Fierodoug5 Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 Just got a Atari 800. Has a 10k OS in slot one and three 16k rams cards. In basic doing ?FRE(0) it reports only 29,710 Testing one ram card at a time in slot closest to OS card, each card reports 13,326 as normal. Tried swapping the cards to all different locations, yet it will show only 29,710 Any ideas what might be going on here?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 Try cleaning all 3 RAM slots with a good electrical contact cleaner - there are various ways to do this without damaging the pins. I like to spray cleaner into the slot, wipe some on the edge connectors of the cards, then insert and remove the cards several times vigorously to spread the cleaner and wipe away any surface dirt of corrosion. Do this with the power disconnected of course. Then let things air dry thoroughly, reinstall the cards and see if that resolves the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 Tried that. All contacts in the connectors look good and clean and correct tension. Still shows only 29,710 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 What do you get with just two cards in the first two slots? Does that result vary if swap the cards around in different combos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 With 2 cards shows 29,710, no difference swapping positions, tried every combo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 To confuse me even more, If I run SALT 2.05, it shows correct at 40K and passes 40k ram check. Still Shows 29,710 under basic ?FRE(0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: Just got a Atari 800. Has a 10k OS in slot one and three 16k rams cards. In basic doing ?FRE(0) it reports only 29,710 Testing one ram card at a time in slot closest to OS card, each card reports 13,326 as normal. Tried swapping the cards to all different locations, yet it will show only 29,710 Any ideas what might be going on here?? I don't have an answer. Sorry. However, coincidentally this happened to my 800 only last night. I swapped the cards around a few times and eventually it started to work and report the correct amount of RAM in BASIC but the machine is not stable. Any two boards in the 1st and 2nd RAM slots it seems OK but if I add the third board to the final slot the 800 does not remain stable for long. I've had the 800 since 1980. -SteveS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted January 30, 2020 Author Share Posted January 30, 2020 Yeah its wierd, mine seems pretty stable. Been running a demo for over a hour now. Even tried some games that require 48k and they ran fine. Still reports 29,710 in basic...weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugarland Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Congrats on your 800 acquisition! Check the capacitors? Might be a voltage issue to the RAM... Pure guesswork here. Check the voltages first. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Fierodoug5 said: Yeah its wierd, mine seems pretty stable. Been running a demo for over a hour now. Even tried some games that require 48k and they ran fine. Still reports 29,710 in basic...weird. That is weird. I reseated all the chips of all three memory boards. I've been running Archimedes Spiral (compiled FastBasic version) for 20 minutes now. Seems OK. I hope so because I don't have the skills to repair anything. -SteveS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 (edited) Could this be something to do with the BASIC cartridge or cartridge slot itself?? It sounds as if this BASIC cartridge has been modded to/is behaving like a 16K cartridge? This was sometimes done to for example include MonkeyWrench (originally a Right Cartridge BASIC enhancement) and BASIC into one 16K Left cartridge... Any sign that the cartridge has been modded? It would be interesting to run the following to see if there is data in memory between $8000-$9FFF (Right Cartridge memory bank) when BASIC is inserted: 10 FOR F=32768 TO 40959: PRINT CHR$(PEEK(F));: NEXT F This should fill the screen with 'random' characters if there is data/code in this memory range. What does FRE(0) report with a disk-based BASIC such as Turbo-Basic XL? Edited January 30, 2020 by drpeter 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted January 30, 2020 Author Share Posted January 30, 2020 Will try with turbo basic xl tonight, thanx for the info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Can't run turbo basic XL on an 800, it needs an XL (it uses RAM under the OS). I like @drpeter's idea to print the conents of the 8K RAM normally under BASIC. It should all be 0's (or heart characters) if its empty RAM. If not, you may have a modified 16K Atari BASIC cart. Just to be sure, maybe unscrew the 1 screw in your BASIC cart to take the metal cover off, and post a picture of the inside? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Nezgar said: Can't run turbo basic XL on an 800, it needs an XL (it uses RAM under the OS). Turbo BASIC XL has a slightly cut-down version which runs on 400/800- Frost BASIC 1.4, which was later named TURBO-BASIC 1.4 Edited January 31, 2020 by drpeter mistype 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 Yeah, it was that basic cart. I found another basic cart and it reports 39,700 When I have time I will open it up and see what is going on with it Oddly Turbo Basic 1.4 on floppy only reports 22,900 or something like that. Either way, I'm just glad my new to me Atari 800 now fully works and I love it. Still want to get a 810 someday, but I have a pile of non-working 1050's here, so I repaired one and am using that for now. My other 8bit setup is a 800xl, but there is something extra special about the 800. Mines a bit yellow, but retrobrite will help that once the warmer months hit NJ. Thanx for all the help everyone! Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 5 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: Mines a bit yellow, but retrobrite will help that once the warmer months hit NJ. Thanx for all the help everyone! Doug Have you thought of trying light bright? I was sceptical but did my 400 last summer and it worked great. I had previously ruined a 400 case with retrobright so didn't want to do that again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 6 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: Yeah, it was that basic cart. I found another basic cart and it reports 39,700 When I have time I will open it up and see what is going on with it Cool! Most curious about it now. 6 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: I have a pile of non-working 1050's here, so I repaired one and am using that for now. Once you have a working one, things are much easler to diagnose the non-working ones. the main IC's are always socketed on the motherboard for easy swapping (just ensure that the 2797/2793 controller remains with the original PCB if at all possible). Mechs are also easy to swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 10 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: Oddly Turbo Basic 1.4 on floppy only reports 22,900 or something like that. That's correct for Turbo Basic 1.4 on a 48K system- because it doesn't 'hide' much of its code in the RAM 'behind' the XL OS like Turbo Basic XL can on 64K systems. Consequently, along with having loaded DOS, it uses ~24K of the 48K of 'exposed' RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 4 hours ago, Nezgar said: Cool! Most curious about it now. I'm betting it's a Monkey Wrench hybrid 16K cartridge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 In any case, printing out the contents as suggested before will almost certainly turn up some text identifying what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 Or more specifically 10 FOR F=34525 TO 34589: PRINT CHR$(PEEK(F));: NEXT F will print out the copyright message for a Monkey Wrench II cartridge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 10 FOR F=38312 TO 38375: PRINT CHR$(PEEK(F));: NEXT F will print out the copyright message for the original Monkey Wrench cartridge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 And 10 FOR F=34520 TO 34580: PRINT CHR$(PEEK(F));: NEXT F will print out the copyright message for the Monkey Wrench XL cartridge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 12 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: I found another basic cart and it reports 39,700 That’s still not right, is it? Standard Atari BASIC in a 48K 800, or 64K XL, should report 37,902 if I recall correcly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 I might have messed up the number, I didn't write it down 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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