Atari 800/1050 drive no communication...

[zraider]

I'm the proud new owner of an Atari 800 and 1050 disk drive that I bought off Ebay, only thing, the system was almost in pieces when I took it out of the box. 'Nother story....

I finally got the Atari 800 going (memo pad, basic cartridge okay), and the 1050 'seems' to be trying to work, but when I place a dos disk in it (with Atari off) and close the little lever, it shows busy for a few seconds; then I turn the Atari on and memo pad comes up. If I hold Start the Atari beeps like it wants to do something, but the computer and drive just do not seem to be communicating at all. There is no cartridge in the Atari when booting, but I have tried with the basic cartridge too. By the way, how are games booted ? Same way as dos ?

Anyway, checked out the drive cable and if it's 1 to 1..etc, all the wires show continuity; didn't look for any shorts but the wiring looked good (took ends apart).

It's been a long time since I've used an Atari and I'd really appreciate any comments and help. Oh, when the disk is in the 1050 and the Atari is booted with the Start key held, it just beeps, does not show memo pad, but no error message is ever shown; if no keys are pressed and held when booting up the Atari memo just comes up, no error codes, no nothing. It's like the drive's not there.

This unit took quite a beating, but I'm suspecting the 1050, or user error.

Again, any thoughts and help appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Bill

[Nukey Shay]

Well, one thing you could look at is the drive select switches in the back of the drive...both should be to your left (as you look at them). If they aren't, the computer probably woun't be able to detect it as drive 1.

Worst case is a bad port on either the computer or the drive. The drive has two...so try them both if the drive select is correct.

If the equipment is ok, the computer should AT LEAST try to boot the disk (with or without Basic). Holding the start button only readies the computer for cassette loading. If the disk is unreadable, the boot error message will echo to the screen continuously. This error message will appear if the drive is powered up when you turn on the computer (even if the drive door is not closed/no disk in the drive). The boot error message will also appear if DOS.SYS is not on the disk.

[zraider]

Drive selects SWITCHES ? I see only one to the left side looking at the back. This has been switched to both positions, so if there is another one, they should have matched up at some point. Thanks for the tip about holding Start to load from casseste; that's what I originally had way back and I knew some key had to be held down to get the load going.

I've had this drive apart, and not knowing that much about it but not liking to get beat by a piece of equipment, it's really frustrating. All the connections, wiring, components, etc appeared to be solidly connected, no cracked pc board, nothing out of the ordinary as far as my limited background with these drives goes.

Thanks for the tip and let me know about 1 or 2 switches.

[Nukey Shay]

The 1050 has two thin slider switches in a single casing. On my drives, they are colored black and white. When both are in the same position, only the black switch is visible (since the white switch is behind the black one). Two switches x two positions = four drive numbers (standard for the 1050). If either switch is missing, that is probably the problem. Drive select positions :

Drive 1 : both left

Drive 2 : white/black

Drive 3 : both right

Drive 4 : black/white

 

BTW holding start to load a cassette program only needs to be done with m/l loading...Basic programs can use the usual CLOAD, LOAD"C:", or ENTER"C:" commands (saved with CSAVE, SAVE"C:", or LIST"C:" respectively).

[zraider]

Okay, did see both switches and they're both to the left. I'm learning...

I thought I had things solved today when I found 2 pins on the Atari bent; on trying to straighten them, they broke off, and I thought of just hardwiring the end of the drive cable, but upon reflection, decided to replace the pins, so the Atari comes apart and 2 new pins are put in; plugged in the cable to the Atari and had continuity to the new pins, no shorts to other pins, things were looking up, right ? Well, they were, until I hooked it all up again and still the Atari is just not seeing the drive for some reason.

I have another 800 and 1050 coming, and will check out the drive on the "old" one when I'm sure it works with the "new" one.

This computer and drive were banged up really good in transit, so I'll just wait until I have a working setup and then experiement and see just what's working and what's not.

Thanks a lot for the help and advice.

[zraider]

'Got the 'new' Atari system with drive and found it's the original disk drive that just doesn't work. At least all my work putting the new pins in the 800 I had weren't for naught, as it works fine with that 800.

Anyway, could trouble shoot more when I have time, as this old unit does have discrete electronics, but it'll have to wait for a rainy day.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.