800_Rocks

I've had my 800 (still works great) since 1982. I purchased locally an 800XL, a good working 1050, and a 1025 printer of unknown condition (wow it is heavy). The 800XL and 1050 are nice, I opened and cleaned them real good and turned the 1050 into my new Happy drive (moved the Happy card from another 1050 that needs a belt). Given I am new to the 800XL I have a couple basic questions. Thanks in advance! Some attached pictures to go along with some my questions. 1) RF gives a nice color but the image is somewhat fuzzy as RF tends to be. I tried both channel 2 and 3. I have a good working composite to S-Video cable that works great with my 800 and gives great image quality. However, when I use this composite cable on the 800XL the image is much sharper than with RF however there is no color via composite. Only shades of grey. Is this expected or do I have an issue? 2) The 800XL sound, memory and keyboard tests all check out however, I only count 48 little squares for the RAM test. How come only 48 when there should be 64K of RAM? Also, what do the two long green bars represent for the ROM test (the left bar vs the right)? 3) Given my 800 has only 48K I'm curious about the 800XL's extra 16K (64K total). Do I need to do anything special to utilize the extra 16K? OR Is it always available or is it only there for a Ramdisk? 4) What should the BASIC command 'PRINT FRE(0)' display on an 800XL? Mine shows '37902' on the 800XL with no cartridge and nothing on SIO. Incidentally this is the same number that displays on my 48K 800, '37902'. So where's the extra 16K of the 64K 800XL? 5) Looking at the Keyboard Test. I understand most everything but have some questions: - Nothing displays or beeps when I press the Break key. Is that normal? Note: The Break key works as expected in BASIC. - Nothing displays or beeps when I hold Control and press '1'. Both in the keyboard test and when in BASIC. Is that normal? - Which keys or key combinations do you hit to test the characters on the top row of the keyboard test? (see picture) I can get some of them to register (START, SELECT, OPTION and the Inverse key). However, the following are a mystery (are show in inverse on the top row): The 'R' in the top left. The 1, 2, 3, 4, H and B characters (on the top right).

Update: With this belt (see my prior post) my Hong Kong 1010 version now works!! I've loaded 6+ games/programs from tape. Boy this really takes me back to 1982! The separate read heads for audio and data is really an innovative feature. For example: When loading 'States and Capitals' there's nice music to pass the time along with a guy in a 'radio voice' who tells about some of the features of the game.

Sending a PM

Is the 130XE still available?

I have a working Atari 810 drive however the case has several major cracks. Do you have a good case (top and bottom) you can part with? Thanks

Thanks! I ordered one 79-10.55 belt from AudioLab. I hope I have good luck with it too. https://www.audiolabga.com/data_html/79-10.55.html

Just got my SDriveMax last week. Have not had much time on it. So far I am very pleased. A great improvement would be if the little stylus pen had a built-in docking spot on the case!!!

Thanks I will try taking out the 'furthest back' 16K card and see if she still shows 48K. In the meantime is there any chance the 'extra' 16K could be used as a Ramdisk? Also, Odd that there are no mfg markings/names on the cards. Must have been a no-name knock-off card.

Can you help identify this memory card in the 3rd slot of a newly acquired 800. I don't spot any names on the boards themselves. How much memory is this and who is the manufacturer? The other two slots had Atari 16K cards. PRINT FRE(0) shows '37902' as if it has 48K. Thanks!!

Where can I buy new belts for the 1010 Recorder? Also... I'm new in this Forum and I can use some searching tips. I tried searching on all these strings and came up empty. What am I doing wrong? "1010" "1010 recorder" "1010 belt" Scored a 1010 for $20 today! Please read if you can help me with read errors. Thanks! Originally no movement but could hear the motor whirling so I figure just a belt so I offered $20 and the seller accepted. Got it home, Opened it up and could not find the belt!! Missing belt I thought... then taking a closer look the belt is melted onto the circuit board! It was like tar, crazy sticky. Got it all cleaned up nice. I have some replacement cassette belts of various sizes. I replaced the little belt on the tape counter and the main belt. Are there just the two belts? I’m not positive on the belt sizes I had but made sure the tension on new belts was good. All functions now seem to work, RR, FF, Record, Play, etc. However I can’t read or load any tapes. I wrote a 2 line BASIC program out with CSAVE it seemed to work but CLOAD fails with 140 Serial Frame Error or with 143 Checksum Error. Does this point to a wrong size belt or other issue? I did clean the heads. BTW on a game load, ‘States and Capitals’ I can hear some voice audio from the game so the audio channel may be working although maybe with some static noise. The data channel sounds right to me when I wrote out my small program. However, on read the sounds of the data load don’t sound right... sound like deep noises rather than high pitched sounds. It’s been 35 years but I don’t think the sound is right. See other comments on the pictures.