[Coco] Help reviving an old CoCo 2

[John Goerzen]

Hi folks,

Back when I was a kid, my parents got me a 64K CoCo 2.  They got wind of
my project to load the data off it, and gave the whole thing to me.  So
now I am wanting to make it work for my children!

I have two main problems.

#1 - the disk controller cartridge isn't working.  When I put the disk
controller cartridge into the machine, when I turn it on, it just has a
display with a bunch of artifacts.  The computer works fine when I start
it without any program cartridge in it.  I also have a baseball and a
music synthesizer add-on cartridge, and they are working fine.  So the
problem doesn't seem to be with the CoCo, but with the controller cartridge.

The silver contacts on it seemed to be rather dirty/degraded, so I took
the cartridge apart and tried to scrub them.  No dice.  Any ideas how I
might fix this?  Or where might I get a replacement cartridge?

#2 - the video quality is low.  I would call it noisy.  I remember it
being this way when I was a kid, but I always assumed it was due to the
marginal state of the TV it was hooked up to.  Obviously that's not the
case now.  I have it set to channel 4, and I have a screw-down to
coaxial adapter to hook it up to a fairly decent TV.  (It's a 13"
Trinitron.  Not a modern LCD, but I already had it, and I know it has a
much cleaner picture than what it's showing.)  Any ideas what I might do
to fix this?

Occasionally, the TV seems to somehow lose sync, and the display goes to
a very staticky black-and-white.  Turning the TV off and on fixes it. 
It doesn't do this with other video sources.

Thanks,

John