walterg74

Well it's the other way around actually, it's the 2 port the one that is faulty.

Thanks, I will give the cart option a try to see if it detects anything, and if not will see if I can try this suggestion. It is a pain in the butt though to take the shielding from the 2 port one. Not sure if the 4 port is the same.

Thanks, I will give it a shot. I tried the diagnostics included with SD upUltimate as well as the diagnostics cart I had from the no-intro set, but either I don't know how to run it correctly or it's not detecting anything (one cart even said "testing 16K" and isn't it supposed to have more? I will give this one a try.

Ok last batch of data... I am a proud recent owner of an Atari Max Ultimate cart for the 5200 (in fact it came home with me along with this 5200). With what is a disturbing consistency, the same carts that don't work in physical form, also exhibit the same symptoms when loaded as rom images with the Ultimate cart... (And the ones that worked also work with the Ultimate cart). So It is definitely not liking those games that I'm guessing use some part of the 5200 that is broken..?

Ok, did more tests and really don't inow what to make of this... From my pile of carts about 11 worked just fine (played a couplenof levels of ms pacman, galaxian etc. ) That miner 2049 if you leave the intro after the music and credits finish it'll grt f*ed up with garbled graphics and locked, but if you start the game I played two levels just fine. And then there was another bunch about 6 others in my pile that get farbage locks almost immediately. Attaching screenshots, they are: Pac-Man Centipede Space Dungeon Countermeasure Realsports Baseball Pac-Man (second cart) There doesn't seem to be any relation between 16KB or 32KB, and again, if I put these carts in my other 5200 they work flawlessly... So again, same question: WTF?

Not sure where to get that info, searching here doesn't specifically say their size. These 2 examples of non-working ones: Pac-Man and Miner 2049er

Ok tried the power supply of the working one, no good, issue still there... Tried some cleaning, still there... Weird thing also is: - some carts seem to work fine - some carts show corrups graphics almost immediately (i.e. Pac-Man) - others seem to work for a while and then do it Attaching a video of the last case

Continuing my streak of bad luck purchasing off ebay, I got a hold of a 2 port Atari 5200 that was supposed to be working fine, somthat I could have both models, as I already had a 4 port version. I decided to test it today, and when I went to test the two games that it came with (breakout and pac-man) i found the following: Pac-man showed the atari logo just fine and went to the title screen which showed some garbled characters, to the immediately go on to an even more garbled screen sand kind of be stuck at that... I then proceeded tomtest breakout that on the other hand seemed to work fine? Thinking it was just the cart, I then proceeded to test the atarimax cart, and while the burger time clone was looking good (although I thought I saw some glitchyness), testing the solitare game also brought along some weird characters (but not a lockup/freeze)... I then brought out my previously purchased pile of carts, and testing them I found that roughly 60% of them seemed to work ok, but the others showed this garbling up of onscreen text and graphics a few seconds after power on... Seeing that I took out my 4 port console and tested all the carts on it. They ALL Worked just fine... So already talking woth the seller to see what can be arranged, but does a yone have a clue as to what could be causing this behavior, and this some work some don't thing?

Yes, that may very well be it! All I could search for was for ti 99 ram, etc, so probably something more specific I don't know how to search. I really appreciate your offer, problem is I'm not from the US, so I buy these thing whenever I get a trip over there, which means I'm just there for a week or two and then I'm gone until who knows when the next one is. Just by luck I returned home this past sunday and now I get to go again on March 1st, so may be second chance to get a really working one, amd see what I do woth that one that I left at a friend's house.

Oooh! Texas!! That's where I'll be visiting soon! Pick that!

What's fine is your same comment has been seen when the thread was just a few pages. And that's exactly why the thread has 45 pages now, and why people get annoyed... Ironic, huh?

I'm not judging your price, it is what it is and it's probably fair. It's just not an amount that *I'm* willing to spend on for what it does. I think you are misreading my comments. What I'm "complaining" about not finding on ebay are replacement video ram chips, not yours.... Thanks for the tips, I will keep them in mind. Does anyone know or can explain if these chips are bad, how come when I put a cartridge in it seems to work fine? Are they not related at all for anything? What would this failure I have cause besides seeing these characters on the screen in basic ?

$50 + $25 shipping (came with plentry of cartridges)

Ouch.. Yeah I don't think I want to spend ~80 bucks on that... If anything it would have to be the vdp change, but putting assi how easy or difficult it would be for me for the soldering, I can't even find one listing for them on ebay... I think I might have to deal with the seller on this one and try to get a refund, as it was listed as working.

So are those OR options or AND? Would doung that for vga really be good/better than just a crt with composite? Also how easy is it toninstall those chips? I haven't even found them on ebay

So.. Is that easily fixable or not worth it..?

Ok, ran the program and here are the results. Almost all the screen gets a 5 written, except The 3 very specific positions where the @s are, and those get written with a U... Attaching screenshots and video... Also before I forget. Another annoying thing about the keyboard is Some keys I will just press lightly and yet I get 2,3,4 repeats... Wtf? Edit: sorry looking at my post damn iphone and it's flipping the pics vertically... So... They're actually upside down. trim.60F28D49-D82A-4F07-8BEB-1A7B2397E94A.MOV

You think that ma be because I hooked it up to a modern lcd to test it, or is it definitely corruption?

Allrighty, I'll gove it a try and post back.

Ok, I'll try when I get back, but what would that show/prove?

Yeah it seems they appear at about a couple of lines above your cursor, and when you scroll up they all scroll up but since they keep appearing it's as if you have a "column" of @s so to say...

Hi, so Ingot a TI off ebay, was supposed to work. Just tried it an I have found two issues: 1) there is ONE key that does not seem to work, the "Z". Is it possible /normal fornjust 1 key to die? A few others didn't seem to work at first and then after several presses came back to life. Maybe needs some cleaning? Also noted some keys repeat themselves too quickly (like a press prints them out two or three times) 2) startup screen looks fine, selection screen looks fine, but when I go into basic I see sone weird "@" chars at the postion of the cursor but higher up... If I keep pressing enter they just keep appearing (just the one at that position) Wtf? Is something broken or just my ignorance of how this computer works? I tried several cart games and they seem to work fine, nothing strange or garbled on screen, as do the joysticks. Attaching screenshots. Help?

Thanks for the reply! Not in a hurry but getting things by mail into my country is a complicated process... So I try to buy these things when I travel, and for that I need to know if I can actually get it at the same time I'm travelling so probably next trip if minimum will be 5 weeks to 2 months if no delays. Of course other stuff comes firts, totally understandable! Looking forward to it! Thanks.

Excuse the ignorance, but had you posted a timeline / date for when these will actually be ready ? (Even if approximate)

Hi. Usually by the time you ask for contributions, do ypu know the final cost?