ATI 600 black screen, how to get picture back?
 

I'm not sure what to do, or whether this is repairable, but I'm super confused as to what's happening.

My ATI TV Wonder 600 (Bought from LordSmurf around last year) suddenly is throwing a black screen. It was working perfectly less than a week ago, but today I tried to use it and I can currently only get a black screen. I tried both the composite and the S-Video input, same result. I've tried different cables, no difference. I've also tried on other computers with the same result. I haven't abused this device at all, I've probably only used it around 10 times, but it suddenly won't play ball. There have been some mild graphical 'pops' (for lack of a better word), which just look garbled. Sometimes colour, sometimes not. At the moment, all I see is a black screen. I have also uninstalled and reinstalled drivers to no avail.

I'm using a windows 7 machine to do this, tested windows 10 no difference. No updates done to the PC either.

VirtualDub detects the card fine, I just can't get a picture. Has anyone else experienced this that can help? Or is there some sort of fix I can do?

First thing I would check:

Video -> Capture filter... - > Video Decoder tab. Make sure you have the correct Video Standard set.

To have a working preview/capture, Signal Detected must be a number other than 0.

And it helps to do troubleshooting like this with a "stable" video signal source like a DVD player rather than a VCR.

Yep I also checked this, it just says 0 lines in, 0 lines detected. It used to say 576 lines in, but now that's gone. Video standard is unchanged, it's still 25fps PAL B. Also, i've just been feeding the raw external TBC colour bars into it, nothing else.

-- merged --

Quick update, problem persists, but I've just run a quick test with a DVD. Sound is being picked up by the capture card, but video still neglects to show or be captured. Not sure if this info is useful, but I suppose that may rule out the ATI 600 proprietary cable.

Virtual Dub 1.9.11 is the best for capturing, according to LS.

You could try AmarecTV to see if it's a VDub problem.

I'll check AmarecTV, worth a look I suppose. I've been using Vdub 1.9.11 the whole time, it's definitely been super consistent (until now I suppose), but I don't think it's a Vdub issue. I'll report back if AmarecTV shows a difference.

Sounds like a driver issue to me, You may want to uninstall and install the driver.

As mentioned in my opening post, I've already tried the drivers, was the first thing I checked. I wish that was all it was!

Another troubleshooting step. Video Source -> Video Tuner should have video and audio "static" when Video Standard is set to any NTSC mode. (Or black with audio static when set to PAL or SECAM.)

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Reporting Back. Amarec shows no difference, only I can hear random audio buzz/hiss. Video tuner in NTSC mode still gives absolutely no picture, just solid black. Audio noise is being picked up, but no picture. It's like the capture card is refusing to send any video signal at all.

While uncommon, card failures can happen. I have a ATI 600 USB like this (and many others failed cards). Similar circumstances, several years ago. The user left it to me for R&D. He got a new one from me, and was back in business.

The troubleshoot that time was (the all too typical) lack of UPS for power. The computer case is often a weak link on desktop, along with PSU. What seems to have happened there is that a mild power event (blip, underrage/overrage, not a fail/surge) was absorbed by the case USB ports. The devices plugged into those USB were zapped into oblivion. Printer was off, but cable fried. ATI card was nuked. The motherboard and PSU were "fine", but still suspect. Motherboards (and thus onboard devices) have better than average power protection. But the same cannot be said for external items that plug into it, especially not something as cheap as a case USB port. I never did follow up on it, ultimate decision on motherboard and PSU health. Though it did obviously work again, to capture video. Just suspect.

The only way to troubleshoot something like this is to test against another known-good non-fiddly card. And if you're going to all that trouble, just get another card that you may want to keep. (FYI, that's how I got my 2nd TBC eons ago, needed to test the 1st. I now forget which came first, green AVT-8710 or TBC-1000. And I'm glad I bought it when I did.)