Graphics glitches on 800xl games. Normal?

[+Nezgar]

There was another recent thread about character graphics mode glitches in Boulder Dash, seemed to be heat related and symptoms subsided with removal of the RF shield.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279677-65xe-garbage-appears-on-map-of-boulderdash1-after-warm-up/

[+xucaen]

good luck, hope you find the gremlin in the system. a valuable asset to your arsenal is tenacity! so dont give up

try to get one of these to run it may help whittle it down:

 

 

 

 

The Super Salt SE.02 shows errors on voltage, and baud (thought I am guessing the baud test is invalid because I don't have any physical devices connected other than the SIO2PC)

 

 

[+xucaen]

There was another recent thread about character graphics mode glitches in Boulder Dash, seemed to be heat related and symptoms subsided with removal of the RF shield.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279677-65xe-garbage-appears-on-map-of-boulderdash1-after-warm-up/

 

That is weird, almost identical to my issues, especially that image of Boulder Dash with the player sprite being doubled. So, if this is a heat issue, I wonder if there is another way to resolve it without removing the metal casing?

[shoestring]

If it is indeed heat related then you could install some low profile DIP-40 / DIP-28 heatsinks over the chips.

 

Some c64 users have done this especially for the PLA & the SID.

[xrbrevin]

hmm, odd that it shows a voltage fail despite you having a top quality power supply...

do you have a multimeter to test the +5volt feed to the various chips?

it should read the same as at the power switch, give or take a wee bit

[+Nezgar]

Voltage Fail may also be caused by the lack of the salt dongles attached, since it can't actually test the voltage...

[_The Doctor__]

check voltage under load with dmm, main power cap. near power switch should also be checked...

[+Nezgar]

Voltage under load can also be checked with a multimeter on pins 7 & 8 of a joystick port: (Careful not to short them together)

[_The Doctor__]

so easy to slip doing it that way, I use a chopped off cord for that sort of test..... as for heat, an upside down zero residue aero duster will chill chips one at a time till you find the culprit...

[Keatah]

Another test you might run is the ACID800 test from the Altirra website. While made to test emulators, it approaches testing from yet another angle. It looks for deviations between real and virtual hardware. And it tests for proper functioning of many low-level features of the chipset. About 40'ish or so. Perhaps it will find something?

 

http://virtualdub.org/altirra.html

Edited August 15, 2018 by Keatah

[+Stephen]

I still say run the GTIA tests from within SysInfo. Takes 30 seconds and it will confirm/eliminate that chip.

[shoestring]

I still think checking or replacing the sockets is valid if this is indeed a heat related issue.

 

 

Thermal changes under the hood can cause chip creep ( chip working its way out of a socket ). Normally this happens gradually over a long period time but then throw all the other variables into the mix of an aging computer ( tarnished contacts, single wipe sockets / poor contact between socket and IC pin, poor ventilation under the socket ) then this just makes the problem / chip creep much worse.

 

Sometimes it's time to replace the sockets as they will fail eventually.

[+xucaen]

Hi everyone,

 

It's been a long 3.5 months since the flood. Over $50k later, almost everything damaged has been replaced or repaired. We lost 3 cars that were underwater in the drive way, furnace & water heater replaced, basement stairs were rebuilt, support beams replaced, and upgrades to some of the electrical and pumps. Hopefully next time we can get the water out as fast as it comes in. I'll never park in that driveway again.

 

Today I pulled out the 800xl for the first time in months.

 

 

I would try running SysInfo. It has a few tests for the GTIA. It was useful when I was diagnosing a problem with my PAL 1088XEL.

 

SysInfo v2.24 (2014-08-01)(Kokoszkiewicz, Konrad M.)(PL)(en).atr

 

 

I ran this using my SIO2PC-USB. I didn't see any errors for the GTIA or gfx/text tests. I ran the other tests as well, no errors. All the screens were in grayscale, no color.

 

 

good luck, hope you find the gremlin in the system. a valuable asset to your arsenal is tenacity! so dont give up

try to get one of these to run it may help whittle it down:

 

 

 

 

I ran the CPS Supersalt, and the summary screen shows errors in GTIA, PIA, and POKEY. During the test, the screen was gray scale and sometimes color would start flashing. I tried a few games including my Pac Man cart and everythig is grayscale now. I double checked my video cable, everything is good. Last time I used the 800xl I had color.

 

 

 

 

 

I am feeling very discouraged. Becoming an expert in electronics is not something I wish to do. Replacing a few chips is one thing, but attempting to troubleshoot all the things that could be wrong is beyond me. I just want to play video games.

 

At this point I am looking for an expert who will take this 800xl, fix everything, and return it to me. I'll pay handsomely for the service.