spacedmonkeys Posted May 1 Author Share Posted May 1 (edited) I put everything back together, decided to try some cartridges I have, with strange results: Missile Command - worked a few times, but crashed, and no incoming missiles displayed. No sound. Tried a couple more times and got blue screen with cursor. Asteroids - works but the asteroids seem to be incomplete, no sound. Basic cart - does not boot (blue screen fixed cursor) Star Raiders - black screen Kind of unexpected that those first two carts worked. Also - holding down start when powering on, gives the "chirp" to start loading from tape. This noise is not happening when turning on normally. Edited May 1 by spacedmonkeys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 35 minutes ago, spacedmonkeys said: I put everything back together, decided to try some cartridges I have, with strange results: Missile Command - worked a few times, but crashed, and no incoming missiles displayed. No sound. Tried a couple more times and got blue screen with cursor. Asteroids - works but the asteroids seem to be incomplete, no sound. Basic cart - does not boot (blue screen fixed cursor) Star Raiders - black screen Kind of unexpected that those first two carts worked. Yeah, that is really weird, especially since Star Raiders didn't boot up. It's a good diagnostic cart because of the way it boots. I wouldn't have expected any signs of life from any others at all from what you've described getting from Star Raiders. You have the right group of fellow users on this thread though. If they can't help you get it going, something really major is up. @Beeblebrox is self-taught, but he's acquired a ton of A8 knowledge through trial and error troubleshooting and he has a very good methodology for troubleshooting these old machines. As far as @flashjazzcat goes, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone anywhere that knows more about the A8 machines than him. If they can't help you get this machine going, it truly is dead. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 28 minutes ago, bfollowell said: As far as @flashjazzcat goes, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone anywhere that knows more about the A8 machines than him. If they can't help you get this machine going, it truly is dead. yup, FJC is da mannn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacedmonkeys Posted May 4 Author Share Posted May 4 So just to update and close off this topic .. FJC has very kindly spent some time and cast his expert eye over my XL and the problem was (drum roll)…. Whilst diagnosing the initial problem with the Antic chip… I had placed Pokey back in the machine the wrong way round!! What a rookie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 I suppose we should remember to ask for a photo of the motherboard next time, just in case. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 7 minutes ago, spacedmonkeys said: So just to update and close off this topic .. FJC has very kindly spent some time and cast his expert eye over my XL and the problem was (drum roll)…. Whilst diagnosing the initial problem with the Antic chip… I had placed Pokey back in the machine the wrong way round!! What a rookie It's happened to us all at some stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 (edited) 2 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: I suppose we should remember to ask for a photo of the motherboard next time, just in case. Indeed. That's my default request for anyone troubleshooting. Post some hi res images of top and bottom of the pcb. Sometimes someone will just visually clock something simple. Edited May 4 by Beeblebrox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 3 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said: Indeed. That's my default request for anyone troubleshooting. I see now that you asked quite early on in this thread, but the request was presumably forgotten about. Well - lessons learned, I suppose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 1 minute ago, flashjazzcat said: I see now that you asked quite early on in this thread, but the request was presumably forgotten about. Well - lessons learned, I suppose. Easily done. Nature of forum thread posts to overlook requests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacedmonkeys Posted May 4 Author Share Posted May 4 I think the photos I posted were ‘before’ any chip swapping was done … should’ve posted some more after swapping the Antic I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 12 hours ago, spacedmonkeys said: I think the photos I posted were ‘before’ any chip swapping was done … should’ve posted some more after swapping the Antic I guess. LOL. Just looked at the Flikr album and POKEY is indeed upside down in the photos. So the 'default request' of hi-res photos was made, the photos produced, and the photos not looked at. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TZJB Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: LOL. Just looked at the Flikr album and POKEY is indeed upside down in the photos. So the 'default request' of hi-res photos was made, the photos produced, and the photos not looked at. Did POKEY survive? What FLIKR album are we talking about? I don't remember that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 56 minutes ago, TZJB said: Did POKEY survive? Yes, it was fine. 56 minutes ago, TZJB said: What FLIKR album are we talking about? I don't remember that... Looks like no-one remembers it (it's Flickr - I misspelled it before). Here: POKEY upside down, large as life. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woj Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Oh, but it also has the text printed on it upside down 😮 I can imagine making an exact same mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Just now, woj said: Oh, but it also has the text printed on it upside down 😮 I can imagine making an exact same mistake. Absolutely. That's why it took me a while to notice when it was on my desk. It's the fact requesting photos only works if you actually look at them that I find amusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TZJB Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: Yes, it was fine. Looks like no-one remembers it (it's Flickr - I misspelled it before). Here: POKEY upside down, large as life. I am very glad that the POKEY survived being reversed in the socket. Have you seen many of that type with the upside down print? I do now remember viewing the pictures earlier, and noticing the scratch on POKEY, but not the orientation. Doh! But then I thought that it may have been swapped with or from the 400 since then? I think it helps more if the photos are uploaded to the topic. @spacedmonkeys do we know what the fix was in the end? DRAM or ANTIC or both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 (edited) 6 minutes ago, TZJB said: Have you seen many of that type with the upside down print? You'll notice ANTIC and GTIA have similar packaging but the print is the right way up there. I've seen several VLSIs with the printing 'upside down', and it can definitely throw you when you're not paying attention. 6 minutes ago, TZJB said: do we know what the fix was in the end? DRAM or ANTIC or both? ANTIC was dead. I gather that by the time the owner replaced that IC, he'd already had POKEY out of the socket and inadvertently put it in backwards, and thus replacing ANTIC did not appear to fix the machine. I found the installed DRAMs and everything else on the machine to be absolutely fine, although the original ANTIC is stone dead. So: it was a bad ANTIC all along. Here are the photos for closure (I hope @spacedmonkeys doesn't mind): Edited May 5 by flashjazzcat 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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