Atari 400 blank screen?

[cbmeeks]

Just got an Atari 400 off eBay. They guy said "This is a beautiful 400 computer, tested with no problems".

 

Looks great but when I power it on, I get a blank, yellow-green screen and that's it. The signal looks solid...just blank.

 

No beeps on the keyboard, nothing.

 

 

I tried several carts and they are all black except Space Invaders which shows a really garbled screen. I'm assuming some of my games won't run due to limited memory.

 

But shouldn't I at least get the OS to type on?

 

This is my first 400. My other Atari's are 600/800/130's

 

Thanks

[bani]

reseat the ROMs.

[cbmeeks]

Thanks. I will try that tomorrow. I think I will take it all apart and clean everything too.

 

Wish me luck!

[Rybags]

Retune the TV.

 

Don't necessarily expect all your Ataris to sit on the same frequency.

 

Actually - first easy diag method with 400/800. Remove cart, power up. You should get keyclick sounds as it goes to Memo Pad.

And you should get the little click via the internal speaker when you turn on the machine or hit Reset.

[littleman jack]

When it starts up without a cart, it should be a blue screen with the memo pad (white letters, lets you simply type anything to the screen).

 

Good luck, I hope you get it up and running.

[Bryan]

If you're getting a solid yellow screen then your TV is tuned fine. The system is locked up and GTIA isn't getting initialized. Could be any number of things, but probably a bad IC.

[cbmeeks]

I've got the 400 broken down completely!!! I've cleaned everything.

 

Any suggestions on cleaning the IC contacts for the memory and cpu cards?

 

After I clean that, I'm going to put it all back together and give it a shot.

 

Anyone interested in seeing photos of all of the guts? lol

 

cbmeeks

[mimo]

you could use either a pencil eraser to rub the contacts, or rubbing alcohol and a q-tip

[cbmeeks]

I've used Windex on game carts before. Anyone ever use that? I didn't see any long term problems.

[mimo]

I used some old aftershave and some Vodka before, as long as it has some alcohol in it, and you let it dry before re-inserting/powering up I don't think there will be a problem

[cbmeeks]

It works!

 

I cleaned this thing like you wouldn't believe.

 

I will get some pics up soon.

[bani]

good old 400s would pop chips from thermal cycling. glad to hear it worked for you.

 

not a fan of the membrane keyboard though. i ended up with flat fingertips from using it so much

Edited October 14, 2008 by bani

[cbmeeks]

Hehe. Yeah, I can't imagine programming one.

 

However, I still like it better than my TS-1000 keyboard. It's hard to imagine anyone actually using those keyboards but they did.

 

Here is my WinTel keyboard (BEST ON THE PLANET): http://www.cpusolutions.com/mm8004744CPU/I...-WL-MSDTOP3.jpg

[Chris Strong]

Yellow or green was probably a loose GTIA chip. You'll have a hard time finding cartridges that don't work on a 16K Atari 400. I can't think of a single Atari-brand cart that does not work, except for the XEGS stuff.

 

-Chris