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I have a 1 mbyte Atarimax flashcart. I don''t remember anything about it. I think you can burn .obj/exe.com executables to it and get a menu when you insert it. The advantage is you don't have to have anything else to run your programs. A APE/SIO2PC/RESPEQT requires cables and a host PC to play .exe/.com/.obj files. So, if you only want a few games/ utilities, a flashcart woud be handy.

Get a Atarimax 'APE' interface and RS232 to USB cable and SIO cable. Then you can attach your 130XE to your desktop/laptop computer and have just about every game ever made at your fingertips. APE/SIO2PC for USA, Respeqt for Euro. Either one actually. http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=98 Euro maybe http://www.atarimax.com for USA Oh, PACMAN is my favorite game cart. B&C computervisions is one site. http://www.myatari.com

You say you've never owned an 800, so I'll belabor some obvious. You have the CPU in the shielded rear slot. That has be correct since it won't fit in any of the front four slots. Then you have to have the ROM in the front slot and RAM in any of the remaining three slots behind the ROM. If any of the cards aren't encased, the chips go to the back. Sorry if this is obvious.

I have the SpartaDOS x and R-Time 8 carts. I have a 800XL with Omnimon, so I can dump any cart. What I don't know is the memory ranges and execution locations. I can insert the cart, hit SELECT RESET (if I remember) and then dump any cart code to file(s). If someone knows the code locations, I think I can do them. A simple cart, like BASIC, is $A000 to $BFFF. and executes at $A000. I don't really know if my SPX and RT8 carts still work. And I forget where the INIT and RUN codes are. A little more: I think SpX is a bank switched cart. I don't know how those work.

Here's an .ATR from Oct. 1985 ANALOG that has the 'G' device source and .BAS executable. It was by Charles F. Johnson. It has to be a 100% compatible to Epson or Star dot matrix printer. I don't know if it will work with a modern inkjet. 85_OCT.ATR

This is obvious. You didn't mention the drive select switches.

I neglected the first posts about replacing POKEY, sorry.

can you swap the POKEY chip?

They are CD4051 RCA. Best has them for .69 cents or so, $20 minimum order.

I can't remember my facebook password, or just about any passwords. I have a five page spreadsheet with 137 usr and pswds. Speedcalc, MS Excel are good spreadsheet programs.

There are two CO4051 16 pin chips near the keyboard socket. If you can swap them maybe that would work.

I don't think you can connect a Atari SIO to a PC serial port. You have to have a SIO2PC/APE adapter. Then you could use your serial to USB. Oh, theres also the rspect/aspect adapter from Poland/Germany. I'm sure this is in the 'beginner'' post. The APE connector is PC-RS232 to SIO, so is the SIO2PC, I think. The APE adapter is at Steve Tucker site, (I forget the url, see the FAQ.) ... www.atarimax.com

You need an OS board, goes in the rear slot of the main board.

The switch is the 'interlock' switch. It is closed by the 800 case when the 'door' is closed. It prevents the 800 from functioning with the 'door' open. It has to be closed for the 800 to work. You can close it with a piece of tape. The black 'switch' seems to be the wires that connect the two boards, don't make any sense to me. The wires come from the power board to the main board, four pins. Or the black switch is the power switch and you have a connector that connects the two boards you aren't showing.

run SALVAGEX.BAS on the unlistable .BAS file The program starts by getting the 'filespec' of the .BAS file to work on. 'filespec' means give the 'D:FILENAME', specify the drive (Dn.FILENAME.EXT). FILENAME means just give the filename, it knows the Dn: it will use. SALVAGE will go thru the .BAS file, line by line and make a LISTed file. After the LIST file is made, you can ENTER "D:FILENAME.LST" and then "SAVE D:FILENAME.BAS" It might be a good idea to "NEW" before the "ENTER" It might be good to "LIST" the ENTERed file to screen before 'SAVEing'' it. SALVAGEX.BAS

SMRTDATR.ZIP here I don't know. This is native RANA DOS. SMRTDATR.ZIP

The possibilities boogle the mind. It could be programmed with a serial number specific for the software. I don't think that there are different software disks though, they are all the same copyable, I guess. I don't know if MD5s have been made of several paperclip program disks. And if they are all the same.

here's the inside of mine. I doubt it still works.

OK, I'd start with the OS ROM chip if you could. You need a working board to test from. Which you don't probably have. So, I guess you're sorta stuck.

I looked for Red/brown screen in my docs. It said the following: U2 thru U5, U18, U19, U28, U30. and I would guess Antic or GTIA U7 and U17. All those mean swapping chips with known good ones. U2 Decoder ; 74LS138 U3 Memory manager U4 OS ROM U5 BAS ROM U18 CO17097 U19 CO61850 U28 Latch 74LS37S U30 And/Or inverter 74LS51 That's not much help, but what I researched about it. You could take out the BAS ROM and see if you still get the red/brown screen. It would boot to a blue screen. I'd start with the OS ROM, Antic and GTIA. If you have socketed chips, that would help a lot. I just tried it, taking the BAS out of a good board. It boots to the self test like you said.

what happens when you hold OPTION when you turn it on?

If the DRAMs are MT on them, they are bad.

not much you can do. You could hold OPTION when you turn it on. This will disable the BASIC chip, in case it is bad. It should give you a blank blue screen. If it comes up the same, then maybe BASIC is bad. Might be the OS ROM chip. Might be lots of stuff I don't know about. You only have 16k RAM, that could be bad too.

A common problem is MT drams. Check your drams, the memory chips on the left. If they are MT that's probably where your problem is.