Quick hardware testing suggestions for purchases

[Justin Payne]

Hey all,

 

I hope this hasn't been asked previously but I was wondering what some of you guys do when you're buying hardware from unknown individuals but you want to test it before handing over cash. I don't have an diagnosis cart so I'm thinking of doing these simple things.

 

1. Insert a cart and play the game a little and game port
2. Test out all of the keys using notepad
3. Inspect for signs of significant damage
4. Run a BASIC command to check for total amount of RAM or test areas of RAM for flakiness. (Would be interested in this BASIC command if someone has one handy)

Would love to test the other ports but I think that would require much more setup time so I'm shooting for the minimum time for the maximum output.

I'm just considered with the computer itself. Testing peripherals would be nice but not necessary.

OK, retro computerphiles. Hit me with your best shot (fire away)!

[Mathy]

Hello Justin Payne

 

Get yourself Sys-Check 2.2 by tf_hh. It's a small PCB that plugs into the parallelbus of your computer (this excluses the 400, 800, 1200XL and some of the 65XE's and the XEGS). I'll test your computer. The device has been talked about and even offered here on AtariAge in this section and Jürgen (tf_hh) is an AtariAge user.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[Justin Payne]

Thanks. Since this purchase is going to happen this weekend, unless someone wants to loan me their device (Kent, wa, USA), I'm going to have to wing it with a less than complete solution.

[+kheller2]

Your question implies you are purchasing a 400/800 w/o any floppy device. In that case, testing the keys and playing a game, any game, is a good step. If you are testing a floppy drive or even bringing your own to test, try a game known to use 48K and not a master floppy (make sure its a copy -- in case the drive damages the floppy). Hook it up to a monitor just run through some simple playing. Let the system burn-in for a little while and do a cold start.. IE, I'm one that likes to turn on a cold system that hasn't been running to check how it behaves, run some tests, then let the system on and running for 15 minutes or so if possible, and retest.

 

In the long run, diagnostic carts, diagnostic floppies and sys-check are the way to go. But, I've gotten to the point in my collecting that I assume things are broken and I'll have to clean and adjust anyway, so I tend to look for the most components at the lowest price. (A box of 1020's, 1010s, and a 1050, and I only really care about the 1050 for its plastic or mech).

 

I do understand that when you are just starting out you want to make sure what you are investing in, does work and works well; especially if this is your first 1200XL (or something like that that is now starting to demand a premium). It usually isn't perfect, but you learn to settle for things you can fix or adjust if needed. This from a guy who doesn't understand that having just one of everything is enough. I must have at least 3 of everything, sometimes a dozen.

[Justin Payne]

Well, I'm not exactly starting out and but all of my paid purchases have been though "good ol' spin the wheel of as-is" ShopGoodwill.com so risk is always a consideration. This will be my first in-person purchase and I'd like to go in with some sort of test strategy. The guy is already a little aloof so I suspect I'll find something wrong when I meet with him. Unfortunately, I don't have any floppies to try with it so I'm relying on Star Raiders. I also thought poking memtop might at least tell me how much ram there or even write a small program to write to a portion of memory and then read from it to ensure the data is correct and not corrupt. I'm just spitballin' here.

[Rybags]

Take a blank floppy. It can at least verify the drive belt works and the drive can seek and attempt to read.

Booting a blank should give BOOT ERROR about once every few seconds, the drive behaviour would vary depending on model but generally seek, attempt read, return error, try again.

 

? FRE(0) in Basic should give 37902 if no Dos present on any machine with 40K or more Ram and no second cartridge present.

On an XL/XE machine it's advisable to run the built in memory test, any red/fail is bad and either walk away or offer $5.

 

Take a joystick and test your game cart for a couple of minutes.

 

Keyboard functionality, easiest to just test in Basic.

[FifthPlayer]

Really simple, but bring along a BASIC cart in case it is a 400/800 you are testing.

 

Maybe a simple type-in Basic program that prints out the values from all four joystick ports, so that you can test them. Something like;

 

10 ? STICK(0): ? " ": ? STICK(1): ? " ": ? STICK(2): ? " ": ? STICK(3)

15 ? STRIG(0): ? " ": ? STRIG(1): ? " ": ? STRIG(2): ? " ": ? STRIG(3)

20 GOTO 10

 

You get the idea. This is short enough to type in, but gives you all the data from the ports. You could do the same for paddle inputs.

Edited August 13, 2016 by FifthPlayer

[russg]

Thanks. Since this purchase is going to happen this weekend, unless someone wants to loan me their device (Kent, wa, USA), I'm going to have to wing it with a less than complete solution.

 

It's a 600XL. So 16k memory. Built in BASIC. Type ? FRE(0) to see RAM, should be about 12,000 I guess. Type BYE to enter the self test, or

hold OPTION and turn on should enter self test.

You could test the function keys. Type 10 ? PEEK(53279)

20 GOTO 10

should give you a change in number with each function key (the silver keys).

[Justin Payne]

Great suggestions, guys. I'll give these a shot when I get there this morning.

BTW: It's a 130XE so I especially want it to work since I hear those guys aren't easy to work on. If the 130XE doesn't work, I'm not taking a risk on the other peripherals unless he offers me a great deal.

[Justin Payne]

BTW: This guy had a TON of retro stuff. Mostly console stuff but just amazing. I told him to send me his contact info so I could share it with you all.