Did any Atari 8-bit rigs ever overheat?

[Keatah]

Did any Atari 8-bit comps ever have overheating problems?

 

When I had my 400 & 800 I never recalled any issues. They were as reliable as ever it seemed. And I ask the question because I was watching some dumb and not-smart youtuber claim that Atari got rid of the 800's RAM & OS module casings for exactly that reason. I say it was more a cost-cutting move, because the early units had the module housings but not the later ones. And the switchover to the naked boards seemed to coincide with deciding all units would ship with 48K, thus negating the need for a consumer-friendly method of upgrading. Also coincided with losing the brown plastic wings that held the top. The top was now screwed into place. No need to open it. and upgrade piecemeal.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Keatah

[Rybags]

Ram on early ones is about the only example I could think of - they used 12V as part of the required power supply so did get hot.

Changing Ram modules to lose the casing would have been the logical path for solving heat issues, though cost savings were probably had as well.

 

I can't think of any peripherals that got too hot.  Our drives had the external PS where 1541 has the mains going straight in and could have issues as a result.

 

I do remember using my 1010 PS for something it wasn't meant for and it got hot to the point of not being able to be handled for about 20 minutes.

 

Looking at power requirements it's obvious that our machines shouldn't get hot.  Barely 6 Watts for an XL/later.

Though I measured an ST and Amiga about 10 years ago - strangely the ST was near 20 Watts but the Amiga was somewhat lower (maybe 12?).  Was probably just down to the efficiency of the power supplies.

[thorfdbg]

Not the boards itself, but the power supplies did at times. The brick power supply of the 1050 drive of a friend of mine and myself died under heavy usage. They had a heat fuse  built in that burned under heavy usage.

Also, my (german) 800XL power supply shuts itself off after hours of usage in hot summers. No permanent damage done, it is just getting too hot, and the linear power regulator within then shuts down. Let it cool down for a couple of minutes, and erything is fine again.

[TGB1718]

I have an  800 I bought in 1981, used it for many years, fully enclosed RAM/ROM modules, no overheating.

Although now removed as it has an Incognito  

 

Even my 1050's which get really hot on the heatsink have never failed for that reason (only a track 0 sensor recently).

 

As you say, the removal of the casing was down to cost and nothing else. 

[sup8pdct]

I have read an atari service bulletin to remove the covers of the ram and rom modules of the 800 due to over heating. I have it somewhere but will need to do major digging.

[BillC]

4 hours ago, thorfdbg said:

Not the boards itself, but the power supplies did at times. The brick power supply of the 1050 drive of a friend of mine and myself died under heavy usage. They had a heat fuse  built in that burned under heavy usage.

Also, my (german) 800XL power supply shuts itself off after hours of usage in hot summers. No permanent damage done, it is just getting too hot, and the linear power regulator within then shuts down. Let it cool down for a couple of minutes, and erything is fine again.

I believe the european XL power supplies have a thermal fuse that will shut off power when they get too hot, this helps reduce/prevent component failure like that which affects the INGOT.

[+bf2k+]

The early ICD MIOs got way too hot.  I remember I had to send my first one back to ICD for repair - it overheated until it was damaged.  I ran them with the end covers removed and a small fan on the desk.  I have seen pictures of modified ones with small fans added to them.  And ICD eventually sold them with perforated end covers on them.

[+bf2k+]

I also had to cut the brick open on my original 800 power supply to replace the fuse.

[BillC]

43 minutes ago, bf2k+ said:

I also had to cut the brick open on my original 800 power supply to replace the fuse.

I did the same with the lower power version that came with my early 400, I also installed an accessible fuse holder.

[djglish]

I never had any problems with my 800XL, but I did end up putting a fan inside of my 520STFM after upgrading it to 4mb.  I would get hot and cause errors.  After the fan it ran nice and cool.

[TGB1718]

10 hours ago, djglish said:

I never had any problems with my 800XL, but I did end up putting a fan inside of my 520STFM after upgrading it to 4mb.

Did pretty much the same on my STE, it seems to get quite warm inside the case with 4MB installed

[Gunstar]

22 hours ago, bf2k+ said:

I also had to cut the brick open on my original 800 power supply to replace the fuse.

I have had to replace the fuse on a couple of Atari's "universal" PSU's which are the ones used for the 800, 1200XL and 1050 drives and a couple other peripherals, though off-hand I can't remember which, I think either my 1010 or 1020 also use one, and the other has it's own smaller PSU, but I forget which uses which atm. But the ones needing the new fuses was user error on my part, by mistakenly plugging them into Indus GT drives, and the Indus GT PSU's into the 1050's. No permanent damage to any of the drives, the 1050's just didn't work right with the GT PSU's and of course the GT's blew the fuses on the two power packs. I have  half a dozen of these PSU's for my equipment, but all could have the rubber feet removed and used screws except for one that I had to cut open and super glue back together like bf2k+. I do make sure after that incident that I always plug the right packs into the right drives.

 

Otherwise I have noticed the Atari PSU's get warm, but never hot, and all are still perfectly functional today (after replacing the fuses on the two) even being 30-40 years old. Which, by the way, I always have left plugged in and still do, 24/7 without overheating or burnouts, they just feel warm and have lasted for decades being plugged in continuously for years at a time, only being unplugged to be moved to a new location.

 

My 1200XL's always feel warm if you touch the case by their heat sinks, but again never hot and I've never had any XL or XE get hot or overheat. Before replacing my 800's ram and rom boards with an Incognito, I never had an issue with overheating either and they were the full enclosed ones.

 

When I owned ST's they neve overheated either. Nor any Atari console and I've owned them all at one time or another. My Jaguar's and CD unit PSU's finally died after about 20 years of use and also being plugged in all the time. I replaced them with modern, smaller equivalents and still leave them plugged in all the time, but they never even feel warm.

[Tickled_Pink]

There were stories years ago of Mexican 6502s being hotter than those made elsewhere but no idea how true that was.

[ACML]

I've owned 400s, 800s, 800XLs, and 1200XLs and never have I experienced a overheat issue.  Like Gunstar mentioned, the top right corner of the 1200XL feels warm and that's where the passive heatsink is.  I'd imagine the case screw might get hot in that corner since it touches the heatsink, but it screws into the plastic case bottom.  Still never fails to impress me how reliable these things are some 40 years later.

 

 

[BillC]

2 hours ago, ACML said:

Still never fails to impress me how reliable these things are some 40 years later.

Keyboards seem to be the most common issue, I believe the INGOT power supply would be second.

[ClausB]

Maybe BITD when AC was less common, in warmer climates, there were problems.