800 XL - Serial Numbers - Secam/PAL/NTSC

[storhemulen]

Hello guys, my first post and all. Here's my contribution.

[wiliv]

ATARI 800XL PAL Belgium 83AHP 10333 084 made in hongkong

Edited August 22, 2010 by wiliv

[Innovative Leisure]

*BUMP*

 

 

 

 

This is an NTSC 800XL. Notice the Warner Communications text is absent from the label. Could this be an Atari Corp. version?

There are also no socketed chips on the motherboard.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Innovative Leisure

[OBO]

My S/N are here :

 

http://www.atari-database.fr/numero-de-serie/liste-par-utilisateurs/?pseudo=OBO

 

All my XL or XEs are PAL by default, except 1 secam 800XL, all XEGS are SECAM.

[eegad]

Wondering if there's a larger/updated list of 800xl serials anywhere. This topic was the best I found when searching, but one never knows...

 

 

I was just trying to figure out when I got each of my 800xl's back in the 80's and started digging through stuff...

 

My first 800xl had serial 114106, D-374, made in taiwan, has Rev B Basic. Based on date code, sept '84, I assume I got it late '84 or very early '85.

 

My 2nd 800xl has serial 338710, D-524, taiwan, Rev C Basic. This one has the receipt in the box....I mail-ordered it direct from Atari, Sunnyvale, in June of 1988 (totally forgot about that....I guess they had an 8-bit warehouse clearance?? Other than to test it, it's never been used.)

 

a 3rd 800xl has serial 4105134 and was made in hong kong, has rev B Basic. Was gotten at a computer swap meet in 1989 for $35...and it had been upgraded with a 256k Rambo.

 

 

 

Now...moving off-topic, but does anyone have any info on 1050 drive serials? Haven't come across any useful info yet, but my 4 drives have the following #'s :

 

48445 473

04836 015

10483 344

80231 234

 

all have prefix code of 7VDFF and were made in singapore.

[+kheller2]

The last three inked digits are WWY. So "473" is 47th week of 83

[Urchlay]

Got an NTSC Chelco 800XL. hunmanik asked if I'd post the serial

number on this thread. I tried to take photos, but they came out too

grainy/blurry, I'd be embarrassed to post anything that bad (plus

you really can't read the serial number or board revision). It

looks *very* similar to kheller2's Chelco 800XL found here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/257333-chelco-800xl/

 

Bottom of the case has a black label, with white text. Says:

 

ATARI 800XL

FCC ID: BPA7YJ800

ATARI, INC.

MADE IN HONG KONG

 

Has an Atari Fuji logo plus a Warner logo and tiny text reading "A Warner

Communications Company"

 

Serial number is 7YJ HA 105853 164

 

(16th week of 1984, perhaps?)

 

Screened onto the board, partially covered by a couple of "Burn-in passed"

stickers, it says:

 

Chelco 1983

P/N: 1508000011

REV. A2 800XL

 

A further oddity: this 800XL has the chroma line connected... but

somehow incorrectly: composite video is fine, but luma/chroma gives

almost no color saturation and the palette is wrong (greens come out as

brown/orange, etc). There's a whole topic about it here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/290250-800xl-chroma-weirdness/

[bfollowell]

I'm not sure if anyone is still looking for these, but the thread got bumped when Urchlay added his/hers, so I'll add mine.

 

NTSC
72RHA 137321 (D-39 4) - (Atari/Warner made in Taiwan) - bfollowell

Edited April 16, 2019 by bfollowell

[suspicious_milk]

NTSC USA, Type 4 Keyboard, fully socketed

 

 

 

SERIAL

 

7YJ HA 112900 174

Edited April 18, 2019 by suspicious_milk

[TheRaven81]

This one is mine, what kind of info about the machine can I get from this?

 

[Marsupilami]

11 minutes ago, TheRaven81 said:

This one is mine, what kind of info about the machine can I get from this?

 

Not a lot 

72RHA => it's an NTSC

"Made in Taiwan" and not "Made in Hong-Kong" so i would say after mid-1984 (Tramiel's era).

[TheRaven81]

39 minutes ago, Marsupilami said:

"Made in Taiwan" and not "Made in Hong-Kong" so i would say after mid-1984 (Tramiel's era).

Is there any difference between one made in Hong-Kong, and one made in Taiwan? Also, what sort of information do you have/know, that would lead you to make that guess at a date of mid-1984? Possibly just general history(that I could maybe read up on somewhere)? Not trying to doubt you, just generally curious as this is all still relatively new to me.

Edited April 6, 2020 by TheRaven81

[+MrFish]

Here are the labels from an 800XL I sold on Ebay some years ago.

 

I have more 800XL's. I'll try and take some pics of them when I have time.

 

 

[jamm]

2 hours ago, TheRaven81 said:

Is there any difference between one made in Hong-Kong, and one made in Taiwan? Also, what sort of information do you have/know, that would lead you to make that guess at a date of mid-1984? Possibly just general history(that I could maybe read up on somewhere)? Not trying to doubt you, just generally curious as this is all still relatively new to me.

Mine is made in HK and from late '83

[Marsupilami]

3 hours ago, TheRaven81 said:

Is there any difference between one made in Hong-Kong, and one made in Taiwan? Also, what sort of information do you have/know, that would lead you to make that guess at a date of mid-1984? Possibly just general history(that I could maybe read up on somewhere)? Not trying to doubt you, just generally curious as this is all still relatively new to me.

I don't know if you speak french (in that case read this: https://www.atarinside.com/blog/index.php/atari-france/press-review/) but in january 1984, the french press wrote that 600xl and 800xl were only produced in hong kong (by Wong Electronics). It seems they had troubles to deliver more than 60% of the demand in the USA.

Then in June/July 1984 there is another press article saying that Jack Tramiel ("Tramiel Technology") bought Atari from Warner, the company was loosing money ($35 million in the first quarter of 1984). ~1000 employees were fired at Sunnyvale.
The Wong Electronics factories in Hong Kong were still unable to supply enough computers (creating the shortage which Atari was blamed for) that's the reason why Jack Tramiel broke the contract with Wong Electronics and moved the supply chains to Taiwan.
That's how i guess the manufacturing date of our 800 XL.
But maybe the french press was wrong, anyway we have lot of excellent Atari historians here, they could correct me and tell us if it's right or wrong.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Marsupilami

[eegad]

One thing I was just wondering about this week - what hardware differences are there between the taiwan and hong kong versions,  other than the version of basic,  type of keyboard,  socketed chips and such? A week ago I had all 3 of my 800xl's in use the same day and could really see the difference in video quality... The hong kong unit had much muddier video, while both of the taiwan units were sharper and brighter.  These are ntsc units,  using a composite monitor cable.  What exactly did they change on the motherboard to improve the video when they switched to taiwan production? 

[_The Doctor__]

look at the smoothing capacitor and nearby more than likely a different value.. just but the same in the HK unit and it should become the same

[MausR]

Seems to be a newer one:

 

[BillC]

1 hour ago, MausR said:

Seems to be a newer one:

 

Atari Corporation is after the Tramiel takeover.

 

The 72R indicates Taiwan manufacture, I don't remember seeing the 3CG product code before.

I believe HA was the code for an NTSC 800XL under Warner/Atari Inc., what version is this one?

[MausR]

It's PAL and located in germany now. Because I'm not the first owner. Buyed around the beginning of 91.

As mentioned on the first post it could be one produced in 1988.

.

[+MrFish]

My main machine atm.

 

7YJ HA 67895 84

 

 

 

[JKK]

Let me join this thread as I have two questions concerning serial numbers.

 

1. Is that possible to determine the year of production basing on serial number.

 

Ex. here "72R3CG AT 8423119"

 

I though that this AT 84... means 1984 year but it seems not always fit. Moreover there are serial numbers starting ex. with two zeros.

 

2. Is that possible to distinguish quickly if monitor output has chrominance/luminance/composite or only luminance/composite?

 

I've heard that models until 83 year included have only luminance/composite and models from 85 chrominance/luminance/composite but not sure if it's true? And the most challenging is 84 as here there was shift and some models have first option and some the second.

 

Btw, do you remember until which year 800XL was produced?

[atari_lynx_fr]

My 800 XL (french).

 

 

[Sinjinhawke]

I have two NTSC 800xl's.  Both are partially socketed.  The PIA, OS and BASIC are not socketed as well as some of the smaller IC's.  Both do have BASIC 'C' installed which was a pleasant surprise.

[+kheller2]

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