spudmanno5

well i have 2 xc12. and i to seem get the same results with. but i will try the other one and see if i get humming. but the one thing thats worse with the other one is the static is so bad that it almost seems the tv is out of tune! my mate who done the repair with the Atari 800, resoldered and checked both the peripheral/sio port and the recorder itself (plus the connection and cable). i think he would have spotted a ground wire fault and alerted me about it (although i will double check and text him). he did say that work need to be done on the sio port and especially the recorder and is was in bad condition. as i saids the humming happens when the recorder is plugged in and after you do the bootup, start and return precedure. so even if there is no tape running it will do it (like the atari is waiting to receive data). but the annoying thing is some games, like one man and his droid, the humming will not stop (because the tape doesnt stop after loading) unless you unplug the recorder or press the reset button. although most games i got when the recorder has finished loading, the tape will stop automatically and so the humming stops. anyway i think i will invest in that chip unless anyone else has any other ideas?!

Just what I said. Coming from my Monitor is a lot of static and hum when I press Play on the 1010. I shut everything down and shot all the connections with tuner cleaner and that didn't make a bit of difference. I reseated all cables and connectors to no avail and had to give up eventually - it's just noisey and I don't know where it's coming from exactly. But it still works and that's just amazing considering how noisey it is. But I don't know know what "normal" is all that much. I've loaded exactly two programs with my 1010 so I've not much of a record to go on. I'm also using an 800XL so my mileage is bound to be different anyway. But - boot with Start key pressed and hear a toot from the machine to indicate a Cassette boot is under way. The computer then waits silently for you to press Play on the Cassette deck and as soon as that is done you then press any key on the computer to start the computer into recieving data mode from the cassette. Then one waits until the program/game shows up. I hear the screeching of the data while it loads, not the drone of the computer's Cassette boot indicator tone like you appear to be listening to? But superimposed on top of the tape's content is heavy handed hum and static here, but I understand some players are not noisey at all. Playing the tape in a standard cassette player shows that the static and hum is not on the tape at all, it must be coming from poorly designed circuits inside the 1010. I can't hardly believe that when I take a look at the expensive circuit board layout inside the 1010. If your's is truely stuck in the Cassette boot indicator tone mode then you might have a defective 6520 PIA as I wondered about from the begining. The PIA is needed to fire 5 volts (motor control signal) down the SIO cable even on a Disk drive boot which is where I have my 800 experiance with so many bad 6520 PIA chips. It also handles SIO device interrupts, /proceeed, and /command signals. ok my next move will be to purchase that 6520 PIA chip, dont think i can really do much more after that, but it is cheap so wont be too bad. am still awaiting the 1010 recorder too. regards

Ah - that explains it. When you power up the Atari with Start held down, it attempts to load from the cassette deck after you press return. You are hearing the normal sound - IIRC a very high pitch noise. The normal Atari tape loading sounds were a steady squeal, with momentary "screeches". Not very pleasant to listen to. I still remember POKE 65,0 Stephen Anderson are you sure this is normal? i dont this happened when i first got it. this humming sound comes out of the tv when there is no tape rolling and still goes on after the tape has loaded. it only goes away when you reset it. regards hhhmmm i wonder if i would if i would get the same thing if i had play pressed down already and then pressed return. thats the method i used and didnt get any humming that way!

Ah - that explains it. When you power up the Atari with Start held down, it attempts to load from the cassette deck after you press return. You are hearing the normal sound - IIRC a very high pitch noise. The normal Atari tape loading sounds were a steady squeal, with momentary "screeches". Not very pleasant to listen to. I still remember POKE 65,0 Stephen Anderson are you sure this is normal? i dont this happened when i first got it. this humming sound comes out of the tv when there is no tape rolling and still goes on after the tape has loaded. it only goes away when you reset it. regards

What do you mean when you say you got hum and static going on? is this coming from the tv sound output? what is normal behavior from an Atari when it loads a casstte game? (Apart from the normal loading sound!!!)

Yes, my bad, sorry. I thought I left enough clues behind that you would find them. It's the seventh item on this page. You've probably got a local source for them if you look around some. If the dim LED is on the 1010 recorder don't worry too much about that, just as long as it rolls the tape along. Recent work with my 1010 was very noisy, I was very surprised it could still work with so much hum and static going on but it did. My 1010 LED was not very bright, but crashing the 800 by pressing Recorder keys even just sometimes indicates maybe you need the 68B21 chip? You really should get a voltmeter and measure your voltages, cheap, simple ones can be had for $20. Hi Well the LED dim is on the Atari 800 itself. I have at the moment two xc12 recorders and get the same results from both. As far as i know, my friend measured the voltages on the Atari 800 and replaced come capactors and rectifiers, and from a voltage point of view, seems to be working. I might buy that 68B21 chip, its cheap anyway. Update: Earlier i said that the distorted humming sound from the tv sound output happens after i press play. But after further digging i found that it only happens when you turn on the computer with start pressed down, and it happens when you press return (so you dont need to press any tape recorder keys). BUT this only happens when the tape recorder is plugged in. No noise when it isnt plugged in! Regards

Hi Disaster has struck! My friend has redone some of the psu in the Atari 800. Replaced caps, rectifiers, etc and the problem still exists! The worst thing is the distorted/fuzzy sound when the tape is running. I may have a look myself see if anything needs cleaning up but i am running out of options here. I am hopefully getting a Atari PSU and will soon get the 1010 tape recorder. Do you know anything else that could be wrong or that i can do? The symptoms of the fault are: Sometimes crashes when using the cassette player keys Distirted/fuzzy sound LED Dim Has anyone got any ideas what to do next? Regards

I hesitated to mention this before since I never had your exact symptoms but since I was trying to boot DOS disks in a disk drive of course I would have a different failure mode. BUT on two 800s in my experiance, I had to replace the 6520 PIA with a new Hitachi 68B21 PIA chip to get the disk drive to ever work. What the PIA would have to do with Cassette functions I do not know, but I do know that early 6520 PIA chips were not the strongest ones made, and they fail a LOT. I think I've only had one 800 out of my three total that did not need a new one in order to boot up in fact, so that is a lot. The 68B21 is a 2 Mhz PIA direct replacement for our 6520 which is also supposed to be a 2Mhz chip, the chip used to be available from JDR. Motorola so very much liked the 65xx PIA chip that they duplicated it exactly for use with their 68xx series of microprocessors and thus we get cheap, good parts still being made. The 68a21 or just plain 6821 is a one MHz chip - do not order it or use it, our 1.78 Mhz clock is too close to 2 Mhz for a 1 Mhz chip to work right. Can you still buy these chips?

has anyone seen this guy? he isnt replying to my emails.

hi update here. i tried mimo's spare POKEY chip and i still get the same results. Whats more is the problem with the Atari 800 seems to have gotten worse. Now when i press play on the cassette player i get a pretty loud humming noise from the tv sound output. this happens with both the POKEY chips. my other options now is it try another atari PSU and then if that doesnt work get someone to repair it. anyone else got any ideas? regards

ok yeah cook, thanks.

hi a friend of mine suggested it could be a voltage regulator problem inside the atari. one of the companies i asked also said it could be a POKEY chip problem. So here is wot i will do: 1) Look for Official Atari 800 PSU 2) Buy the new POKEY chip (i hear its easy to install in Atari 800) Now if its a voltage regulator problem is there any Atari repair centres or anyone that could do this repair? Regards

where do you think the fault lies?

Well this doesn't seem right to me and you need an ATARI PSU for Atari computers Well after you receive the new tape player try it and if everything is fine then we won't worry about the PSU but if the same thing happens then I will send you a PSU. check your pm

Well this doesn't seem right to me and you need an ATARI PSU for Atari computers Well after you receive the new tape player try it and if everything is fine then we won't worry about the PSU but if the same thing happens then I will send you a PSU. 1- You don't need an Atari PSU, just one that outputs the correct voltage and enough or more Amps 2-I guess you are talking about a 120volt PSU which will be no use in the UK 3-PSUs get hot hi update here. received tape recorder yesterday. unfortunately i get the same results. if not worse. the play motor seems to run when i do the "start - enter" thing at boot, even when the play button isnt pressed down!!! also there is more screen flicker/interfearnace. also the sound goes more fuzzy. one of the atari dealers says it could be a afaulty pokey chip. it can still load games (in the same method as the other tape deck). so basically no change. anyway i will try the psu thing. regards

Well there you go it looks to me as the cassette player is the culprit check your pm.

Well there you go it looks to me as the cassette player is the culprit well i may need a cartridge to do a thorough test of course. i am buying another recorder off someone here so hopefully that may solve it. regards

Well the maplin one acts the same as the other PSU. Apart from the socket at the end of the cables of the Maplin PSU seems to get VERY hot after a while. I have also tried stripping/reseating all the components of the Atari 800, but same result. This problem doesnt happen after a while, it happens straight away (well as soon as you use a cassette player). Yeah i will make you an offer for it. Look in your PM. Thanks That could be the trouble and maybe you can try playing a cartridge game of a game from a floppy disk without the tape player hooked up and if all is good the the recorder is the problem or if you still have problems you can rule out the recorder as the problem ?? I have no carts at all to test with. But the system itself seems to run fine as long as there is no cassette player activity. This crashing problem only happens during a split second when you press one of the cassette player functions. When there is cassette activity you either get a) a quick flicker on the screen (sometimes it goes black and white for a split second too) but the system is still running fine and you can load up the software/ game as normal or b) the system crashes altogether and sometimes resulting in the screen disappearing or random garble/characters appear on the screen. Hope this helps. Regards

Well the maplin one acts the same as the other PSU. Apart from the socket at the end of the cables of the Maplin PSU seems to get VERY hot after a while. I have also tried stripping/reseating all the components of the Atari 800, but same result. This problem doesnt happen after a while, it happens straight away (well as soon as you use a cassette player). Yeah i will make you an offer for it. Look in your PM. Thanks That could be the trouble and maybe you can try playing a cartridge game of a game from a floppy disk without the tape player hooked up and if all is good the the recorder is the problem or if you still have problems you can rule out the recorder as the problem ?? I have no carts at all to test with. But the system itself seems to run fine as long as there is no cassette player activity. This crashing problem only happens during a split second when you press one of the cassette player functions. When there is cassette activity you either get a) a quick flicker on the screen (sometimes it goes black and white for a split second too) but the system is still running fine and you can load up the software/ game as normal or b) the system crashes altogether and sometimes resulting in the screen disappearing or random garble/characters appear on the screen. Hope this helps. Regards

hi ok got some pretty dull news. i was searching through this forum for people who had a similar sort of problem and i came across this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=129103 so i decided to get the same maplin ac-ac psu here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Module...4&doy=11m10 when i tried this on my machine i still get the same problem as before (apart from the power LED doesn't dim at all this time). i have also got a response from the 2 companies i got in touch with about getting a new PSU. one has it. but does this sound like a system fault now rather than a power supply problem? anyway the specs for the 2 psu are: Maplin AC-AC: Input 230v - 50Hz 33.5w Output 9v - 3200mA 28.8va Tadmod: Input 240v 50Hz Output 9.5v 1.5AMP I dont really know what the amp stuff means so maybe someone can make sense of this. Anyway does anyone else have any other clues. Would getting an official Atari 800 PSU help me? Regards

2) the power LED on the Atari 800 system itself seems to dim slightly (for a second) when i use the tape player (play, rewind, etc) I am thinking that the power supply has less watts/volts than the ATARI needs and there is not enough to power the 800 and the tape deck and play used more power than FWD or REW does I believe. You can get an 800 power supply on EBAY for about $9.99 and sometimes less if nobody outbids you, Hmmmm I just thought of something I might have an extra power supply but I have to look for it but if I do I will let you know. hi yeah that would be great thanks if you got a spare one. i have got in touch with those 2 companies mentioned. am waiting for their reply. Regards edit i will see if i can get info on my current PSU and see if that helps.

hi thanks for the replies guys! ok i will hunt for a new psu unit i think. the question is where/can i buy a new psu from? (apart from ebay). i have a few additional things i found out. the crashing thing with the tape drive happens even without a tape inside. also i noticed 2 key points here: 1) the system is more prone to crash when i use the play button 2) the power LED on the Atari 800 system itself seems to dim slightly (for a second) when i use the tape player (play, rewind, etc) anyway i will try out the tips in the above quote as well. would getting a new/another tape deck help out as well. mine is an xc12 (the one with the xe look). many thanks again for your replies. regards edit it also seems to be crashing a bit more lately too.

Hi I recently made the decision to dive back into my old days and buy an old Atari 800 (wel the first computer i ever owned was an Atari 800xl). I recently bought a nice package off ebay. I have tested it now and played a few games. Now here is the problem. Sometimes the system seems to crash when i use the tape recorder deck. Sometimes when i press a play or rewind, etc button either the system crashes or sometimes i get random characters on the screen. As i say, this is only occaisionally not all the time. I suspect 2 problems: 1) Old age of hardware/maybe faulty 2) Or it is related to a power problem. I notice the PSU is not the original Atari one (it has an output of 9.5 volts which is weird). Any, has anyone any thoughts on this? Many thanks for your help in advanced. Regards

Hey Yo! Items here for sale. Open to any offers, and can be split or put into bundles. Just looking to get rid of this lot, or it'll be ebay'd or skipped lol Please email offers to my email address at [email protected] UK buyers only, please. Many thanks in advance. Best Regards, --- Amiga Hardware: Amiga 500 PSU (Old style) - Suitable for Amiga 1200 with some expansion 300W ATX PSU PC - Amiga Keyboard Converter --- Nintendo 64 Games: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (Inc box and manual) Bust-A-Move 2 (Inc box and manual - tatty) FIFA 99 (No box or manual) --- GameBoy Advance Games: Final Fight One (No box or manual) Ecks vs Sever 2: Ballistic (No box or manual) --- Misc Hardware: Namco 1984 Pac-Land Handheld Game (Game & Watch Style) Working condition but plastic and LCD had faded a little - Quick Shot Joystick Loose (Good condition) - 2GB Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo (For devices such as Sony PSP)

Hey Yo! Please email offers to my email address at [email protected] UK buyers only, please. Many thanks in advance. Best Regards, iMac G3 DV Tangerine Computer G3 450mhz / 768MB RAM 10GB HD DVD Drive MacOSX 10.2.8 Comes with necessary Keyboard/Cables and Box and Manuals £50 ono Here is a link for the iMac model: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac...mac_dv_400.html ALTHOUGH the iMac logic board has been upgraded so it is a G3 450mhz CPU. http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac...v_plus_450.html - iMac Logic Board G3 400mhz £5 ono Taken from this iMac model: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac...mac_dv_400.html