DavidMil

I've talked to Brad at Best and he said they are totally sold out. B&C doesn't have one listed, but I haven't talked to anyone there yet. I would be pleased and willing to pay someone for an image of the 1K of ROM that the 8048 had. The thing is, Atari used this chip in other devices as well. I know for sure that the 1027 had one. So the chip has to come out of an 835. DavidMil

Any body have a working 835 modem (in the USA) that they are willing to sell/rent/loan me for a few weeks? I need to make a copy of the 1k ROM on the MPU so I can fix a couple of others I have. I don't mind sending a security deposit for the use of the modem too. Or if someone knows where I could find a working 835 please let me know! Thanks, David Milsop Kingwood, Texas

Does anyone know if Ultima Underworld was ever released for the Atari 8 bit machines? DavidMil

A friend brought his 800XL to me a couple of days ago saying that except for the Break key, the keyboard was no longer working. The computer boots to a ready prompt, loads DOS if a drive is attached, passes both self test and Super Salt tests, and plays cartridge games without any problem (so long as no keyboard input is required). The five function keys on the right work and the power LED lights up). Sounds like a keyboard to me; but here is the strange part... if you hold down any key for awhile, the cursor will suddenly drop down to the next line like its reached the end of line. It never moves to the right, you never hear the keyboard 'click', and nothing else appears on the screen. If you move the cursor down enough times the READY message will scroll up off the screen. I'm thinking either Pokey, GTIA, or possibly Basic. Let me hear any suggestions you all might have before I order a replacement chip(s). Thanks, DavidMil Kingwood, Texas

I don't think that you can find an image of a 3kHz test tape or for that matter a digital test tape either, as these are put down by very pricy machines. DavidMil

I just talked to Brad at Best Electronics and he has CPS Diagnostic test tape and the 3kHz test tape, but he's out of the digital test tape. prices are about 4 or 5 dollars each. David

When I got home I tried the link that BillC suggested. It worked beautifully. And, by the way, the default for Atari DOS 2.0 is two drives. The link explained how to change it to four drives. Thank you BillC for the info. This bit of data goes into my folder of tips and tricks! DavidM Kingwood, Texas

I have a friend in Alabama that has fixed several drives for me if you are interested. He's very reasonable. [email protected] DavidMil

Thank you Bill, My wife has pressed me into taxi service/baggage handler today for her Christmas shopping, but I'll see what results I get tonight. I'll post the results tomorrow morning. David

I have a friend in Alabama that has fixed several drives for me if you are interested. He's very reasonable. [email protected]

Are you looking for the C.P.S. Diagnostic tape, the C.P.S. Digital Test tape or the C.P.S. 3kHz Test Tape? Each preforms different tests on the 410. DavidMil

Normally I use MY DOS with my 800, which sees all four drives, but last night I booted with an Atari 2.0 DOS disk. The 800 would only see drives one and two. It gave me an immediate 160 error when I tried to access D3 or D4. Thinking I might have a bad SIO cable from D2 to D3 I swapped cables around (from the 800 to D1 and D1 to D2) with the cable from D3 to D4 and the 850. Again I got the same 160 error. Ok, next I removed D1 and D2 and changed D3 to D1 and D4 to D2. Both worked just fine. Last test was to Change my original D1 to D3 and D2 to D4. Guess what? Yep, same 160 error when attempting to access D3 or D4. I can only assume that Atari DOS 2.0 only supports two drives. Anyone else have this problem? DavidMil PS. It does the same thing on my 800XL and 130XE

That, is a very neat video! When that game machine came out I was sitting in a foxhole. I never knew it existed. My parents bought the Odyssey II, which I now have in the attic. Thanks for the video and the info! DavidMil

I knew it didn't use batteries, so I climbed up to the attic to see what it did use. I don't know if Magnavox made an Odyssey I, but mine is an Odyssey II and I was wrong; the power supply plugged into the back of the game machine. The output was 11.5 VAC @ 400mA. So if you were talking about a different model, I apologize for confusing matters. DavidMil

Steel wool will remove just about anything from the 'legs' of the chips. You have to be careful not to bend the pins. As soon a you shine them up, hit 'em with a light coat of solder to keep them clean. Remember that this will only work on the exposed surfaces. You may have a bunch of chips that were originally coated in some sort of weatherproofing or buried in an epoxy. I have used a lot of liquid flux to remove crap from IC's in the past. I used to drop the chips in just enough flux to cover the pins and then rub the pins with VERY hot soldering iron. Just don't leave the iron in contact with the chips too long and watch out for fumes! DavidMil

Didn't Odyssey plug the power in through the switch Box? To my knowledge that was the only system that did that. I guess that since none of the others did this they we considered different enough to get by the patent office, because they all got patents. DavidMil

I'm looking for a ROM dump or a good Atari 835 modem P8048H MPU. This chip has 1kx8 of ROM and 3K of external memory. I have two 835's with dead MPU's in them, and I have a friend that will burn copies to C8748's (which is the pin for pin compatible Eprom version) if I can get him the dump or a good 8048 chip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, David Milsop Kingwood, Texas

Atari will end for me when I keel over! I've got plenty of spares till then! DavidMil

Is your 7812 getting very hot? Something may have shorted out. DavidMil

Mine used to over heat too. Besides removing the cases from the RAM and ROM boards, I also removed the cover and stuck a tooth pic in the door switch. For awhile I even put a small fan over the PC to help remove heat. DavidMil

That's right. It was the MT chips. I went back and looked at the 800 and sure enough it has MT chips in it. Two of the three 16K RAM boards are failing SALT RAM test. So I'm going to replace all of them too. Thanks for refreshing my memory Rybags, David Milsop

Does anyone remember which manufacturer of 16K RAM chips for the old 800's had a very high failure rate? Thanks, DavidMil

So what I understand is that it is more of a framework that each country tries to fit into but at the same time keep their old standards? Does this loose standard also extend east and north of Poland? David Milsop Kingwood, Texas

The EPROM in the 2K math socket (402) is unknown to me. I have a Fast Math chip in my 800 but the checksum is 5B68. This one may stump a lot of people. If you find out what it is, would you mind posting the info? Thanks, DavidMil By the way, if I had looked at your picture I would have seen the two traces cut by C518. David

This is a bit off of the original topic, but I've wondered about this for awhile: Back in the 80's and early 90's when Atari was selling in Europe, did the different countries use the same electrical standards (at the wall plug)? And now is there a standard used across Europe? Please pardon the ignorance of an old Texas hillbilly... DavidMil