Sega Saturn with no color output, can it be fixed?

[Scooter]

I have a spare beat up old Saturn. It works, even the cart slot, but the video it outputs is only in black and white. I cannot see anything physically wrong with the system's boards or connections, but are there any obvious things I could look at or try to see if I can restore color to this machine? If I can get color back it would make a nice inexpensive Saturn for anyone looking for one.

I also have an InterAct memory cart that intermitantly won't boot up. Well, most often now it won't boot. All other cart slot items, Game Shark and NetLink, work just fine in the same slot. I've cleaned the contacts on the cart and the machine a million times and it will occassionally boot. Is there anything obvious I can try to make it boot? It has some great old game saves and I'd like to get them off of the cart if possible and replace it with a more reliable one. On the occassions I do get it to boot, many of my saves are there but also some obviously corrupted files which I can't seem to delete. Anyone with similar experiences please let me know if you ever found a way to rescue your saves.

[nickalley211]

Replace the video output cable, I had that happen to one of my systems once and I just replaced the cable and it worked fine

[Scooter]

The same video cable works just fine with my other Saturn. But, I wonder if the failed Saturn has a bad output plug recepticle. Any idea which pin carries the color signal? I happen to be using an S-video cable.

[Niode]

If the cable is fine with another Saturn then the cable isn't broken.

Just to make sure. IF this Saturn is NTSC, you aren't using it on a PAL TV? That can cause B&W output if the TV cannot accept NTSC signals. I'm not sure if the opposite is true (I live in the UK and have no familiarity with PAL->NTSC incompatibility) but it could be worth trying the Saturn on a different TV.

If that doesn't work. I'd just bin it and buy a new one. They're not that expensive.

[Scooter]

This is a spare Saturn, I was just hoping to get it working so I could sell it cheap for a few bucks. It is definitely an NTSC unit on an NTSC TV. At this point I'll just scavenge the disc drive and keep the rest around for parts.