Has anyone done a premptive repalcement of 400/800 filter caps?

[spinnaker15136]

Still need to get the 800 backup and running but I was wondering if I should go ahead and replace the filter caps. All but those two 4700 ufds are no sweat. But the two 4600s concern me a bit on replacement. Trying to get ones that firt for one. Has anyone done a preemptive replacement of 400/800

[+Nezgar]

There's been multiple accounts by people that know more than me that replacing capacitors on the old Atari computers is really not necessary. There's been almost no accounts of bad capacitors in the 1970/early 80's Atari hardware, at least to the point of being a risk to the system. (Except for the bloody XL ingot power supplies lol) They were built before the years when component quality went down the drain... Maybe someone else has a more educated opinion about the 800 specifically.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Well replacement of the caps on the 400/800 must be common enough that Console5 has kits for them available:

 

https://console5.com/store/cap-kits/computer-cap-kits/atari-computers.html

 

I've never replaced the caps in my 800xl or my 130xe but I did replace the caps in my TI-99 and my VIC-20 about a year ago for good measure.

[spinnaker15136]

Old electrolytic caps tend to dry out. A lot of people say they should be repaired. I dumped my old Tek for a digital scope after repairing it (think it was a deflection issue) and saw how packed that PSU was. I dreaded having to tear into that so on eBay it went.

 

I replaced more than my share of filter cap on old TVs. It was really funny with some customers that knew just enough about TVs to be dangerous. They were bound to ask you if it was THE condensor or THE tube.