810 Drive Busy light will not turn off.

[theeas]

I just acquired a Atari 810 drive along with an Atari 800xl. The 800xl is fine I tested it with My 1050. But the 810 turns on ( but no power LED) and the busy light will not turn off. I took off the top and the disk is indeed spinning. When connected to any of my 800xl's it goes right to self-tests. I tried different SIO cables and drive is set to Drive 1. Any Help would be greatly appreciated. Also, this is my first post, long time A8 gamer got my first one in 1981 and spend many fun hours playing games and typing in games from my Compute magazines. Recently got into repairing /collecting 8-bit hardware and software. Thanks.

[+Nezgar]

I presume it doesn't respond to the computer in that state? First things to check are the ROM and 6810 RAM. Swap those from another 810?

Edited January 7, 2018 by Nezgar

[_The Doctor__]

First deoxit all the the board pin card connections...etc.. and the switches too... clean and re seat everything!

Chances are it will run no problem but it is crucial, essential to do this before delving and trouble shooting further...

Edited January 7, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[theeas]

Thanks for the responses I'm off Tue and will deox the connections and report back my findings.

[1050]

will deox the connections

That's good as far as it goes, but just spraying the

joy juice on there isn't really the entire fix, just

so you know.

 

The fix involves moving the connector while it's wet

with the magic juice. Again and again and again. The

physical movement while slathered is what removes the

oxide coating and this also applies to the drive

select switches. They need to be slid back and forth

10 or 20 times while wet and then a few more after

they've dried out too.

 

Lift and replace all chips while wet as well and for

the same reasons as above. Hopefully the underlying

theme and concept are getting across, movement is the

key ingredient in the proper use of deoxit. And far

too many assume something else and in those cases

deoxit doesn't work out so good. And we don't want

that for you, we want you to address the issue and

resolve it entirely first time thru and then we can

bank on the good connections with hopefully new

symptoms showing up.

[_The Doctor__]

I am starting to realize I should assume nothing and try to go over each step in pain staking detail.... I definitely should have outlined it as working the switches, connectors and socket wipes/swipes. My thoughts were if one knows what deoxit is..they'd know how to use it or they'd be like what's deoxit? But that might not always be the case. Thanks for explaining it more clearly.

[theeas]

well since I got 2 more shifts of Overtime I can research what deoxit is and where I can find some . Thanks for all your input I try to get the most information I can before attempting to fix any of my old Atari gear its getting harder to replace.. I will Keep you posted and thanks again.

[theeas]

Ok I researched and found the deoxit and of course there's 50 different kinds what would you recommend?, ill order it on amazon and have it ready for when I'm off on Thurs..

[_The Doctor__]

DeoxIT CAIG

[theeas]

Thanks