Help troubleshooting a Tandy 1000

ianoid · July 20, 2015

I have been working on troubleshooting my Tandy 1000 VC Forums, but responses to the thread have petered off and I just noticed the activity on this dedicated forum, so perhaps you guys can help. Atariage is my forum home anyway.

"OK, so I did some RAM chip swapping (with some new chips that cost around $30 shipped for and managed to get the system to boot with 128K.

When I put the memory expansion board back in, it started a new problem behavior intermittently which has now become consistent, even after letting it cool down a few hours. So I removed the memory board (supposedly 512K, but never confirmed more than 384K before the RAM got working again) and it boot with 128K a few times, but the problem became worse anyway.

When I flip the power switch (without fan or drives plugged into the PS, which was how I had the unit to troubleshoot the RAM- and how it was working intermitently) all the happens is the speaker makes a loud space age sound like a phaser and then becomes a fixed deep tone. Nothing pops up on the monitor.

Do you think it's the PS, or does this sound like a familiar issue with another chip?

I hope so, I only have so much patience for repair before I buy another unit that is tested and set it aside for parts or sale. I don't do soldering stuff at this point, so once it gets to that point, or to spending more than the machine is worth working, I usually bail out."

And come to think of it, I'm afraid to use the RAM expansion board again, in fear that it caused the problem in the first place- is that possible?

Edited July 20, 2015 by ianoid