Atari 400 troubleshooting path ?

[sonick]

Greetings,

 

I have the original Atari 400 from my youth on which i played endless hours of star raiders and ghost encounters.

 

I pulled it out of storage awhile back and hooked everything up, but I am not getting a picture.

I get a very clean, static-free black screen and the power LED comes up, but nothing else.

 

No sound either when the Star Raider cart is plugged in (known good cart by testing on my 800xl)

 

I've done a good bit of searching, and can't find any good docs on atari 400 repair or even basic troubleshooting paths.

It's frustrating because it seems like the Commodore machines have endless amounts of sites dedicated to detailed repair methodology, but nothing for our beloved 8-bitters.

 

So, I'm just curious if anyone has experience troubleshooting the 400, and if they might have any ideas on how I should approach a fix ? I've already reseated the mem cards and such... I have not reseated any IC's, though I don't think any of them were socketed anyhow. I'll have to re-check. I did check the solder joints to the best of my ability and nothing obvious there.

 

I hear mention of RAM from time to time on these machines, perhaps that should be my next approach ? I'm mediocre at best at soldering so I'd like to try the simpler stuff first. I don't even know if RAM is available anymore for the 400 ?

 

Sorry for the flurry of info. Thanks for any insight you can provide; it'd mean a lot if I could play my original ghost encounter tape on my original 400 in the retro room i've under construction (shag carpet, old zenith TV, rain lamp, faux wood paneling, chipboard/wood veneer TV stand, the works!

 

Thanks,

Jayson

[mimo]

Pretty much everything is socketed on the 400, so start by removing and re-seating all the IC's.

Also make sure that the RAM board is in place and the contacts are clean (try cleaning it with a pencil erazor )

[sonick]

Thanks for the reply; you weren't kidding, nearly everything in socketed.

 

I have no idea how it happened, but on close inspection on the bench it revealed endless corrosion, and various pins of some IC's were literally shorted with rust. It was stored in a humid illinois basement for years upon years, which occasionaly had water problems (not in direct contact, but apparently enough to cause condensation)

 

I cleaned everything up the best i could until it was sparkling and all contacts clean, but the damage has been done

 

Far too much potential damage to pursue any further. And I had just replaced all the belts in my 410, daggone it.

 

Thanks again,

Jayson

[sonick]

OK, in my haste i think i may have made a ridiculous error.......

 

EDIT: N/m.. it's definetely a goner

 

goodbye old friend....

Edited November 23, 2007 by sonick

[kenfused]

The usual questions:

You do have it hooked up to the RF input of the tv (and not video/composite) in?

You have the tv set to channel 2 or 3?