99er Forums

Got a nice, classic, silver case 99/4a. Any idea why the display would only be in black and white?

I have a nice component video cable that plugs into the din connector so I do not use the RF modulator.

It depends--are you in the US? Usually a US console only outputs B/W to a European PAL monitor. . .as the color encoding is different from the US NTSC norm.

I am in the USA, so I don't think that's it. (Unless the opposite has happened and I have a European model that is trying to output PAL, which is not impossible but seems very unlikely.

I doubt you have the European model, as it uses a 6-pin DIN connector, as opposed to the 5-pin used on the US models. The B/W problem usually shows up when someone moves a US console to Europe. One question: you mentioned having a component video cable--the TI puts out standard composite video, not component. Here's a link to what the cable should do:

http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/hardware/cables/cables_page.html

So it's composite then. I have another 99/4a that works like a charm with the cable I am using. To tell the truth I just put together one 99/4a out of the two that I have, i stuck my newer one and the power supply into the older "classic" silver case, because the older keyboard worked. I am still wondering if I can save the one that only outputs black and white though. I assume some particular chip needs replacing.