Atari 65XE (upgraded to 130 XE) missing caps?

[macsonny]

Hi All,

 

I upgraded my 65XE to a 130EX by removing the two existing RAM chips, soldering in four new IC sockets and then placing in the new RAM. 128 Kb of memory heaven!!!

 

But I noticed the previous owner had removed the four capacitors at the top of each RAM chip. See attached photo.

 

Any idea why these would be removed and also what the values are so I can replace?

 

FYI - machine seems to work fine without them by the way.

 

Thanks

 

macsonny

[TGB1718]

For stability, they really should be there, they are 0.1uF capacitors as shown here.

On the circuit u1=0.1uF

 

[Mclaneinc]

Beat me to it (by miles) good old little ceramics should do..Weird they were removed?

 

Looking closely, it's hard to tell if they were ever there. I know sometimes you see the manufacturer installs them for you and just leaves the ram sockets untouched, while others make it so you have to install them when doing the upgrade.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Mclaneinc

[macsonny]

Replaced them tonight. Didn't seem to make much difference either way - but probably best they are installed. Thanks for the info.

[+kheller2]

How do you know you haven't had your morning coffee?  I read this thread a few times this morning and kept wondering when we were going to discuss the problem of missing caps -- uppercase letters.  That is funny and sad, given that I knew what this thread was about yesterday!