So I purchased a ColevoVision for my wife for Christmas replacing the one she had as a child. Everything appeared working when it arrived but we realized that it wasn’t displaying the skill level / number of players screen at the beginning of each game. After some research and help from a the ColecoVision Lunatics facebook group I determined that the controller interface chips needed to be replaced. I carefully opened the case by pulling on the case front on the bottom to clear the bottom half without having to remove the sticker. I used a solder sucker to remove the solder from the two 74LS541 interface chips. After the majority of the solder was gone I used the soldering iron to lift up the chip legs off the board and free them from the board. At this point I used a small flat head screwdriver to gently pry on the chips to see if they were lose. As the were not I cut the stuck legs off the chips until they came out with little to no force. I then used tweezers to pull out the legs as I heated them with the soldering iron. I then installed double wipe sockets and installed the new chips. I also installed ESD protection on the controller ports. Everything went back together and everything works now.
