130 xe problems

[postamessage]

I just recieved my 130 xe that I won off of ebay a while ago and I can't get it to work. I have it hooked up to a tv and all I can get a mostly red screen with a white line down the middle. What's wrong with this thing?

[Mindfield]

The ANTIC (video) chip could be a little on the buggered side, or possibly the pins on the chip have accumulated some oxydization. Does the screen ever change, or is it pretty well static? What happens when you turn it on while holding OPTION with no floppy drive attached? Any sound at all?

 

If it's oxidization, then that can be pretty simple to fix: Pop open the machine, remove the RF shielding, locate the ANTIC chip, then remove it and replace it, then put the works back together again. (You can clean the pins with some isopropyl alcohol if you want, but usually just re-seating the chip does the trick)

[postamessage]

I'm glad someone replyed, before I returned the thing on Monday. The screen isn't static and it makes an annoying sound. Holding down option doesn't do anything.

 

I contacted the seller and he said that the system did work when hooked up to a monitor but I don't have any cables that would plug into the monitor outlet so I can't test it.

 

I will look into the ANTIC chip and see if I can spot any oxidization.

 

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: postamessage ]

 

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: postamessage ]

[Mindfield]

I hate to say it, but it sounds suspiciously like something is seriously buggered. If it makes an annoying sound and is accompanied by jumping, flickering video, then possibly ANTIC or the 6502 CPU are sort of fried. Another possibility might be the cartrige port, as the 8-bit checks that before trying to boot DOS and loading BASIC (if enabled). If it thinks something is there then it might try executing cartige code, which of course doesn't exist which would cause a crash. Check the cartrige port for dust or foriegn objects.

 

I don't think this is an RF issue. If it was an RF issue, you'd either get serious static, or no video at all. However, the oxydization idea still holds; try reseating all socketed chips inside the 8-bit, then try again. If it doesn't help, then you may just have a bum XE.

[postamessage]

I think it has to be a RF problem because the seller said that he tested it and it worked on a monitor (unless he's flat-out lying to me.) Anyway, I can get a refund if I return the computer, which is what I'm going to do.

 

Do these things have a high failure rate? I think I'm going to give up on collecting the 8-bit Atari computer.

[Mindfield]

Actually the failure rate is pretty low. You're more likely to lose the keyboard to wear and tear before anything else -- and I never lost an XE keyboard. I lost an 800XL keyboard once, but that was only because, in a fit of frustrated adolescent pique I smashed the keyboard with a fist. Hard. Needless to say, several keys died that day... oh, and the several occasions where I dumped Coca-Cola in the keyboard. Surprisingly, one of the two that happened to survived the incident. Of course, touch-typing on keys that had a tendancy to stick to one another wasn't all that useful...

 

User stupidity aside, I never lost an 8-bit machine to wear and tear in the 6 years I owned 'em. Though the XE's are a little more cheaply made, they're all pretty well built like Sherman tanks. The only manufacturing flaw I ever came across was with my 600XL. For some reason, the power supplies had a tendancy to overheat and literally burn out. I went through four of those. I think that was a design flaw of the time... never had that with subsequent 8-bits I owned.

[Tempest]

Actually I've had two 130XE's and the key board was bad on both of them. My XEGS has a short in the cord so the keyboard konks out if the wire gets bumped. Fortunetly the short is way down in the wire so it's inside the keyboard and doesn't get bumped much. Still, those two 130XE's annoy me, I haven't figured out a good way to fix the keyboard on them.

 

Tempest

[Thelen]

i think if you try the a/v output it won't help, because the atari hardware makes a video and a audio signal which goes direct to the a/v output and also to a RF modulator (from this you go to the cable input of yor TV) , there aren't any ic's in only (coils resistor etc) so that the a/v signals are modulated in each other and if this was broken you can't always see the same stripes.

 

TheleN