netbeui Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I tried searching Google and this forum and I think I'm ok but I want be sure before I buy some replacement RAM for my 130XE which is failing the memory test. Can someone confirm that the following memory will work in a 130XE --> eBay Auction -- Item Number: 310127868116 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 they are the right replacement chips... read this: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/168010-try-to-repair-800xl-again-got-working-600xl-now/page__view__findpost__p__2206989 a more current seller: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 170596160477 these are only 4 cents more price, but much cheaper in shipping... and work the same (just need to tie pin 1 to ground), and if you decide to install a 256k (rambo, wizztronics, etc) upgrade, you already have the chips there... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netbeui Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 they are the right replacement chips... read this: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/168010-try-to-repair-800xl-again-got-working-600xl-now/page__view__findpost__p__2206989 a more current seller: eBay Auction -- Item Number: http://cgi.ebay.com/TI-TMS4256-12NL-256Kx1-Dynamic-Ram-TMS4256-DRAM-/170596160477?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b852d3dd these are only 4 cents more price, but much cheaper in shipping... and work the same (just need to tie pin 1 to ground), and if you decide to install a 256k (rambo, wizztronics, etc) upgrade, you already have the chips there... sloopy. Thanks for the quick response sloopy. I consider myself a soldering newbie so it will be a big enough accomplishment to just replace the RAM with good RAM. For this reason I prefer not to tackle "tieing pin 1 to ground" with the other chips you suggested because that will just increase my odds for failure.. I don't have any intention to ever upgrade the computer, I just want it working stock. Thanks again for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netbeui Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 I figured I should ask another question as this forum seems really helpful. I actually have 2 x 130XE's and they both have issues. One of them fails the memory test and the other shows no video just a black screen when powered on. My original idea was to take the good RAM out of the no video machine and put it into the memory fail machine. Now that I've opened them up and discovered that the RAM doesn't just pop out and needs to be desoldered/resoldered I realize that it will be less work to just buy replacement RAM for the surgery rather than try to repurpose RAM from another machine. Once I receieve the new RAM I'll try this piggy back technique that I've been reading about. Then when I've determined which chips are bad I plan to snip them and trash them, clean up the board and install the new eBay RAM. Because of this change of plans I will have a 130XE with all the parts still intact but still no video. Can someone point me in the right direction on what to check for this type of problem? I'm sure the video cable/connection is correct because I'm using the same cable that works for the memory test machine. I also tried using the DIN connector hoping that the issue was only with the RF component but both connections yield the same result (no video). Any ideas on what to check/replace would be most appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 if your a soldering noob, then please tell me your DRAMs are socketed ;') sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I figured I should ask another question as this forum seems really helpful. I actually have 2 x 130XE's and they both have issues. One of them fails the memory test and the other shows no video just a black screen when powered on. My original idea was to take the good RAM out of the no video machine and put it into the memory fail machine. Now that I've opened them up and discovered that the RAM doesn't just pop out and needs to be desoldered/resoldered I realize that it will be less work to just buy replacement RAM for the surgery rather than try to repurpose RAM from another machine. Once I receieve the new RAM I'll try this piggy back technique that I've been reading about. Then when I've determined which chips are bad I plan to snip them and trash them, clean up the board and install the new eBay RAM. Because of this change of plans I will have a 130XE with all the parts still intact but still no video. Can someone point me in the right direction on what to check for this type of problem? I'm sure the video cable/connection is correct because I'm using the same cable that works for the memory test machine. I also tried using the DIN connector hoping that the issue was only with the RF component but both connections yield the same result (no video). Any ideas on what to check/replace would be most appreciated. ram in 130XE's is commonly MT, Micron Technologies. and it is notoriously bad... dont use it for anything... sloopy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netbeui Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 if your a soldering noob, then please tell me your DRAMs are socketed ;') sloopy. They're not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 then dont touch the 130XE mobo's, they have issues... some are worse then others, but all of them are not as tough as the XL's... there are several people on here that do A8 repair work, (me, metalguy66, and others) that can do this for you for a decent price, and can socket the whole board also... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Agreed, I'm fairly competent at soldering and desoldering... but I've trashed a few XE boards trying to do simple memory upgrades... Don't take the risk... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I agree. If you have never de soldered before you will probably kill it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netbeui Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 I figured I should ask another question as this forum seems really helpful. I actually have 2 x 130XE's and they both have issues. One of them fails the memory test and the other shows no video just a black screen when powered on. My original idea was to take the good RAM out of the no video machine and put it into the memory fail machine. Now that I've opened them up and discovered that the RAM doesn't just pop out and needs to be desoldered/resoldered I realize that it will be less work to just buy replacement RAM for the surgery rather than try to repurpose RAM from another machine. Once I receieve the new RAM I'll try this piggy back technique that I've been reading about. Then when I've determined which chips are bad I plan to snip them and trash them, clean up the board and install the new eBay RAM. Because of this change of plans I will have a 130XE with all the parts still intact but still no video. Can someone point me in the right direction on what to check for this type of problem? I'm sure the video cable/connection is correct because I'm using the same cable that works for the memory test machine. I also tried using the DIN connector hoping that the issue was only with the RF component but both connections yield the same result (no video). Any ideas on what to check/replace would be most appreciated. ram in 130XE's is commonly MT, Micron Technologies. and it is notoriously bad... dont use it for anything... sloopy. So bad RAM can be the reason for no video? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I figured I should ask another question as this forum seems really helpful. I actually have 2 x 130XE's and they both have issues. One of them fails the memory test and the other shows no video just a black screen when powered on. My original idea was to take the good RAM out of the no video machine and put it into the memory fail machine. Now that I've opened them up and discovered that the RAM doesn't just pop out and needs to be desoldered/resoldered I realize that it will be less work to just buy replacement RAM for the surgery rather than try to repurpose RAM from another machine. Once I receieve the new RAM I'll try this piggy back technique that I've been reading about. Then when I've determined which chips are bad I plan to snip them and trash them, clean up the board and install the new eBay RAM. Because of this change of plans I will have a 130XE with all the parts still intact but still no video. Can someone point me in the right direction on what to check for this type of problem? I'm sure the video cable/connection is correct because I'm using the same cable that works for the memory test machine. I also tried using the DIN connector hoping that the issue was only with the RF component but both connections yield the same result (no video). Any ideas on what to check/replace would be most appreciated. ram in 130XE's is commonly MT, Micron Technologies. and it is notoriously bad... dont use it for anything... sloopy. So bad RAM can be the reason for no video? yes it if is in the right mem cells... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 If the ram says MT on it, it is crap.. And needs to be replaced.. period.. If you dont know what you are doing, you will TRASH the motherboard.. Send it to someone who has done alot of them.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmel_andrews Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) .....Or Buy a 130 or 65xe with a ram upgrade properly installed Better still get an 800xl with a ram upgrade installed (get as in buy) since there's very little commercial software that is specific to XE only bankswitching There is another option, but only if you have an 800xl and that is get the later version of the 'yorkie' pbi ram upgrade (the only other ram upgrade to using the pbi port ever released, other then the atari 1064), the later version apparently offered xe compatible bankswitching (don't ask me how they did it, i only know it was advertised that way) for the yorkie upgrade you can get it from richard gore (he's based in UK) that is if he still does them (i believe Mark, Aka wrathchild might still know of his whereabouts) Edited February 17, 2011 by carmel_andrews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Richard Gore hasn't done anything Atari based in years, he no longer has the Yorkie stuff... Also this guy already has two XE machines that he can likely get fixed for less than the cost of buying a 130XE with a memory upgrade already in it... There are very few 130XE's with good memory in them, the MT ram was most common and is garbage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Before buying anything you should check if you have a 4-chip or 16-chip RAM machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netbeui Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) Before buying anything you should check if you have a 4-chip or 16-chip RAM machine. Thanks for the tip. Can you tell me how I can check this? Edit: I responded too quickly. I'm pretty sure I have 16 chip machines because they each have 16 chips in them. Is that a fair assumption? Edited February 17, 2011 by netbeui Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Before buying anything you should check if you have a 4-chip or 16-chip RAM machine. Thanks for the tip. Can you tell me how I can check this? Open it up and have a look. If you have 16 identical RAM chips on the left of the board you have a 16 chip machine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 being in NTSC land you most likely have a 16chip... but basically, you have to open it up and look... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 being in NTSC land you most likely have a 16chip... but basically, you have to open it up and look... sloopy. I'm in PAL land and I've yet to see a 4 chip board. I have 3 130's on my bench waiting for chips to arrive (all bad RAM and all ready socketed waiting) and they're all 16 chip boards. I have another 2 working machines at the moment and they're also 16 chips. Was the 4 chip model a late rev or was it mainly sold in mainland Europe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) being in NTSC land you most likely have a 16chip... but basically, you have to open it up and look... sloopy. I'm in PAL land and I've yet to see a 4 chip board. I have 3 130's on my bench waiting for chips to arrive (all bad RAM and all ready socketed waiting) and they're all 16 chip boards. I have another 2 working machines at the moment and they're also 16 chips. Was the 4 chip model a late rev or was it mainly sold in mainland Europe? i think they were common across the pond, as all i have seen have been PAL, i have been told by reliable sources there are 4 chip NTSC machines, but personally i have never seen one, and have worked on hundreds of 130XE's... they are probly last revision releases, which were sold more in the euro area. as by then sales were pretty low for new 8bits by then... and i do believe i have only seen a pic of one 4 chip 130XE, the other few were 65XE/800XE's mod'd with ext ram to bring the up to 128k... sloopy. Edited February 17, 2011 by sloopy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 4-chip = later model. With the 65XE, the 2-chip machines use a reduced chip-count 130XE board so can be ID'd by the fact the ECI port is included (same RAM chip types as 4-chip 130XE) XEGS, all are 2-chip. Possibly the extended RAM Self-Test was included in all 4-chip 130XEs, but I wouldn't bet on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Sloopy, I've seen a 4 chip in the flesh as it were, it came out of one of those screen scroller setups... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Sloopy, I've seen a 4 chip in the flesh as it were, it came out of one of those screen scroller setups... whose machine was it? sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Mine you tard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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