rveldhuizen Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 Hi all, New to this forum, so let me first introduce myself: My name is Rik and I am currently collecting the three main computers I used in my youth: the Apple II+, the TI 99 4/A and the Atari 600XL with 64Kb extension (in that order I've got problems connecting my Atari to any TV I own. I've tried the RCA to RF (coax) cable and searching all channels (incl fine tuning) on 3 different TV's. Given that I never got that working, I bought (through ebay) a atari/commodore 5-pin to 4 RCA and tried that (in my S-video connections on the tv's). No success either... Never got any further than a darkgreenish/red flickering screen at some point. Am I may be missing something here? Do I need a special converter to hook up my Atari to any relatively (say, 10-15 years old) television? I've searched various forums, tried many things, but never got it to work. When I bought my Atari on ebay, the seller did say he hooked it up to a monitor and it worked then... well.. Hope you can help, thanks in advance! R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 Hi Rik and welcome. People with more hardware knowledge than me will answer. I can only say that you don't need converters to use your 600XL on modern TV using coax cable or videocomposite cable (2 or 3 RCA not 4). If I am not wrong, PAL 600XL, like 800XLs and unlike 130XE, don't have s-video (luma-chroma) output but only composite (you can add s-video with an internal mod). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rveldhuizen Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 Hi Rik and welcome. People with more hardware knowledge than me will answer. I can only say that you don't need converters to use your 600XL on modern TV using coax cable or videocomposite cable (2 or 3 RCA not 4). If I am not wrong, PAL 600XL, like 800XLs and unlike 130XE, don't have s-video (luma-chroma) output but only composite (you can add s-video with an internal mod). thanks for the quick reply, Philsan! I think I made a mistake in my original post. I meant to say that I connected the monitor output to my composite connection (not s-video) on the TV's (the yellow connector, so to speak), using one of the 4 available RCA connectors on the cable (tried them all of course, but only one gave me the green/brown flickering signal)... It could be that the cable is not correct for my XL? R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 sounds like your 600XL is having issues... machines that arnt working properly can display a green or reddish brown screen. sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 I am not an expert but I think that even with an s-video cable you should see something inserting one of the plugs in the monitor. As sloopy said, likely your 600XL has problems. Unfortunately hardware isn't my field so I cannot help... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 You should have no real problems connecting your 600XL to a modern TV using the RF cable. The fact you get nothing, is like Sloopy suggested - looks like the 600XL has issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr-atari Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 When you are dutch, drop in at the atari/c64/msx clubday in Maarssen. (next one were I am is 15 october) and I'll have look at your 600xl, perhaps fix it :-) Later. Sijmen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rveldhuizen Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 thanks all for the replies... It could well be that my atari has issues, given the responses here . I do live in the netherlands, so if I haven't solved the problem before Oct the 15th, I might drop by Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr-atari Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/agenda.htm 20 augustus is er ook een club-dag, maar dan heb ik geen tijd ...... Later, Sijmen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rveldhuizen Posted August 15, 2011 Author Share Posted August 15, 2011 http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/agenda.htm 20 augustus is er ook een club-dag, maar dan heb ik geen tijd ...... Later, Sijmen. thanks! R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rveldhuizen Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 Ok, update... I've acquired another Atari 600XL and tried to get a display from that... No success either (using 3 TV's (5-15 yrs old), a VCR (about 15 yrs old) and both the RF as well as the composite cables (different RF this time; original Atari one)! So it is not the computer itself... The only thing they had in common when I hooked them up to the TV was the power unit (since I have a broken one, I used the same one for both). My question is: can a faulty power unit cause display issues (there is a signal to the TV, the red light on the Atari is on, but there's no clear image at all (or something resembling a close image))...?? That is the only thing I can think of right now... Getting desperate here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rveldhuizen Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 (edited) FINALLY! As posted in my last post, I suspected the power unit could be a possible cause for the non-display... Having replaced one of the fuses in the broken one (the one that didn't work before, i.e., and hence wasn't involved in the testing of the 2 atari's) and using this power unit, I finally got the display right! So relieved, now I can finally dive into using it again R Edited August 27, 2011 by rveldhuizen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 FINALLY! As posted in my last post, I suspected the power unit could be a possible cause for the non-display... Having replaced one of the fuses in the broken one (the one that didn't work before, i.e., and hence wasn't involved in the testing of the 2 atari's) and using this power unit, I finally got the display right! So relieved, now I can finally dive into using it again R Excellent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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