Trying to ressurect an Atari 800, need help!

[Grauwulf]

My Fiancée dug out her old Atari 800 that she had in storage, but we're having trouble getting it to boot. I've googled the heck out of the problem and I haven't had much luck. I've disassembled the unit and reseated all the chip. I've attached a picture of what I'm getting, hopefully one of the pros here can help get me pointed in the right direction.

 

Thanks!

[Bryan]

The bad news: If you've taken it apart and re-seated everything, chances are you're dealing with a bad IC.

 

The good news: The 800 is quite modular so sometimes it's simply a matter of swapping a few things.

 

The first thing I would do is take the memory cover off and install the ROM board and only 1 RAM board right behind it. If you can get it to work as a 16K machine, you probably have a bad RAM board.

 

The 2nd thing I would do is try to pick up a machine for parts. The 400 goes for less and shares some of the same boards and all of the same chips.

[Keatah]

Just start swapping as many parts as you can. The next 20 messages will tell you that in a longer more drawn out form.

[Paul Westphal]

From what see, you may have the wrong cables setup on it. If you are using the RF, You Should have that plugged into a RCA to COAX adaptor, I'd not use a custom monitor out to RCA cable ( yellow, red, white ). TV on channel 3 with RF, input with monitor out cable.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Paul Westphal

[russg]

From what see, you may have the wrong cables setup on it. If you are using the RF, You Should have that plugged into a RCA to COAX adaptor, I'd not use a custom monitor out to RCA cable ( yellow, red, white ). TV on channel 3 with RF, input with monitor out cable.

I agree, the wrong cables. I see the red and white RCA plugs. Red and white are normally left and right stereo sound. Your cable should have a yellow

composite out RCA plug. That would go to the monitor RCA composite in jack.

Like said above, use an adapter if necessary, and use the RF out of the 800. That is normally a black wire coming out the bottom back. RF would go

to TV RF jack, probably a monitor won't have a RF in jack.

Edited July 7, 2015 by russg

[Grauwulf]

I'm getting the same picture regardless of if I'm using the RF hookup or not. The video cable is one I put together from a 5-pin DIN plug and an old audio patch cord from my parts bin, that's why the colours don't match. I'll try swapping in the ram modules one at a time and see if I can breathe some life back in to this thing.

[Rybags]

One thing not yet mentioned - 400 and 800 can be tested for signs of life without needing a TV. Internal speaker means you should get keyclick sounds.

But keyboards will commonly stop working if stored for years - the other sign of life is a bearly audible click when you turn the machine on or press Reset.

[Roydea6]

PAL 800 or NTSC 800 could cause a screen like this.. and TV (Monitor) being the opposite.