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Atari 800XL -- black screen :-/


Elijah Mirecki

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Hello all,

 

I just bought an Atari 800XL from an old electronic store with the pacman game.. When I got everything set up, there was nothing but a black screen...

The Power light turns on, and there SEEMS to be a signal.. but nothing but black

 

Some things that people said might be the problem are...

 

- Bad PSU (even though there is the power light)

- oxidated game slot

- oxidated IC's (remove and put back in every IC)

- Need to run through VCR (...????)

 

Thanks for any help

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The solution. Buy this and turn your TV to whatever channel the switch on your atari is set to.

 

That's not an RCA video out from your Atari, it's how Atari output the composite video and audio and modulated it to whatever tv channel the switch is set to. Newer consoles had the RF adapter plug into a jack on the back of the console.

 

http://www.radioshac...oductId=2123169

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I am going to try this out.. do you think it will work?

http://www.hardwareb...Composite_Video && http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/atari/600xlmon.html

 

@19echo

I tried going through the switch box, but it did not give any signal at all.

 

@fibrewire

That is how I was connecting

 

@sloopy

if all else fails, I will try IC swapping.. although I don't know any one with an A8XL...

Edited by Elijah Mirecki
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Did you check the cartridge slot to make sure some metallic bug didn't get smashed into the slot?

 

The computer should do something without any cart in the slot, so leave the cart out for now.

 

You can open the case and check any chips to see if thermal expansion has wiggled them out of their sockets over the last 30 years. With the motherboard out of the case and on a flat non-metallic surface, you can press the chips back into their sockets.

 

You can carefully check the motherboard for cracks or broken solder joints around the chips.

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Yes, the cheapest soldering iron to get would be radioshack's most expensive in-store model with the little dial that lets you select wattage.

 

http://www.radioshac...oductId=4342791

 

Get a tube of 60/40 rosin core solder as well

 

http://www.radioshac...oductId=2062719

 

Also, watch this video, it will save you years of headaches

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NU2ruzyc4

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Ok -- I have come across a little issue.. I started re-soldering the IC's.. but accidentally severed some of the tin strips :S How does one fix that? I tried a pencil but it didn't work.. Now I am getting no signal at all (but still power light) ... Also -- I found some severed connections on the far left of the board.. they definitely done on purpose. Are they supposed to be severed?

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