[850 Decal]

21 hours ago, Stephen said:

Sorry for the delay - I hope one of these images can be of use.

Nice - thank you!

[850 Decal]

Acquired an 850 that is in good shape minus a decal on the front. Does anyone have a high-rez photo of one or other format I could take to a print shop to have one made?

[Should a Disk II interface card work in slot 7?]

21 hours ago, potatohead said:

Getting a CFFA 3000 card completely changed how I use the machine.  Other disk emulation systems are very similar.

Ohhhhh that is cool. I didn't know about these, thanks! I have a Fujinet for my Atari and I see they are working on one IIe (? I think). Don't know if it would also work on the IIPlus when it comes out.

[Should a Disk II interface card work in slot 7?]

10 hours ago, potatohead said:

I believe the same.  Many people have popped a card with improperly fitted cables.

 

If the computer still works, chances are you can either repair your card, or just get another one.  

 

You can use Slot 7, same as 6.  

The computer still works. Which card are you referring to replacing? The one on the Disk II or the interface card itself? 

[Should a Disk II interface card work in slot 7?]

New to Apple II Plus  and think I screwed up big time. I bought an Apple II Plus system at an estate sale and it has a u-Sci  (Microsci ?) drive as drive 1 and an Apple Disk II as drive 2. I couldn't get the u-Sci to boot any disk so I thought I would try swapping the ribbon cables on the Disk II interface card. It was easier for me to do this with the card out of the drive. (By the way I had the cases off of both drives to clean the heads and never put them back on while doing the tests.) I took the Disk II card out (of slot 6) and swapped the cables (actually now that I think about it I just put the Disk II cable in the Disk 1 connector and didn't reconnect the u-Sci). My own fault, I put the Disk II card in slot 7 instead of 6 without noticing what I did. I turned the computer on and POP & the magic smoke came out of an IC on the Disk II analog card, which I saw & smelled all too well because I had the case off of it. Chip ULN2003 - I think Darlington Array.

 

So, I can get a new ULN2003 but

1) is there a way to see what other things I blew on there (if any)

2) I guess I should mark slot #7 as "DO NOT USE"...? lol

Cheers

Dukester

[Daily Digests?]

I haven't been getting them since Thursday. Related to any of the current events or just one of those things?
Cheers

[Archiving the files, not the floppies]

So I am getting closer to archiving the disks I have that are still good, which amazingly, is most of them after 40 years. Anyway, I've been digging up and reading the old posts here about archiving disks, like this one:

 

 

which I found very helpful. While I could do it that way, it would involve creating a spreadsheet or db of what's on what disk (I was not that organized as a teenager back in the day).  Most of my stuff is not single programs on a disk, like commercial games or applications, but collections of stuff I wrote myself or typed in from magazines. What would be more useful to me is the ability to have multiple files (or even better, all the files from all the disks) in a single archive, like on a modern hard drive file system. Is that possible with something like a TNFS connected share via FujiNet? I would love to be able to then access this emulated hard drive, or the like, from Altirra in addition to my 8-bits.  How did the filesystem for hard drives that had much more capacity than an 810 like the Corvus work?  

 

All of my files and disks were originally from an 810 using DOS 2.0, btw.

Cheers

[Send data to an Arduino through the joystick port]

2 hours ago, scitari said:

Many thanks!

Love your site, by the way!

[Kryoflux services?]

8 hours ago, ijor said:

Do you have an Atari 1050 disk drive? If you do, and unless you have something there extremely valuable, I would not bother and I would just try to read them with the 1050.

I do, and the 1050 doesn't read them. 😞

[Kryoflux services?]

I have been reading old posts about recovering data and/or archiving old floppies and sometimes the suggestion is not to make the floppies any worse by trying to keep reading them in an 810 or 1050 and instead just send them off to someone who can kryoflux (or similar) them. I have a set maybe 10-12 from my youth that I would like to recover the files off of. I think some are typed in programs, some may have term papers for class...I really don't know what all was on them.  Are there folks here that do this or is it a commercial service? How does one find them and go about this or is it something that has to be done on my own for a small job like this by buying the device, a floppy drive, etc.. and learning the software? I've read the wiki page on kryoflux and their website but it isn't clear to me what the success rate is, what the actual recovery dump is (ATR?), etc...can someone shed some light on all of this for me?
Cheers

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

4 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

If you do socket your 800xl be very careful and do one chip at a time with the single chips, testing each time buy putting the original chip in it's new socket. Don't socket many chips at a time. Stating the obvious hear but you don't wanna end up with two machines with issues. Use the correct tools, etc etc. Clean the boards after removing chips and before installing sockets, and also whilst you have a hips removed check the board, traces and vias and maybe snap a pic. 

 

Right. The truth is I don't really want to do much to the 800XL except the composite mod. @SIO2 sort of guilted me into the idea 🤪.  The 600XL is on the shelf for now until I can either find a working machine to swap parts with or I may donate it to one of these youtubers that do repairs. 

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

14 hours ago, SIO2 said:

Does your 800XL work?  Perhaps you could swap some chips from that for test purposes?

I haven't used it very much as it has a few issues of it's own but nothing like the 600XL. The biggest hurdle is the chips are not socketed.  I've wanted to do the composite mod on it anyway so it might be a good time to do that mod and put those chips in sockets so that I can test on the 600.

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

5 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Janky memory upgrade? do tell and show...

the different upgrades are show and described in many threads on the forums. Try your search-foo

Pictures on page 1: 

 

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

24 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

Also (and not to put you off) but it could be a multiple number of chip failings. Maybe a combo of ram and or cpu and or delay line and maybe MMU. 

 

Another consideration is it's actually the sockets themselves at fault for any one of these chips. 

Whoa this sounds like it's going to be quite the project to get running again! Before I get too deep into it though I keep wondering about the (what looks like) janky memory upgrade. I feel like I should be starting from a known good point and going from there.. Should I downgrade the thing to 16k and see what happens? I don't have any documentation on this upgrade and no one commented on it here either way so I can't tell if it is a common thing or not..

PS Thanks for all the helpful information on this!

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

Also I tried again a few more times and got this. I wasn't recording so it is a picture.

 

 

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

44 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

@dukes909 Definitely don't give up. I myself and countless others have seen far worse and got their A8s fixed with the help of others.

 

Can you post a video of what you are experiencing now?  There are blue screens and there are blue screens. for example is it the Ready prompt blue screen but without the ready prompt?  Is it the latter but a only the prompt square? (Latter indicative of a failing Pokey chip). Is it a different colour of blue to the normal basic ready prompt? That could indicate a failing Antic or GTIA. Is it the same everytime you boot up or does the colour change from time to time?

 

Again the great thing is you have a 600XL - ergo it's fully socketed - ergo potentially easier to fix. (Not always but try troubleshooting a non socketed A8 sometime).

 

So it's it's gotten worse to my mind that's likely a good thing - in so much as it's more likey a chip (or chips) that were failing have now failed. Ideally you'd have another socketed A8 you can test the chips from this machine in, but i see that isn't an option. If anyone near you has that is a great option. In not lets see if we can further diagnose. Images of screens and or videos is very helpful.

 

Also power up the machine with the audio on your display turned up loud. Do you hear any pops (say a couple of them), when you power up coming though the speaker? Or do you hear the atari fart polling sound? Again just video it and post it up. you'd be surprised how much it can tell you.

Here goes, hope this video loads. Now it is black mostly but occasionally blue then black. I think I am making it worse! LOL

 

 

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

3 hours ago, deffroe said:

You say you ran Star Raiders for a few seconds, dd it freeze then too?

 

No but I only popped it in, turned it on to see if it worked, then shut it off.

This afternoon the unit just gives a blue screen when I turn it on. No, I did not take any chips out and put them in backwards, in fact I didn't take any out. The unit came on and booted to BASIC earlier after I closed it all up. I don't have another 600 to swap parts with in order to troubleshoot so this goes on a shelf for now until I find a working one, or, as someone suggested, a donation to Adrien's basement. Boooooo 😕 Everything I buy lately is a dud! I could have worse problems. 🤪

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

36 minutes ago, zzip said:

Locking up after typing in a BASIC program could be the Rev B BASIC bug mentioned earlier in the thread,   that's exactly how it would manifest.   But are you able to type the graphics commands that caused lockups earlier?

It isn't only after the line is typed, it's can be either after or while typing a command. 

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

Well reseating them didn't help. I got it back together and powered up. It went about 2-3 minutes typing different commands and then started typing a short BASIC program. Hit RETURN on a line and bzzt...locked up. 

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

So on the board they shouldn't have continuity between the two vias on the board which are very close. Also make sure the solder connections on those two wires going to each pin/leg of those 158 chips are good. Soldering directly to legs of chips sometimes can be a less than perfect connection depending on how hot and how well applied it was by whomever did the upgrade. Over time it can degrade or even break away from the leg. So you can test to see if each individual wire is doing it's job. 

So there was no continuity between the 2 jumpers' solder connections. And there is continuity between the ends of each individual jumper.

 

Pressing down on the chips was interesting. Most felt solid but there was one IC, marked CO60472, that had a definite "shoonk" sound and movement downward when I pressed on it.

 

I will leave the case open for now while waiting to hear back from group as to whether I need to do anything else inside the machine.

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

I haven't connected the Fujinet; I got bummed out when I powered it on for the first time and it kept locking up. I tried Star Raiders but only for a few seconds. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to it. I typed in that entire sample 600XL program from the owner's guide and then RUN, and then it froze up.  Then I restarted it, started typing the same program back in, never getting to the end of the first line when it froze at that point.  Then I restarted, tried just typing in "GRAPHICS 11" and it froze when I hit "RETURN". The only other cart I have is Defender.

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

3 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

So on the board they shouldn't have continuity between the two vias on the board which are very close. Also make sure the solder connections on those two wires going to each pin/leg of those 158 chips are good. Soldering directly to legs of chips sometimes can be a less than perfect connection depending on how hot and how well applied it was by whomever did the upgrade. Over time it can degrade or even break away from the leg. So you can test to see if each individual wire is doing it's job. 

I understood, but phrased it poorly. 😀I will check all of those.Thanks!

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

6 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

So I wonder if it's worth checking the solder connections between the 74ls158s and the wires going from them to the PCB. It's hard to tell but I wonder if a) the solder connections are good and B) to make sure they aren't shorting on the pcb given they are so close. 

So, checking for continuity between those two?

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

2 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

As a 600XL it should all be socketed.

 

@dukes909  best way to check chips are seated (after decades sat in their sockets and thus prone to oxidiation of the socket and the chip legs), is to first press them down in their sockets. After you can lift them a little if you like as well using the appropriate tool, but tbh pushing them down is usually sufficient. They can work up a little in their sockets with the heat over the course of their lifetime.

 

Ok I posted pictures, I'll lift and rseat.

[600XL locks up on any GRAPHICS command]

6 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Forget failing chips here, at least as a first step. I’d suspect something with the memory upgrade. Which 64K upgrade is it, how is it wired and can you provide pictures?

Ok I am not sure what I'm looking at but I assume the mod is the chips with the jumpers soldered onto the pins..hope these are clear enough to see what you need.