Atari 800 - what causes it to freeze sometimes?

[Atari 800 - what causes it to freeze sometimes?]

So I bought an Atari 800 from a forum member a couple of weeks ago. It's in beautiful looking condition, but I've been having trouble with it freezing sometimes.

 

What I mean is that with some games after a period of time it will freeze up and become non-responsive, and has to be power cycled.

 

My first thought was a bad RAM board, and after testing extensively with SALT 2.07 running from a Maxflash cart, I'm perplexed. Before reseating and switching the boards and using a little compressed air I did get a bunch of RAM failures in SALT. But after reseating the RAM passes, in fact it passed for over 150 cycles.

 

And yet with some games it will still freeze after some time. An example would be Repton by Sirius Software. Other games, like Defender, seem to never freeze.

 

The seller is sending me an extra RAM board to try, but like I said the RAM seems OK now in SALT.

 

What could be the problem with this 800? Really bummed because I used to own an 800 decades ago and was so happy to have one again.

 

I bought some electrical contact cleaner and may try cleaning the RAM sockets and board contacts, but they look very clean already. I just hope there isn't something more insidious wrong somewhere on the motherboard, as I have no electronics skills to fix it.

[Converter to use modern controllers on Atari?]

Guys, thank you for the info. But I'm just a regular guy, no electrical engineering background or anything.

 

As far as the 8bitdo adapter goes, I've read that people use Genesis controllers on Atari 8bit all the time. But, if this won't work then I'll just send it back.

 

UPDATE: eh, I cancelled the order. If it won't work on the Atari then I don't need it.

[Back to the Future written on an XE?]

This is pretty damn cool. Great movie, great computers, man I miss the 80's so bad...

[Converter to use modern controllers on Atari?]

22 minutes ago, shanti77 said:

I use this https://www.8bitdo.com/retro-receiver-genesis-mega-drive  with gamepad from PS4. Two fire buttons work.

Thank you! I already own an 8bitdo m30 pad and n30 stick so that is perfect. I ordered one just now, but I wonder if there is much lag?

[Converter to use modern controllers on Atari?]

Are there any converters that let you use modern controllers on Atari 8bit?

 

Like Xbox 360/One or PS3 controllers for example. My main reason for asking is I already own some nice arcade joysticks for those platforms, and it could be fun to use them with Atari games.

[WTB: Atari Trakball CX-80]

Only interested in excellent like new or very near condition. I'm in USA.

 

Wanted:

CX-80 Trakball

 

Driving Controller (the Indy 500 ones, not the paddles) - interested in two

CX-40 Joysticks - maybe interested in two

CX-10 Joysticks - maybe interested in two

 

Thank you.

[Selling the 400 and 800 Home Computers Pop-Up Training Brochure]

Fun read, thank you. I especially loved the photos of the 400's on the assembly line.

[price of 600xl]

Take some good quality photos and make a post in the sales forum here. Be sure to clarify condition etc.

[Food Fight - corrupt graphics on 130XE]

Thank you for the replies! Holding Option to disable BASIC worked. Now the graphics look correct.

 

I've only used an Atari 800 before so this is my first Atari with BASIC built-in. 🐵

[TIME PILOT - final release]

22 minutes ago, walter_J64bit said:

You need to use a game loader that doesn't use a lot of you Atari's memory. 

I was loading it from my Sdrive-Max directly. I'm new to a lot of this stuff, so please forgive me but I'm not sure what else to do.

[Food Fight - corrupt graphics on 130XE]

FWIW my 130XE passes the memory test with all greens.

 

So, I've tried loading a couple versions of Food Fight (i.e. the XEX from fandal) and the title screen looks OK, but the game screen has corrupt graphics (see photos). Other games are running great, i.e. the 128K version Bosconian etc.

 

Any ideas what's happening and how to fix it?

 

 

[TIME PILOT - final release]

I just get a black screen when loading this game on my 130XE. 😕

 

Also, the links to alternate versions are down now.

 

Anyone have a download to the NTSC specific version? Maybe that would work for me?

[Champ Games - Wizard of Wor Arcade - 2600]

This game looks amazing! I cannot believe what people can do on the 2600.

 

In fact I just bought a 2600 again yesterday after not having one for many, many years, and would love the option to buy a rom of this incredible game to use on a Harmony cart.

[Unicorns season: Prince of Persia for the A8!]

Guys, c'mon. We have amazing people creating and porting games for our beloved classic Ataris in 2020. What is there to be unhappy about?! 😛

 

rensoup, please keep up the good work, I hope this project can be completed and we can have the full game on Atari!

[Unicorns season: Prince of Persia for the A8!]

Just tried this POP demo and WOW it looks gorgeous. Great work here for sure. I tried it in Altirra, but later this week when my new AC adapter arrives I'm gonna try on my actual 130XE.

 

I remember first playing POP on an Apple IIe in a store demo and wishing there was an Atari version, and now there is. It took a few decades, but at least it's happening! 😛

[Biscuits in Hell!, new game]

This looks really good. I'm an old Atari guy from decades ago and just now learning about the modern Atari scene (which is astounding). I never heard of ABBUC before, but basically we have to subscribe to have access to this game?

[GTIABlast! WIP demo]

never mind

[Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?]

Solved the mystery.

 

So... looks like it simply was a loose connection. It kinda cleared up on its own after pulling and reseating the s-video cable into the PVM.

 

Err... nevermind... 🐵

 

BTW I tried to edit the original post to reflect this but it won't let me now. Thank you to all and sorry for wasting anyone's time. I feel silly now.

[Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?]

I found a copy of SALT and here is another good comparison. The composite image shows all 8 gray levels from black to white, but the s-video does not.

 

What is going on here with the Sony PVM-2030 S-video? It's not the Atari 800 or the video cable, because on the Dell monitor it looks normal on both composite and S-video.

 

Composite:

 

S-Video:

[Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?]

6 minutes ago, Rybags said:

Make sure the computer isn't in attract mode (press a key).

 

Possibly a connection is wrong, like composite instead of luma?

A better test subject would be a colour bar program also.  Makes it much easier to diagnose.

It is exactly the same image being output in all 4 cases. No attract mode or anything. It's from "My First Alphabet," and old educational program.

 

I will try to find a color bar test, but this image really demonstrates the issue in practice.

 

EDIT: any color bar test you can recommend?

[Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?]

Apologies about the pictures. What happened is I deleted the first set and uploaded new smaller sized ones. They should all be there now. Thank you.

[Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?]

1 minute ago, Rybags said:

Getting a not found error on all those pics.  Easy way is to just upload the JPGs into the post then add rather than linking to something else.

 

The URLs in fact have 2 filenames each and stripping either one still gives the error.

They're there now, I was just editing the post and deleted the images. 🙂

[Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?]

So I've been enjoying running my Atari 800 on a Sony PVM-2030.

 

Then today I noticed there is something weird going on with colors in S-Video. Some colors are kinda missing, or some shades of colors. Using composite the colors are all there, but S-video is just so much nicer and cleaner.

 

Here are 2 photos showing what I mean:

 

Sony PVM-2030 *COMPOSITE*

 

Sony PVM-2030 *S-VIDEO*

 

At first I was afraid my Atari 800 had a video output problem, but then I tested using my Dell 2001FP monitor, and as you can see below the colors are all there in both composite and S-video (S-Video image is brighter but I think that's normal):

 

Dell 2001FP *COMPOSITE*

 

Dell 2001FP *S-VIDEO*

 

All photos are of the same Atari 800 using the same video cable, only the monitor and input type changed.

 

What is wrong with the S-video of my Sony PVM-2030, and is there a way to fix it?

[FS: Massive Console Collection [NC/Triangle] local pickup only]

I met with zetastrike today to buy the 130XE. He's a good guy and a trustworthy seller. Buy with confidence!

 

Here's the 130XE I bought along with my 800:

 

[XEGS power questions]

On 6/14/2020 at 7:49 PM, DrVenkman said:

I disagree with your second poop, the one on the bottom. That one is not the Ingot (which is the one on top). The bottom one is fine. I've got one and it's been rock-solid for years. This is a better visualization. In both cases, however, it's worth noting that the original photo is nicked from Bruce's eBay auction store (B&C Electronics).

 

 

I have the one on the upper right with the silver sticker for a 130XE I just bought today locally.

 

The seller told me it was not a safe power supply and recommended to not use it. He recommended I order one from brewingacademy, which I have done.

 

So, the Atari one I have (model C061982) is safe after all?