My XEGS (aka 900XL) keyboard is bad

[suspicious_milk]

Just got a new XEGS and my first day off where I get to play a little. The DELETE & RETURN keys stopped working and the CONTROL and left SHIFT key went intermittent.

 

So I took it apart; and the inside circuits (in the plastic film) has some discoloration (dark) and I cleaned it with alcohol (to no avail, I'm afraid).

 

ANYWAYS I noticed a couple things...

 

There in the lower left you'll note a LED which should really be showing! (it's wired).

 

On the top right we have 4 buttons with no keycaps (again wired). It's not much of a jump to figure what they are. (keyboard is bad so it may be pointless, but on my keyboard they do nothing)

 

Is this pretty much common knowledge?

 

Well, you'll also note on the inside plastic case it's marked as a 900XL.

 

Did a google search and found an old atari document (dated 84) speccing out a 900XLA which it internally referenced a "900XL" like it already existed. The XLA version added sound chip badassery and that's about it (from a quick read). The 65XE's original name was supposed to be 900XLF - so apparently it changed around. Nothing earth shattering, but I thought it was kinda neat, I've never seen any references to this before.

 

Someone clear me up or have fun and speculate. (and give me advice on fixing my keyboard, I just ordered a Neo Geo extension cable for it, less than 10 ten hours before it broke).

Edited May 7, 2012 by suspicious_milk

[Rybags]

The keyboard internals is the same as used in some other XE machines, so the console keys are present in part but not used - it would have meant needing individual wiring per key plus you need those keys on the main machine too since the keyboard was optional.

 

900XL - not sure the story there, 900XL was a conceptual design AFAIK in the Warner years well before the selloff so maybe the XE keyboard as we now know it was in fact part of the design, or maybe the designation was intentional and they changed their minds later and used the XE series + naming scheme as we know it.

[Fox-1 / mnx]

Well, you'll also note on the inside plastic case it's marked as a 900XL.

 

Not unusual. Saw it before on at least 2 of my 65XE/130XE keyboards.

 

The 65XE's original name was supposed to be 900XLF - so apparently it changed around.

 

Usually the "F" just means there's a "Freddie" chip on the PCB. Late European 800XL's have a Freddie chip and have "800XLF" printed on the PCB.