Green Screen of Death?

[jasonbar]

Howdy-

 

I just got a 5200 system on eBay & can't get it to power up.

 

It's a 4-port with the funky power/video box & just the 1 cord coming out of the 5200.

 

There was the tip of an AV cable snapped off in the adapter box. After I yoinked that out, I plugged in the 1 cord from the 5200. I saw a tiny spark as I did this (the AC adapter was already plugged in the wall).

 

When I hit the power button, the red LED comes on. I hear a click in the adapter box (relay switching from TV signal to game signal, I presume).

 

 

 

However, I have naught but a blank green screen. I got the same screen while trying 3 different carts or no cart at all.

 

 

Any ideas on what to try next to troubleshoot this? Any guess on whether the problem is with the 5200 box or the adapter box?

 

 

Thanks,

-Jason

[Jess Ragan]

Urrgh... this sounds just like what happened to me last year. Generally when this happens it means that the graphics chip is borked and needs to be replaced. It's probably just easier to buy a new system, which is what I had to do.

[mimo]

something has definitely died imo.

Atari must really have hated 5200 owners

To be honest if you really want to have/keep/play a 5200 the best course of action is to shell out $35 for a brand new motherboard, and probably get a new rf box and at least one working joystick while you are there http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/cx52_j.htm#CX52

 

or put a 2 port motherboard in the 4 port case and get rid of the rf box all together.

Before you plug it all in though, are you sure you have the correct power supply? The first 5200 I bought from evil bay had a 1200xl power supply that killed it very quickly

 

or there is always plan B, buy an Atari 800xl

Edited June 17, 2008 by mimo

[doctorclu]

What was the graphics chip on the 5200? Was it the same one from the 8-bit line or a special chip?

 

I agree, I think Atari had it in for their customers when they made the 5200. All the same, with the work of the fan base has got me slowly liking this game system.

[+Allan]

What was the graphics chip on the 5200? Was it the same one from the 8-bit line or a special chip?

 

I agree, I think Atari had it in for their customers when they made the 5200. All the same, with the work of the fan base has got me slowly liking this game system.

 

Same ones. GTIA or ANTIC.

 

It's funny how the computers don't tend to die nearly as much as the 5200. I'm guessing it has something to do with the power supply but who knows.

 

Allan

[walter_J64bit]

something has definitely died imo.

Atari must really have hated 5200 owners

To be honest if you really want to have/keep/play a 5200 the best course of action is to shell out $35 for a brand new motherboard, and probably get a new rf box and at least one working joystick while you are there http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/cx52_j.htm#CX52

 

or put a 2 port motherboard in the 4 port case and get rid of the rf box all together.

Before you plug it all in though, are you sure you have the correct power supply? The first 5200 I bought from evil bay had a 1200xl power supply that killed it very quickly

 

or there is always plan B, buy an Atari 800xl

I had to do the same thing by getting brand new motherboard you'll get longer use out your system.

[BigO]

Howdy-

 

I just got a 5200 system on eBay & can't get it to power up.

 

It's a 4-port with the funky power/video box & just the 1 cord coming out of the 5200.

 

There was the tip of an AV cable snapped off in the adapter box. After I yoinked that out, I plugged in the 1 cord from the 5200. I saw a tiny spark as I did this (the AC adapter was already plugged in the wall).

 

When I hit the power button, the red LED comes on. I hear a click in the adapter box (relay switching from TV signal to game signal, I presume).

 

 

 

However, I have naught but a blank green screen. I got the same screen while trying 3 different carts or no cart at all.

 

 

Any ideas on what to try next to troubleshoot this? Any guess on whether the problem is with the 5200 box or the adapter box?

 

 

Thanks,

-Jason

 

This may not be relevant for your unit, but it's what I found with my 2 port that I bought dead:

 

It had a similar problem with the screen coming up some color, but blank. I was able to fix that by replacing RAM chips. I guess that it was locking up during the boot process due to bad RAM.

 

My RAM is socketed, so I did some easy troubleshooting by switching around the RAM chips. Eventually, I got the screen to change (but still not working), so I figured I was onto something. Then I swapped out one RAM chip at a time with an assumed good chip and got it going.

 

If your RAM isn't socketed, that wouldn't be a very realistic method for troubleshooting.

[doctorclu]

Sometimes the chips unseat themselves as they go through hot and cold and on and on, so at times you need to reseat all the socketed chips. Give that a try.

Edited June 17, 2008 by doctorclu

[jasonbar]

Thanks for all of the helpful ideas, and that great link to Best Electronics!

 

I'll pop open the 5200 & reseat all the chips.

 

What voltage & polarity should the 5200 power supply be supplying? I'll check that too.

 

 

Thanks,

-Jason

 

PS--I've already got an 800 & a pair of 130XEs, so what the heck am I doing getting a 5200 anyway? Darn eBay temptation... :\

[mimo]

PS--I've already got an 800 & a pair of 130XEs, so what the heck am I doing getting a 5200 anyway? Darn eBay temptation... :\

 

I ask myself that same question, why did I end up with 3 of the blasted things, especially as I live in the UK and they were never sold here

[doctorclu]

PS--I've already got an 800 & a pair of 130XEs, so what the heck am I doing getting a 5200 anyway? Darn eBay temptation... :\

 

I ask myself that same question, why did I end up with 3 of the blasted things, especially as I live in the UK and they were never sold here

 

I used to always tell 5200 gamers to get an Atari 800 and be done with it. Hundreds of more games, more options, ect.

 

However, since I was into "Atari" 5200's showed up at my house through friends and such getting rid of game systems. And then I was stuck with a 5200. A glorified repackaged Atari 400 with a nice black shell, oversized carts, not immediately compatible with Atari 8-bit games, terrible controllers...

 

What gets me is that the XEGS is everything the 5200 should have been. 64K of memory, can run regular Atari 8-bit carts. Can be a game system, or be a computer with the "Add on" keyboard. Genius!!! But we have a 5200 forum and not a XEGS forum. Funny.

 

Anyway, the 5200 is slowly growing on me, mainly due to the 5200 High score club. One thing I like about the game selection of the 5200 verses the 8-bit games is since they are few, require less memory, but hit the main arcade titles, those arcade titles that I tend to like more are recycled more often, where as the 8-bit HSC which I do love have some of the oddest games and MANY I have never heard of.

 

So for simplicity of the classic arcade titles of the 8-bit games the 5200 rocks! All you need is a way to load games on the 5200, and get one of many solutions to replace the terrible controllers, of which I own two solutions.

[Jess Ragan]

It's because the XEGS was a blip on the radar of gaming history. All the harsh criticism the 7800 received for being outdated and irrelevant in the NES age can be applied ten times over to the XEGS, which was essentially a computer from 1979 with a buttload of extra RAM. That was great for the collectors looking for a one-stop shopping approach to their favorite Atari games, but pretty useless for gamers who had since moved on to more advanced systems.

[PacMan]

But the 5200 is soooo beautiful

Edited June 18, 2008 by PacMan

[jwierer]

Howdy-

 

I just got a 5200 system on eBay & can't get it to power up.

 

It's a 4-port with the funky power/video box & just the 1 cord coming out of the 5200.

 

There was the tip of an AV cable snapped off in the adapter box. After I yoinked that out, I plugged in the 1 cord from the 5200. I saw a tiny spark as I did this (the AC adapter was already plugged in the wall).

 

When I hit the power button, the red LED comes on. I hear a click in the adapter box (relay switching from TV signal to game signal, I presume).

 

 

 

However, I have naught but a blank green screen. I got the same screen while trying 3 different carts or no cart at all.

 

 

Any ideas on what to try next to troubleshoot this? Any guess on whether the problem is with the 5200 box or the adapter box?

 

 

Thanks,

-Jason

 

I walked through the Atari 5200 Field Service Manual and ended up diagnosing that I had a bad memory chip and a dead ANTIC. Replaced both and it now works great. I think it was $10 for the two chips to fix it.

 

-Jeff

[phuzzed]

I too had the same problem, and it was indeed a bad memory chip.

 

On another related note, I also had a system that just would not power up. I turned it off, and it never came back on. Power supply and everything was good. Turned out it was the 4013 latch circuit IC chip, down by the power switch. Replaced it, and powered right up.

[jasonbar]

Update.

 

I did check my power supply & it does say it's for the 5200.

 

It also says that it should put out 11.5V, but I measure about 14V coming out of the power supply (not plugged into the 5200, just loose).

 

I know that PSs often put out more than their rating & that the piece of electronics often doesn't matter, but I don't know if that's the case here.

 

 

Can anybody please slap their multimeter on their 5200 power supply to compare?

 

 

Thanks!

-Jason

[mimo]

14.5v with no load sounds about right, so you can probably rule out the PSU being faulty