800xl week video signal... fixable?

[darkman]

So, I have a 800xl.

 

I have tried everything. The picture always is dim and fussy. No mater how I adjust my monitor. I have hooked it up to 3 different monitors, and even tried RF just for the hell of it. Compaired to the picture of my Atari 130xe, it's not even useable. It's strange, it seems that it can't output "white." For example, you can hardly see the high score text on the top of the screen in Pac-Man.

 

What should I do?

 

-darkman

[surfnmadness]

I had to open up mine and play with the video out adjustments. Seems after 20+ years they needs a little tweaking to get the output of color and contrast I expected. You will see 6 screws on the bottom, remove them and flip the keyboard over to the right hand side. Boot a good color base cart (i used frogger) in the computer and adjust the output screws, upper left side of box with a plastic screwdriver. You will also find a color adjuster located in the bottom left.

 

There is also mods to upgrade the video out to S-video, but I still want my unit original. Maybe I will buy a spare and play with that one some day.

 

This is the link to the super video upgrade. http://www.wolfpup.net/atari/supervid.html