a RF switch to connect to the TV. (I did see a coax to RCA adapter once, but I've never used one.)

Do you have an RF Switch anywhere around? If you've got a classic game system like a NES, SNES, Sega Genesis or Atari, you can use the RF switch from there. IIRC, automatic switches didn't always work properly with computers but would at least give you a picture.

Joined: 21 Jul 2017 Posts: 2

Based on my research it appears that, yes, the Cocos had RF output but the Tandy 1000's had composite output. Either way, it seems that after some research the issue is probably related to the power supply. Got a guy on it and will post back with results.

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

CGA/EGA graphics cards with the rca connectors did not always send out the right frequency or occasionally voltage/signal

Sometimes to get the “component “ connectors to work you need to flip dip switches on the graphics card.

Odd times back then, I had a mono screen that had din, 9pin and RCA, it was EGA and the composite hookup off the 286 that went with it was definitely clearer than standard TV .