Meall

I'd like to know which cool software I can install on my Atari Portfolio. I only have one 128k card, so it is limited.

Hi all, I've been looking for this information all day yesterday, but could not find a specific answer to my question... I have a stock 600XL (16Kb of memory) and I wanted to test my SIO2SD on it yesterday, but could never get to the screen to select the game or software I wanted to launch. I was thinkng I did sometime wrong and the SIO2SD was not properly configured. But I tested it on my 800XL, and it worked right away. So the questions I have are the following: 1) I guess it is because it does not have enough memory and BASIC is going over/before the SIO2SD software can load. Does this make sense? 2) is there a way to tell it not to load BASIC and load the SIO2SD software first? 3) I read that 16Kb of memory may not be enough for most games, ­is the only solution to use a 600XL is to upgrade it to 64 Kb? Thank you all

They are not reversed on screen, that’s what happens when we take a picture of a monitor.

I have a Vic 20 that displays a bunch of random characters on screen at boot up. Im trying to find the issue, but cant find it. I tested all socketed chips in a working one, and they look fine. Any idea?

It is finally working. The issue was weird... I removed the F key and the white plastic to look at the springs. Nothing wrong there, but the F key was still repeating. I tried cleaning it with compressed air and alcool, nothing worked... So I remove the ~10 screws that maintain the keyboard to the metal plate, and connected the membrane only to the computer, and the F key was no longer repeating. By typing on the membrane itself, all keys were working as expected. I then reinstalled the keyboard to the metal frame with the membrane, tested it, and it worked... Basically, I thing it was some small thing stocked between the keyboard and the membrane doing a false contact. By just removing the keyboard from the membrane it freed the culprit item and now I have a 800XL like new. I just need to ket software now and start using it. Thank you all

Hi I finally ordered a new 800XL board from Best Electronics, and received it today. I installed it in my 800XL and it starts normally. With one exception: the keyboard is sending the "F" letter constantly, which prevents me from using it normally. Any suggested path of investigation you can suggest?

Thank you, Best Electronics are selling them $30 apiece: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/quickguide.htm

Ok, now I know better what can be wrong with my 800XL: - the guy tested the GTIA, PIA, ANTIC and Sally chips in his working 800XL, and they worked - he tested Pokey, and it failed. Putting his good Pokey on my board failed, so another component is bad - he tested the RAM and was fine - he could not test the MMU or RON chips as they are soldered on his board I contacted Best Electronics for pricing of components: CO12294 Pokey U$D 20.00 CO61598 OS U$D 12.00 CO61618 MMU U$D 14.00 8 CO60612 Ram chips U$D 12.00 Or I can buy a working 800XL main board for $70. Probably my best bet is to buy a working board with sockets and clearly identified the bad parts as the price will be similar in the end. I'll also need to buy some joysticks, any recommendations on theses? And Atari and Commodore have compatible joysticks?

I finally got in touch with the guy my friend's got it from. He tested the PIA, GTIA, Sally and Antic chips, and they were all working fine. He also tested Pokey, and confirmed this one is not working on my 800XL. He also tested his Pokey on my board, but this test proved that something else on the board is faulty because he got the black screen too. He stopped testing at that point. This means it could be the MMU or RAM that is faulty in addition to the Pokey itself. He should validate if the MMU and Ram are socketed on his computer, and I'll try to investigate further with him if we can meet together. Great so far. I've got further down the path of a resolution...

Nice idea, but getting another non working computer "for parts" may be as much difficult to diagnose than the only one I have. Unless I can find one locally. For the same price, I better order the chips and test them one at a time...

brenski, on 03 Jul 2016 - 04:48 AM, said: I finally found the pinout from this thread on the forums: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/184792-800xl-power-supply-connector/ From what I can tell, the PSU is working fine. Pins 3,5,7 are connected together as ground, and all pins 1,4,6 are reporting a steady 5.1V.

I have only that one 800XL, so no spare parts... it means you thing I should order all of these and check test them? I will try to make contact with the person who sold it to my friend, hoping I can learn more of what/how he tested and was OK. Because I think the specialized (pokey, sally, etc.) chips have already been tested and were OK.

My friend told me the previous owner tested the chips under the keyboard, according to his memory. But the 800Xl was not working by itself, black screen, exactly like what I'm seeing. I looked closely at each chips and they looked very well seated. I removed most of the chips from their sockets (except the 4-5 between the MMU section and the RAM), cleaned the pins, look at the socket itself to see if anything looked broken, but nothing really looked wrong. I tried that, but no sounds or anything that would prove it is reacting to commands I could not see on the screen. I've been trying to find out the pinouts of the PSU to test it, but was unlucky so far. Can you refer me a site with the correct outputs of each pin? Yes Tried that too, and no help. I tried also the TV on channel 2 and 3, same result. black screen, only thing I can see is the most right side of the TV is slightly flickering (lighter vertical bar 1 inch wide shaking a bit). I have a cable like this, with two RCA output (Yellow/Video, White/mono sound), but I'm not sure if it is the correct pin out for the Atari. I also tested the cable on a TI99/4a, same result, but again, that's another machine I'm not sure is working. That said, when connected to the Atari, I still have a black screen, and I can hear a buz coming out of the TV speakers. Not sure if it is a signal coming from the computer sound chip, but to me it sounds like an interference, maybe RF frequency. I do not have any carts (yet)... Sorry I forgot to mention your name in addition to Paul for suggesting this test. But RAM is not overheating, other chips are...

First investigation, like suggested buy Paul, I turn it on for a few minutes and felt the heat on each chips gave me this result (naming based on the board photo above): - GTIA, PIA stays cool - Antic, Sally, Pokey are a hot - basic ROM rev 2 on my board is also hot - the MMU (on my board it shows part number CO61618) is hot - a chip with reference CO60462-D is also becoming hot. That chip is strangely socketed in a one-out-of-two pins in its socket. It look strange to me, but maybe normal, just unusual! Every other chips are cool, even cold. But when I compare with the picture above, there are two extra wire connecting together something close from the basic chip to the Pokey. Is it a mod or something, I can't tell... Thank you for helping!

All socketed main board!