Atari 800 Issue with Booting Disks

[Banquo]

I have an original Atari 800, a 1050 floppy drive, and a 1010 program recorder all set up and everything has been working great. A friend stopped by today and I wanted to show it off, but much to my dismay it refused to boot any disks, I just kept getting Memo Pad. I was afraid the 1050 drive had failed but I noticed it wasn't even trying to access the drive. I then tried my SIO2PC and I got the same result. It just kept starting up in Memo Pad, except for one time when it gave a Boot Error. I tried a different SIO cable with no success, unhooked everything, hooked it back up, kept messing with it...then suddenly it began working fine again. I've booted half a dozen disks and we played it for an hour and it's fine now. The trouble is I don't know what was wrong or what fixed it.

 

I'm rather concerned about the whole ordeal. Has anyone ever experienced this issue before or know what could have been wrong? I'm going to take it apart again and look it over more carefully, particularly the SIO connector. I'm wondering if it could possibly have a bad solder joint or something like that. While I had the 1050 apart to clean it I also noticed the rails are as dry as a bone, should I lube them with some silicon grease? Anyway I just thought I would ask about it, I'm sure there are much more experienced people here.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Banquo

[_The Doctor__]

When an 800 gets weird like that... it's usually due for maintenance cleaning and re seating... literally, the connection points on chips and and sockets as well as card edge connectors on all older computers oxidize... some people just slightly lift chips and card and push em back in and are happy... others do a fantastic tear down and re seat where every thing gets a de-oxit wipe and re-assembly.... either way you get a working 800.... how long you get between cleaning and re-seating is determined by how decent a job you do..

Edited May 21, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[Banquo]

Thanks, that's a good idea. While I have it apart I'll clean all the socketed chip pins and reseat them and clean the edge connectors on the RAM and ROM carts. I should probably inpsect all the capacitors for leakage too, recently had a TRS-80 Model 100 suffer from a leaked cap which destroyed some traces. The 800 is probably my favorite old system I've ever had so I want to keep it in top notch condition.

[toddtmw]

I'd love to get an 800. That was the first computer I ever owned, but they tend to be hard to find and when they are found, pricey. Plus, if I did get one, I'd never want to use it for fear of it crapping out. For now, 800XL's are pretty plentiful.

[DavidMil]

I should probably inpsect all the capacitors for leakage too, recently had a TRS-80 Model 100 suffer from a leaked cap which destroyed some traces. The 800 is probably my favorite old system I've ever had so I want to keep it in top notch condition.

 

When you look at the caps, if any of them look swollen, or the top is not flat (domed up), they could be going bad. One other thing... I had a 800 that was doing just like yours,

Memo Pad no matter what device was plugged into the SIO port. Turned out to be a bad POKEY chip.

 

DavidMil

[+Stephen]

My guess, is faulty connection to the PoKey chip. Fortunately, as mentioned, everything in an 800 is socketed. Clean all the card edges, and slightly pry up and reseat all chips.

[+DrVenkman]

 

One other thing... I had a 800 that was doing just like yours,

Memo Pad no matter what device was plugged into the SIO port. Turned out to be a bad POKEY chip.

 

 

 

My guess, is faulty connection to the PoKey chip. Fortunately, as mentioned, everything in an 800 is socketed. Clean all the card edges, and slightly pry up and reseat all chips.

​

Let me "third" the suggestion to check POKEY.

 

I have a 1200XL that simply would not respond to anything through the SIO port even though it otherwise seemed to work fine. You can guess right: it was the POKEY.

[Banquo]

Thanks everyone, I'll remember to check the POKEY chip the first thing if it ever happens again. I completely disassembled it a while ago (wow that's a lot of shielding) and cleaned all of the edge connectors and reseated all of the chips. I also looked over the capacitors and they all appear fine, no swelling or signs of leaking or corrosion. They are nearly 40 years old though so I'd really feel better having them replaced; perhaps I'll do that someday. I put it all back together and it's working like a champ so I'm hoping that it was just a bad connection on that chip. Thanks again very much for all the advice. I'm really happy to have it working again.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Banquo

[_The Doctor__]

Normally when pokey fails... it stays failed.... but anything is indeed possible That's why a cleaning and inspection is the best shot I saw.

Edited May 22, 2017 by _The Doctor__