Broken 600xl

[Berger]

I recently got a 600xl from ebay, and its not working at the moment. The rf adapter does work, and the unit does power up and display some color to the screen. In fact rotating R4 on the motherboard changes the color that is displayed on my tv.

 

After reading through a lot of posts here, I took out all the chips and reseated them, but that hasn't made a difference. The 600xl looks like it was stored in a garage, the rf shield had a lot of rust on it which is sanded off, and some of the chips have a little oxidation and/or rust on some of the pins. The power supply works fine. I have the ram chips coming for the 64k upgrade, so I was going to try those to see if they make any difference.

 

Any other suggestions of stuff to check? Should I just get another one, or a populated motherboard, and use this one for parts?

 

-Aaron

[puppetmark]

I recently got a 600xl from ebay, and its not working at the moment. The rf adapter does work, and the unit does power up and display some color to the screen. In fact rotating R4 on the motherboard changes the color that is displayed on my tv.

 

After reading through a lot of posts here, I took out all the chips and reseated them, but that hasn't made a difference. The 600xl looks like it was stored in a garage, the rf shield had a lot of rust on it which is sanded off, and some of the chips have a little oxidation and/or rust on some of the pins. The power supply works fine. I have the ram chips coming for the 64k upgrade, so I was going to try those to see if they make any difference.

 

Any other suggestions of stuff to check? Should I just get another one, or a populated motherboard, and use this one for parts?

 

-Aaron

 

 

Did you check the power supply? Make sure you get 5V DC and No AC leakage. Also, do you have any carts you can plug in and see if there is any difference when booting from a cartridge?

[atariksi]

I recently got a 600xl from ebay, and its not working at the moment. The rf adapter does work, and the unit does power up and display some color to the screen. In fact rotating R4 on the motherboard changes the color that is displayed on my tv.

 

After reading through a lot of posts here, I took out all the chips and reseated them, but that hasn't made a difference. The 600xl looks like it was stored in a garage, the rf shield had a lot of rust on it which is sanded off, and some of the chips have a little oxidation and/or rust on some of the pins. The power supply works fine. I have the ram chips coming for the 64k upgrade, so I was going to try those to see if they make any difference.

 

Any other suggestions of stuff to check? Should I just get another one, or a populated motherboard, and use this one for parts?

 

-Aaron

 

If you had another machine like 800XL w/socketed chips with which to swap chips, you could narrow it down to see which chip is bad. Normally, bad ROM gives a solid single color.

[Kjmann]

I recently got a 600xl from ebay, and its not working at the moment. The rf adapter does work, and the unit does power up and display some color to the screen. In fact rotating R4 on the motherboard changes the color that is displayed on my tv.

 

After reading through a lot of posts here, I took out all the chips and reseated them, but that hasn't made a difference. The 600xl looks like it was stored in a garage, the rf shield had a lot of rust on it which is sanded off, and some of the chips have a little oxidation and/or rust on some of the pins. The power supply works fine. I have the ram chips coming for the 64k upgrade, so I was going to try those to see if they make any difference.

 

Any other suggestions of stuff to check? Should I just get another one, or a populated motherboard, and use this one for parts?

 

-Aaron

 

Is the screen one whole color? if so what color?

[Berger]

Power supply checks out fine. I have a 130xe and use the same power supply with it.

 

I tried my PacMan Cart (which also works with the xe) and it does not change anything on the screen.

 

Is the screen one whole color? if so what color?

 

The screen is one whole color, there seem to be some vertical lines on the left, but they are pretty much the same color.

 

The color is a really dark green. If I rotate R4 on the motherboard I can get the color to change to red or blue as well.

 

Thanks for all the quick replies guys!

 

-Aaron

[atariksi]

Power supply checks out fine. I have a 130xe and use the same power supply with it.

 

I tried my PacMan Cart (which also works with the xe) and it does not change anything on the screen.

 

Is the screen one whole color? if so what color?

 

The screen is one whole color, there seem to be some vertical lines on the left, but they are pretty much the same color.

 

The color is a really dark green. If I rotate R4 on the motherboard I can get the color to change to red or blue as well.

 

Thanks for all the quick replies guys!

 

-Aaron

 

If you boot up with START key held down, do you hear the beep?

[Berger]

If you boot up with START key held down, do you hear the beep?

 

I will try this when I get home today.

 

-Aaron

[Berger]

If you boot up with START key held down, do you hear the beep?

 

I will try this when I get home today.

 

-Aaron

 

Ok I tried this over lunch. I do not get a beep. The power light on the keyboard does come on.

 

-Aaron

[atariksi]

If you boot up with START key held down, do you hear the beep?

 

I will try this when I get home today.

 

-Aaron

 

Ok I tried this over lunch. I do not get a beep. The power light on the keyboard does come on.

 

-Aaron

 

If it would have beeped, you could have narrowed it down significantly, but now it's still up in the air as to which chip is causing problems. If you have an Atari 5200 (broken or otherwise), you can try swapping chips with that since it's all socketed although ROM/PIA aren't there.

 

I guess DRAM is easily gotten as you can use 4*64 or 4*256.

[Berger]

thanks for all the help! Unfortunately the only atari systems I have are a 2600,600xl,and 130xe

 

So I guess I'll try the new ram when I get it in. and if that doesn't work I'll see if I can get another unit, or maybe a motherboard from Best Electronics. Even if I get a different working system, I'm going to swap the parts around to see whats the problem with this unit, and so I know what good parts I have.

 

-Aaron

[nathanallan]

I'd also look for a loose 5200 console if the ram will swap out. For only the console you ought to be able to get it pretty inexpensively. Best is the *best* place for parts, though, so that also seems like a good idea.

[atariksi]

I'd also look for a loose 5200 console if the ram will swap out. For only the console you ought to be able to get it pretty inexpensively. Best is the *best* place for parts, though, so that also seems like a good idea.

 

The 5200 uses eight 16K*1 chips whereas 600XL uses two 16K*4 (or 64K*4 or 256K*4).

[Kjmann]

Power supply checks out fine. I have a 130xe and use the same power supply with it.

 

I tried my PacMan Cart (which also works with the xe) and it does not change anything on the screen.

 

Is the screen one whole color? if so what color?

 

The screen is one whole color, there seem to be some vertical lines on the left, but they are pretty much the same color.

 

The color is a really dark green. If I rotate R4 on the motherboard I can get the color to change to red or blue as well.

 

Thanks for all the quick replies guys!

 

-Aaron

 

It's the OS Chip. Try Reseating it. If that Doesn't work, Get a new OS chip from Best Electronics ( 408-278-1070 ) Open From 1:30pm to 5pm PST.

[Berger]

Power supply checks out fine. I have a 130xe and use the same power supply with it.

 

I tried my PacMan Cart (which also works with the xe) and it does not change anything on the screen.

 

Is the screen one whole color? if so what color?

 

The screen is one whole color, there seem to be some vertical lines on the left, but they are pretty much the same color.

 

The color is a really dark green. If I rotate R4 on the motherboard I can get the color to change to red or blue as well.

 

Thanks for all the quick replies guys!

 

-Aaron

 

It's the OS Chip. Try Reseating it. If that Doesn't work, Get a new OS chip from Best Electronics ( 408-278-1070 ) Open From 1:30pm to 5pm PST.

 

I know its a stupid question, but which is the OS Chip? Are there any images that have the chips labeled?

 

-Aaron

[Bryan]

In the upper right of the motherboard are two IC's that I believe are 28 and 24 pin. The larger one is the OS ROM and the smaller one is the BASIC ROM.

[Berger]

In the upper right of the motherboard are two IC's that I believe are 28 and 24 pin. The larger one is the OS ROM and the smaller one is the BASIC ROM.

 

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

I'll get some replacement parts and see what I can figure out.

 

-Aaron

[1050]

 

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

I'll get some replacement parts and see what I can figure out.

 

-Aaron

 

Buy a voltmeter and test your 600XL power supply for exactly 5 volts. You haven't "checked it out" by substituting your 130XE PS on the 600XL machine. That just tells you that the 130XE PS is working.

 

Your 600XL Power Supply remains a lethal threat to your 130XE if you ever swap power supplies before you actually TEST your 600XL power supply. 80% of the time, the power supply goes bad and sends overvoltage into the machine shorting out one or two RAM chips that then draw down the voltage and keep the damage among the RAM chips instead of the 40 pin count chips. You can feel which RAM chips are shorted by placing your thumb on top of them - the ones that melt your skin are the bad ones. If you replace them with a bad power supply you just get to replace even more of them. It is vital to measure the voltage on your power supply first and then destroy power supplies that produce more than 5 volts so that you don't take out any more 8-bit machines.

 

Power supply failure is the number ONE all time failure, ignore that fact and you'll have dead 8-bits all over the place. You must measure.

[atariksi]

 

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

I'll get some replacement parts and see what I can figure out.

 

-Aaron

 

Buy a voltmeter and test your 600XL power supply for exactly 5 volts. You haven't "checked it out" by substituting your 130XE PS on the 600XL machine. That just tells you that the 130XE PS is working.

 

Your 600XL Power Supply remains a lethal threat to your 130XE if you ever swap power supplies before you actually TEST your 600XL power supply. 80% of the time, the power supply goes bad and sends overvoltage into the machine shorting out one or two RAM chips that then draw down the voltage and keep the damage among the RAM chips instead of the 40 pin count chips. You can feel which RAM chips are shorted by placing your thumb on top of them - the ones that melt your skin are the bad ones. If you replace them with a bad power supply you just get to replace even more of them. It is vital to measure the voltage on your power supply first and then destroy power supplies that produce more than 5 volts so that you don't take out any more 8-bit machines.

 

Power supply failure is the number ONE all time failure, ignore that fact and you'll have dead 8-bits all over the place. You must measure.

 

That's good to know but he is getting a color on the screen. So litmus test for bad power supplies: (1) if your thumb burns to white -> red, you already used a bad power supply, (2) if your thumb turns white -> black, you are currently using a bad power supply.

[Berger]

 

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

I'll get some replacement parts and see what I can figure out.

 

-Aaron

 

Buy a voltmeter and test your 600XL power supply for exactly 5 volts. You haven't "checked it out" by substituting your 130XE PS on the 600XL machine. That just tells you that the 130XE PS is working.

 

Your 600XL Power Supply remains a lethal threat to your 130XE if you ever swap power supplies before you actually TEST your 600XL power supply. 80% of the time, the power supply goes bad and sends overvoltage into the machine shorting out one or two RAM chips that then draw down the voltage and keep the damage among the RAM chips instead of the 40 pin count chips. You can feel which RAM chips are shorted by placing your thumb on top of them - the ones that melt your skin are the bad ones. If you replace them with a bad power supply you just get to replace even more of them. It is vital to measure the voltage on your power supply first and then destroy power supplies that produce more than 5 volts so that you don't take out any more 8-bit machines.

 

Power supply failure is the number ONE all time failure, ignore that fact and you'll have dead 8-bits all over the place. You must measure.

 

My atari power supplies (I got 1 with the xe and 1 with the xl) measure 5.09 and 5.03 respectfully

That still within specs?

 

-Aaron

[atariksi]

...

My atari power supplies (I got 1 with the xe and 1 with the xl) measure 5.09 and 5.03 respectfully

That still within specs?

 

-Aaron

 

Sounds good to me, better than A5200 power supplies where I've seen some ridiculous values like 14VDC instead of 11.5VDC. Someone in the A5200 forum told me to try a Thinkpad 16V power adapter and that also worked on the A5200. At least A5200 power circuitry must be well built to tolerate such a wild range of power supplies.