Twin Famicom Power Light Flickers, But Console Won't Turn On

[philnelson]

 

I was recently given a Twin Famicom AN-500B by my amazing partner, who got it from a seemingly reputable eBay seller who guaranteed it worked. It came with a third party power adapter and after reviewing the AC-Adapter and General Power FAQ thread it seems like the adapter has specs that should work, but aren't perfect:

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Input: 100-240v 50/60hz 0.3A
Output: DC 9v, 1.3A

My worry is that the seller has been sending 9VDC 1.3A for quite some time, and while this won't burn the system out right away, it'll wear it down. The Twin Famicom wants 7.6VDC 1.25A.

Plugging the Twin into any wall outlet (I'm in the US, so we're 120v), then pressing power gives me the briefest of flickers on the power indicator, and then nothing. No other mechanical noises or flickers. Nothing displayed on screen and no audio. I posted a quick video to YouTube showing what happens.

Any ideas for how to start troubleshooting this? I found a thread that described what seems like exactly the same issue that I had, but it seems to have magically resolved itself.

[xIceMan]

Never used third party power supplies that are not approved to work.
This sounds like to me a power supply problem, really. Use an original power supply and try it again.

[philnelson]

I ordered one of these, wish I could find one nearer to the US. http://en.retrogamesupply.com/products/power-supply-for-nintendo-sharp-twin-famicom

[Arkanix38]

That isn't the power light, its the FDS Disk Access Light. I've been running mine on a 9V adapter for some time, and it should be perfectly fine for the 7805 that is regulating the voltage down to 5V for the rest of the console.

The LED flashing does, however indicate that power is getting to the main board. If you have a cartridge i'd try that as well, just to ensure that its not the FDS chipset that's having issues.

[philnelson]

Cartridge does the same thing. Tried it out with Mario 3 last night.

[toadhall]

Can it still play games though?

[philnelson]

It didn't until last night.

I'm still not sure what fixed it, but I blew it out it really well, cleaned the connectors on the back gently, and everything was fine. FDS and Famicom both work perfectly.