I had this Sony HitBit MSX2 computer since 1986. The last time I used it in 2002 it was working fine. Today when I turned it on I got no color. Only white text on a grey screen. Same thing happen when I was in Basic or bootup using game cartridges. I noticed that the 2 AA batteries that keeps the date and time are totally drained. Could that be the reason? I put in new batteries and still no color.

Someone please help!!! Is this a hardware problem? Any way to get the colors back?

Thanks in advance for any help or advise.
Eric

How is your msx connected to the monitor ?? scart or composite ??
There is also a posibility that your monitor has a black&white on/off button.
(like the one i have)......

HB-F1 is a japanese machine, it probably has NTSC output. If your monitor/TV is not compatible with NTSC you'll probably end up with B/W screen

If you connect through composite video (the tulip connector), most PAL monitors/TV's will fail to process the NTSC-formatted colour signal, resulting in a black/white display. If you connect through RGB which is in amongst others a SCART connector, this problem won't be there. Ofcourse your monitor still needs to support 60Hz mode, but in my experiences most monitors and TV's support it through RGB, while I have only seen a couple so far which support it through composite video.

So my guess is that the last time you put up your MSX you either connected it with SCART instead of composite video, or that you have another TV which doesn't support NTSC. If composite video doesn't work, try SCART (note that the Japanese RGB connector is different from a European one, so you might need a somewhat 'nonstandard' cable), and if that doesn't work... uh... You could try typing VDP(10)=2 in Basic, which switches the display to 50Hz (on Japanese MSX computers it is 60Hz by default), maybe that helps.

~Grauw

Thank you so much to all of you who helped.

I connect the computer to my Sony TV through the composite video out using a composite video cable. I live in the USA and bought the TV here just a few years back, so it definitely is NTSC compliant. I tried to use the RGB out port but I dont have a cable.

I remember it worked perfectly about 11 months ago. So there must be something wrong with the computer. I will try find some parts/plug and make a RGB cable. Will post any progress here.

Thanks again. And long live MSX.

doesn't have that TV 2 compsite connectors? if so, try the other one.
I've got 2x scart on my tv and one of them displays only b/w screens.

composite = composite
SCART can be RGB or composite. One of your SCART connectors is RGB, the other is not. PAL/NTSC doesn't have anything to do with that.