Atari 800XL

[edintv]

Hello everyone,

 

I buy a lot of sealed retro gaming Items for the only reason to trade that with Intellivision stuff, but also collect almost everithing of that time that has a reasonable cost, and in budget.

 

In the lot there where Atari 800XL, who where new and sealed, even with the original Box of Two (I mean the Shipping box, that contains 2) and for a advice of a friend, I open all for testing, Results: 4 bad

 

For explaining the failure I have to mention that the in the lot are 2 very similar versions of the console, lets call #1 and #2, Differences:

 

Power supply:

 

#1 has a large and flat power supply wit the colors of the computer

#2 has a Black and fat one

 

Inside (could be swapped):

 

#1 has "older revisions of the main chips, and the memory chip and the "minor" chips are soldered, not in base, and the Rf shielding was different than #2

#2 has "newer" revisions of the main chips and all the minor and mayor chips are in base and rf shielding different

 

Behavior of failure:

 

#1, at power one, goes straigth to memory test, some of the dot turns red (I imagine is a faulty sector) and do that in a continuos loop.

#2, At power on, never shows the "ready prompt"

 

Diagnose:

 

Having 2 different behaviors, I open both computers and swapped the main chips, (the ones in base of #1) and in both computers, the errors where exectly the same, no changes, So my reasoning is that due to differences in software of the two versions, I got a different behavior for the same error, that could be the ram chip. or could be any other component of the mainboard?

 

If anyone is familiar with this behavior, please let me know if I could repair them (I cannot afford to buy parts at this moment).

 

Thanks,

 

Ed.

[SoundGammon]

Sounds like some bad ram chips. To do a full 48K test, hold down the option button when you power up and let it test all the ram after the os. If memory serves, no pun intended, it should show another 8 blocks I believe...

[edintv]

Hi, I hve updates of my problem, I finally get to work my production test cart rev. 1 ( Enybody know how much is worth?, sorry just curiosity, not for sale) and get the following:

 

Computer type #1:

 

Get a high pitch beep and the following message: SYTEM ERROR CODE-04

 

Computer type #2:

 

Same error, a black screen

 

Anywone familiar with this?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Ed.

[edintv]

Sounds like some bad ram chips. To do a full 48K test, hold down the option button when you power up and let it test all the ram after the os. If memory serves, no pun intended, it should show another 8 blocks I believe...

 

 

Ok, thanks for your reply:

 

In console #1 jumps directly to the Memory Test, even with the option button pressed, and it shows 40 Blcks in the one i´m testing only 4 are green ther others 36 are red.

 

Console #2: option button dosn´t work, could be a rom problem?, like no software to boot in to?

 

Did you read about the Production test cart and the error code?

 

Cheers,

 

Ed.

[channelmaniac]

Some of the old Atari custom chips had silver plated steel legs. You will need to clean the tarnish off of those pins and try the test again.

[edintv]

Some of the old Atari custom chips had silver plated steel legs. You will need to clean the tarnish off of those pins and try the test again.

 

 

Thanks for your reply, that was the first thing I do, i forgot to write it. I used and eraser who is perfect to clean electronic contacts (do wonder with carts) every pin of every removable chip, the soldered ones y did so externally, also use the erasor in the mainboard in the tracks.

 

In teh model #1 I´m sure is the Memory chip, the model #2 i´m not so sure. Today I bougth an used 800XL with printer and disk drive (and a lot of disks with software) I will try swap the chips from one to another.

 

If anyone knows how to fix this computers, I´m willing to sell at low prices, (I saw some web sites and ebay who sold chips for the 800XL). Pm me.

 

Remember that those units are new, they where in a warehouse many years, so could be humidity in the air (no signs of it in the boxes) or a factory failure, Is very suspicious that the only failures described on the user´s manual are the ones I have.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed.