1200XL no video?

[nilla]

Hi all, new to all of this so forgive my novice-ness.

 

I came into possession of a 1200XL today and wanna restore it. However, there seems to be no video. The power LED comes on, but not much else. Perhaps it needs a new composite cable? The one it came with has a black cord along with the usual red/white/yellow. I'm hoping I don't have to get into the internals of this thing, I really only have experience with Nintendo consoles, and my knowledge in those is limited anyway. Attached are some photos of the console itself as well as the power and composite cables.

 

Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Geister]

Don't trust the cable to be color coded correctly.  The Atari only has mono sound, so the colors may not be what you think.

[Geister]

Try one cable end at a time until you see an image on the screen.  Then see which of the remaining cables gets you sound.

[Beeblebrox]

@nilla Not to be too negative but if it isn't the video or cable, then there are plenty of other reasons for a black screen or no activity. Dead CPU, dead/failing ram chips and custom Atari chip issues. If this is the first time you have powered it up it could be many things.

 

Can you post a video here of it powering up?  Turn the sound up on the tv. Make sure you have the input selected for AV and watch for any sign on the tv you have switched it on and a signal is at least getting through (the tv will normally show a no signal message if not). Also listen for any sounds, little blips.

 

Also - one other thing - my lcd digital TV doesn't like two cables plugged into it for AV. So for example if I have a composite cable setup plugged in and I happen to have my svideo plugged in as well, the TV won't regsiter either.

 

Edit: btw you would need to make sure with the av cable it is an Atari din5 to composite one, and not one for say a C64. If it came with the machine, depending on the history, it might be someone bought the wrong av cable.

 

The other day I saw an Atari 8 bit that was being sold with Atari 2600 games and a 2600 psu. Completely different systems. So mismatches happen.

 

Edited January 19 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice. As @Geister suggested, the cables were indeed not color-coded correctly. The white cable ended up providing video, but the red cable gave white noise audio. I ended up ordering a new cable either way (the one that came with it is all gunked up), so hopefully that fixes the issues. If not, you may see me back here ahahaha.

Edited January 19 by nilla
wrong word

[Beeblebrox]

17 minutes ago, nilla said:

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice. As @Geister suggested, the cables were indeed not color-coded correctly. The white cable ended up providing video, but the red cable gave white noise audio. I ended up ordering a new cable either way (the one that came with it is all gunked up), so hopefully that fixes the issues. If not, you may see me back here ahahaha.

No worries. In the meantime if inclined feel free to post the video i suggested, or at least a pic. Might be worth it whilst you wait for the cable. 

 

Also, which cable did you buy?  Do you have the url link to it?

 

Edit: great you got an image. Was it the 1200XL's Atari rainbow logo?

Edited January 19 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

Actually, it was Ms. Pac-Man. Attached is a video of it booting, along with the gross audio.

 

EDIT: Yes, it displays the rainbow Atari logo upon removing the cartridge. Here is the link to the replacement cable I bought: https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/5-pin-din-to-composite-av-cable/

Edited January 19 by nilla

[Beeblebrox]

19 minutes ago, nilla said:

Actually, it was Ms. Pac-Man. Attached is a video of it booting, along with the gross audio.

 

EDIT: Yes, it displays the rainbow Atari logo upon removing the cartridge. Here is the link to the replacement cable I bought: https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/5-pin-din-to-composite-av-cable/

 

IMG_3146.mov 7.64 MB · 2 downloads

thanks. That's fantastic it works. So one thing you'll likely find - because the 1200xl is very prone to it - is that the keyboard might have many keys that don't respond. There is a tried and tested fix which can take a bit of time but nearly always works. So will be interesting to see if your keyboard has resisted that issue.

 

The 1200XL keyboard and feel of it when typing is widely regarded as the nicest feel keyboard of any of the Atari 8 bit computers. 

 

Cable you have bought is fine.

Edited January 19 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

How does one test the keyboard? I'm willing to put some time into this machine and make sure it lasts much longer.

 

EDIT: I'd assume booting to OS(?, no cartridge in system) then pressing arrow keys would allow you to choose which test you want to do.

Edited January 19 by nilla

[Beeblebrox]

11 minutes ago, nilla said:

How does one test the keyboard? I'm willing to put some time into this machine and make sure it lasts much longer.

So normally with the 800XL, 600XL, 65XE, 130XE and 800XE they have Atari BASIC built in, as well as a self test menu. These allow you to type and or test keys.

 

The 1200XL has neither of these AFAIK, (it just boots to the rainbow Atari logo). So you only thing you can do is get an Atari BASIC cartridge. Boot up to BASIC and you can then at least test all the main (brown) keys on the keyboard and the blue screen ready prompt.

 

Unfortunately you won't be able to test any of the silver function keys, other than reset, and perhaps start (latter if you power up the computer holding down start you should hear a beep - which is the cassette load function).

 

Do you have a disk drive as the other thing you can do is boot a dos disk or a word processor software disk.

 

Edit: just in case I am wrong about self test mode - power up the computer holding the option key. Anything? If not, try pressing the help key whilst on the Atari rainbow logo screen.

 

I still think the 1200XL didn't come with the self test functionality. And even if it did, if the option and or help keys aren't working, you won't be able to get into it.

 

Edited January 19 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

Okay that makes sense as to why I wasn't able to get any keys (silver or keyboard) to function other than Reset. I don't believe I have a standalone disk drive anywhere, quite an antiquated piece of technology at this point haha. Would you be able to point me in the direction of an Atari Basic cart?

[Beeblebrox]

7 minutes ago, nilla said:

Okay that makes sense as to why I wasn't able to get any keys (silver or keyboard) to function other than Reset. I don't believe I have a standalone disk drive anywhere, quite an antiquated piece of technology at this point haha. Would you be able to point me in the direction of an Atari Basic cart?

I've edited my post reply since you probably first read it, so try the option key and help key methods I mentioned.

 

And if - as I suspect - that doesn't work, then if you are in the US you can get an Atari Basic cart here:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234854246859?

 

Edit: this is the the tried and tested keyboard fix method BTW:

 

 

Edited January 19 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

Here is an imgur link to two videos. The first is trying the option key, and the second is trying the help key. The option key did nothing, while the help key got me to the self-test menu. I suppose I'll have to end up getting a basic cart in order to fully test what does/doesn't work with the machine.

Edited January 19 by nilla

[Beeblebrox]

13 minutes ago, nilla said:

Here is an imgur link to two videos. The first is trying the option key, and the second is trying the help key. The option key did nothing, while the help key got me to the self-test menu. I suppose I'll have to end up getting a basic cart in order to fully test what does/doesn't work with the machine.

No need to get the Atari Basic cart now you have confirmed there is a self test. You might be luckly enough to repeatidly press the select key until it might just respond enough for you to move down the menu to the keyboard test. If you do, repeat the process for the start key to get into the keyboard test. Then if lucky you can try and press all the main keyboard keys. Sometimes, on rare occasions, you can bring back a lot of keys by pressing them a hundred or so times. 

 

It's likely you'll need to do the keyboard fix in FJC's video, but you've nothing to lose in trying to press each key 100 or so times. It's worked for me on one 1200XL keyboard where I managed to get 90% of the keys to respond from zero.

 

Remember some of the F keys won't have an assigned function. The msin ones you want to work are Start, option, select, help and reset.

Edited January 19 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

Quote

but you've nothing to lose in trying to press each key 100 or so times.

Wow, this actually worked for most of the non-working keys. If it wouldn't start working with simple presses, I'd press the key in and wiggle it. Sometimes that was enough to bring the key back. However, the keys the DON'T work are most of the silver keys, control, and both shift keys. Otherwise, I was able to get the rest working semi-normally.

[Beeblebrox]

1 minute ago, nilla said:

Wow, this actually worked for most of the non-working keys. If it wouldn't start working with simple presses, I'd press the key in and wiggle it. Sometimes that was enough to bring the key back. However, the keys the DON'T work are most of the silver keys, control, and both shift keys. Otherwise, I was able to get the rest working semi-normally.

that's good. You'll benefit from doing the video fix. It's a little daunting and first but watch it a few times before you undertake it, and make sure you use the same tools and approach as in the video - and take it very slowly.  It's worth it. The 1200XL keyboard is fantastic. Well done.

[nilla]

Would this be the video you're referencing? I actually reached out to him on Facebook while my account here was being approved hahaha.

[Beeblebrox]

26 minutes ago, nilla said:

Would this be the video you're referencing? I actually reached out to him on Facebook while my account here was being approved hahaha.

Ah yes. I had linked to what I thought was that video if you scroll up to earlier posts today. I guess FJC has done two vids. Yup, look at that one you have linked to, or both. 

 

FJC has a long history of great videos on Atari fixing, upgrades and you can learn a lot from watching them.  A good majority of fixes or upgrades for all models of Atari 8 bit  have been covered by him over the years.

Edited January 20 by Beeblebrox

[nilla]

Amazing. Thank you so much for all the help!

[Beeblebrox]

6 minutes ago, nilla said:

Amazing. Thank you so much for all the help!

You are welcome. 

You are in for such a treat as loads of new Atari homebrew games. 

 

Checkout ADoom, a wip Doom port, which should run on your 64k 1200XL, (although I assume you have an ntsc Atari if you are in the States?). Not sure if it runs on pal only a8s(?) :

 

 

Edited January 20 by Beeblebrox

[Geister]

I'm glad that you don't have a serious problem with your 1200XL.  They are beautiful computers and have lots of room inside for upgrades.

[nilla]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

You are welcome. 

You are in for such a treat as loads of new Atari homebrew games. 

 

Checkout ADoom, a wip Doom port, which should run on your 64k 1200XL, (although I assume you have an ntsc Atari if you are in the States?). Not sure if it runs on pal only a8s(?) :

 

 

Yeah I am.

 

9 minutes ago, Geister said:

I'm glad that you don't have a serious problem with your 1200XL.  They are beautiful computers and have lots of room inside for upgrades.

I'm glad too. As soon as I get the GameCube I've been working on completed, I'll have more room to tinker with this and perhaps give it some well deserved upgrades.

[Donald Dennis]

I have several of those cables. Pretty certain sound is on the black lead and don't really know how to use it on any of the displays I have. Ordered em thinking they would work but coming up empty so far.