Stupid question?

[Bikerbob]

I have an 800xl which I just got working by finding the bad ram chip.. now it runs.. boots anything fine.. keyboard is good.

 

Went to play a game.. and at the very least the trigger does not work on any joystick I use.. and on another 800xl np.

 

SO.. is cold or broken solder joints an issue on some machines? is that what I should be looking for?

 

Also some joysticks I have just dont seem to work that great.. NOW i am wondering.. is the joystick the issue? or the port?

 

Anything easy to test with? if I had the board out.. could I cross or connect a couple of pins and see if I get the port to work?

 

What about testing joysticks? any program? I see the 2600 people made a tester.. but I could use a multi meter with knowing the pin out.. and just do a continuity test right?

 

thanks

 

James

[Paul Westphal]

Swap joysticks. If it's the same problem, make sure all the pins are there on the port. If that's not it, touch up solder points. Might be ANTIC.

[RodCastler]

You may want to re-seat your gtia chip as well, which reads the trigger button. About your question on the multimeter, yes it's a continuity test what you could do, but I doubt that's the issue if all of your joysticks fail equally.

 

10 ? strig(0): goto 10

 

That's your basic trigger tester. if the value changes when pushing the trigger, you're good. use strig(1) for the other port.

Edited June 17, 2016 by RodCastler

[Bikerbob]

After a reflow.. solder of the joystick pins on the MB we are back to A1+

 

Sometimes the easiest fix.. is the easiest

 

James

[shoestring]

There's a basic program you can key in and run that will allow you to test both joyports.

 

I did just that after wiring up my supergun joystick to use on the Atari.

 

Do a search on google for the basic program.