Latest "Atari in the Wild" find

[mimo]

Not in your league but I was given an 1040 STE yesterday at a retro computer fair.

You have to see it to believe how bad it looks in the flesh. It was from an old guys estate that was sold off after he had passed away in a nursing home.The computer stuff was picked up by a UK trader (The Attic bug) Apparently there was loads of ST and other stuff. The guy was a programmer it turns out and a lot of discs were found. These have been saved by MugUK and will be gone through shortly to discover their contents.

 

The 1040 STE that was given to me was deemed too far gone to be sale-able, and was not even powered on.

I booted it up last night and it works great, got a 2 meg RAM upgrade in there, the FDD sounds like a washing machine on spin though.

 

I said I could make it look good as new at the retro computer fair, others said it was beyond repair, so the challenge has been set!

It is currently dismantled and the case and keyboard in the dishwasher:D

I have taken photos so will upload them later

[+Guitarman]

Guitarman:

 

Thanks much for posting those pictures of the RAM upgrades. They're certainly "food for thought" on the subject.

 

 

You're welcome. I always like to document my finds and especially any mods.

 

I said I could make it look good as new at the retro computer fair, others said it was beyond repair, so the challenge has been set!

It is currently dismantled and the case and keyboard in the dishwasher:D

I have taken photos so will upload them later

 

Do you find it OK to dishwash the keyboards? Do you remove anything or wash it complete?

[mimo]

 

Do you find it OK to dishwash the keyboards? Do you remove anything or wash it complete?

 

It is a bit of a pain, but you need to take off the back of the keyboard (about a million tiny screws) and the silicone cups (which are a pain to re-fit) and just throw the plastics into the dw. Avoid the dry cycle though!!

 

The top half of the case washes fine too even with the decal in place, the bottom half will have some to total damage on the serial number decal

[+Guitarman]

It is a bit of a pain, but you need to take off the back of the keyboard (about a million tiny screws) and the silicone cups (which are a pain to re-fit) and just throw the plastics into the dw. Avoid the dry cycle though!!

 

The top half of the case washes fine too even with the decal in place, the bottom half will have some to total damage on the serial number decal

 

I've done many cases, just not keyboards. I'll have to try one. I usually save the bottom label on the case by covering with that Gladd plastic wrap that sticks to anything. I just cut a piece that goes over and beyond the label about 1/2 inch. It works great, saves the label and allows the bottom to be dishwashed.

[doctorclu]

A TT030 in the box is a nice find indeed!

 

As for the MegaFile30... is that the one Dave Small of Small Industries made? If so, how is it?

[+Guitarman]

A TT030 in the box is a nice find indeed!

 

As for the MegaFile30... is that the one Dave Small of Small Industries made? If so, how is it?

 

It is a MegaFile30 that matched the MegaST. I have 2 of them, one that is loaded with a bunch of test utilities. Dave Small made the Magic Sac and Spectre GCR, which I also have but haven't had a chance to play with yet.

[mimo]

Cross post from the 8bit forum, but I am pretty happy with this freebee

 

A couple of weeks ago MugUK gave me an Atari 1040 STe that was saved from the trash .It was from the estate of an ST fan that sadly passed away in a care home, there was also a stack of discs as the guy was a coder of some sort. Mug saved the discs for his pasti obsession.

Here are some before and after photos,

It only took about 3 hours to do the transformation, pretty impressive if I say so myself ;D

 

 

It was without doubt the worst looking ST I have ever seen, my wife instantly banished it to the garage on first sight, I was worried about catching some mystery illness from it

 

After 3 hours or so it looked a little better

 

 

There is still some feint residue from the ink that was scrawled over the "F" keys, I have some isopropyl that will hopefully sort this out.

Amazingly it works fine, and has a 2 1/4 meg RAM upgrade

The FDD sounds like a washing machine on spin, but still loads fine. I gave away a load of Sony FDDs at a retro computer meet in November , I kept one as a spare that I had already hacked to make it compatable with the ST, but guess what, it has died in storage :'(

[+DarkLord]

Nice recovery!

[Atari8guy]

Just powered up the 1040STf with my MegaFile30 and ran the system info utility. This little bad boy has 4mb ram in it!! Cracked it open and found a Marpet MP210A ram board in it with a full 4meg of ram. Also had TOS 1.4 (Rainbow).

 

 

 

 

 

This mod has beaten me, even with the pics I can't get it to work. I would advise unless you are highly skilled with a soldering iron to get a pro to do this for you. Cost me my ST too as it's no longer functional

[tjlazer]

Cross post from the 8bit forum, but I am pretty happy with this freebee

 

A couple of weeks ago MugUK gave me an Atari 1040 STe that was saved from the trash .It was from the estate of an ST fan that sadly passed away in a care home, there was also a stack of discs as the guy was a coder of some sort. Mug saved the discs for his pasti obsession.

Here are some before and after photos,

It only took about 3 hours to do the transformation, pretty impressive if I say so myself ;D

 

 

There is still some feint residue from the ink that was scrawled over the "F" keys, I have some isopropyl that will hopefully sort this out.

Amazingly it works fine, and has a 2 1/4 meg RAM upgrade

The FDD sounds like a washing machine on spin, but still loads fine. I gave away a load of Sony FDDs at a retro computer meet in November , I kept one as a spare that I had already hacked to make it compatable with the ST, but guess what, it has died in storage :'(

 

Get some Armorall UV protectant and I bet it improves that blotchy look whilst protecting the case from yellowing!