Atari 800XL holding power?

[macsonny]

Hi All,

 

Got a bit of an interesting problem (maybe). I have an Atari 800XL. Seems to work ok except for an issue when I turn the machine off and then back on. It's like there is some capacitor holding a charge as if I turn the machine off and then back on with say a 1-2 second pause it will go back to the screen when I turned it off and have a bunch of artifactos across the screen.

 

I'm fining that to power toggle the machine I have to turn it off for 8-10 second before turning back on.

 

My 130XE is fine with a 1-2 second pause.

 

Any reason why the 800XL might need more time?

 

Thanks

 

macsonny

[phaeron]

It's most likely RAM retention. XL/XE systems rely on signature bytes in RAM to distinguish a cold start from a warm start, and if the system isn't allowed enough time off, the RAM can still retain those bytes. RAM refreshes need to occur within several milliseconds to keep data safe, but fragments of the data can persist even several seconds after power-off.

 

[+kheller2]

It also sounds like you have a ram upgrade in the XL.  

[macsonny]

27 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

It also sounds like you have a ram upgrade in the XL.  

Aaahhh - yes I do. That makes sense. Thanks.

[Beeblebrox]

Yup, seen this happen on 800XL's with the 256k rambo XL upgrade from time to time. Same ram chips can be used on the upgrade and one machine will exhibit this, but the next machine won't. Just leave a longer time powered off, 10-15 seconds, power on and it'll usually be OK. 

[xrbrevin]

you could always use a patched OS to add a cold reset function

[macsonny]

28 minutes ago, xrbrevin said:

you could always use a patched OS to add a cold reset function

Good idea. Which patch OS's have this?

[xrbrevin]

The high speed SIO OS has it, mine also has reverse option/Basic so you dont have to hold option key down all the time 🙃

see here:

https://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/#hipatch

 

[Rybags]

Regardless of Ram type it's probably a good idea to give it a bit more than 3 seconds for a power cycle.

Better still is not to power off at all if possible.  If you're in Basic just type B.

If you have a Dos menu run at E477 (holding Option if needed)

[Peri Noid]

One of the ways of coping with this problem is to replace one of the base memory chips with something of a different brand, that looses data easier. A trick commonly found in XE computers. 

[+bf2k+]

13 hours ago, macsonny said:

Aaahhh - yes I do. That makes sense. Thanks.

I've seen this also on my Rambo 256k XLs in the past.