Rob Mitchell Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 My Atari 800 has been boxed for about 2 years .. so I pulled it out today and most of the keys of the keyboard are not responding! What could have happened? I'll take it apart tomorrow and see if there is anything obvious ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Some 800s have the same flex circuit type keyboard as the 1200xl and end up with the same problems. If you take one of the keycaps off and it doesnt have the metal leaf contacts, this is likely your problem. You can try putting some conductive goop on the traces that leave the flex circuit, but even that has limited success since the whole thing tends to degrade at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted February 28, 2003 Author Share Posted February 28, 2003 Some 800s have the same flex circuit type keyboard as the 1200xl and end up with the same problems. If you take one of the keycaps off and it doesnt have the metal leaf contacts, this is likely your problem. Dang.. Well I took apart the whole 800 .. it needed a good cleaning anyway .. and I took apart the keyboard and it does have that flex circuit! I cleaned every contact with a qtip soaked in isopropyl and now I have about 80% of the keys working .. I also scrubbed off the bird crap that had bombed it .. when a worker let a bird into my apartment about 4 years ago! I guess I'm in the market for a replacement 800 keyboard .. Anyone have a dead Atari 800? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 I received a replacement keyboard for my Atari 800 in the mail today. This is the earlier design that has the metal switches .. not the flex contact one with the white crosses and spring loaded. Does anyone have a replacement 'F' key from the earlier design? If you have one that is missing a bunch of keys but still have the F key .. please PM me. Also on this earlier design keyboard, how many metal rods hold the spacebar level? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sashswash Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 i just bought an atari 800xl computer from the Philly Classic with a dead keyboard. After some continuity tests with a volt meter, i saw a very small scratch in the bus cable going from the keyboard to the computer. I simply taped a wire onto that line of the bus cable, and now it works fine!! Oh yeah, PHILLY CLASSIC 4 WAS AWESOME!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted April 25, 2003 Author Share Posted April 25, 2003 Does anyone have a replacement 'F' key from the earlier design? If you have one that is missing a bunch of keys but still have the F key .. please PM me. Also on this earlier design keyboard, how many metal rods hold the spacebar level? Bump .. I still need an F key from the earlier Atari 800 keyboard .. if anyone has a dead 800 .. Rob Mitchell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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