130XE stopped working, then my 800XL too!

[erichenneke]

Saturday night I had several friends over wanting to break out the 8-bit atari's. It was great fun, but then the 130XE went black ( no video, no power LED ).

 

At the time I didn't think about the power supply as a possible culprit.

 

I unplugged the dead 130XE and plugged the same PSU into my 800XL.

 

The fun resumed... for about 15 minutes.

 

Then the 800XL went black too ( no video, no power LED ).

 

I realized, oh uh, I have done a bad bad thing. Probably the PSU had drifted out of spec and fried both of the systems!

What is the best suggestion for these two newly-dead units? They have both served me well for several years and were both functioning fine up until my flub. I'd LOVE to get them both running again as soon as possible.

 

Really appreciate your advice and/or anybody that could help.

 

Thank you!

-Eric

 

 

 

 

[ZZTOP SOFT]

Check the PSU voltaje as first. If is good, take off the cover of your Atari, remove the shield, and looking for overheat chips. Overheat means that you can't keep your finger over the chip surface.

A bad PSU (over 5V) typically fried some RAMS as first target. But, this is just a russian roulette. Years ago a bad PSU fried me two RAMS and the SO ROM. Have luck.

Edited January 27, 2014 by ZZTOP SOFT

[russg]

Saturday night I had several friends over wanting to break out the 8-bit atari's. It was great fun, but then the 130XE went black ( no video, no power LED ).

 

At the time I didn't think about the power supply as a possible culprit.

 

I unplugged the dead 130XE and plugged the same PSU into my 800XL.

 

The fun resumed... for about 15 minutes.

 

Then the 800XL went black too ( no video, no power LED ).

 

I realized, oh uh, I have done a bad bad thing. Probably the PSU had drifted out of spec and fried both of the systems!

 

What is the best suggestion for these two newly-dead units? They have both served me well for several years and were both functioning fine up until my flub. I'd LOVE to get them both running again as soon as possible.

 

Really appreciate your advice and/or anybody that could help.

 

Thank you!

-Eric

 

 

 

 

One thing you can do is measure the voltage of the ps you used.

 

If you have the 'ingot' power supply, that's the bad one.

 

C061982 'The White Brick' (Upper left) 1.5A very reliable, rare

C061982 'The Black Brick' (Lower Left) 1.5A very reliable, rare

C061982 'The Ingot' (Center Top) 1.5A if this PS fails it can damage the computer. Not recommended for unattended operations

C061982 'The Box' (Top Right) 1.5A very reliable, recommended for XL/XE computers

C70042-011 'The Mini' (Bottom Center) 1A shipped with most XEGS systems, use the 'Logo' for continuous 1A operations

C70042-01 'The Logo' (Bottom Right) 1A very reliable

Port picture is looking in at male pins.

Edited January 27, 2014 by russg

[Rybags]

Did you have buzzing through the audio or colours seem off what they should be?

 

Buzzing audio is a common symptom of an overvolting PS - I have a machine that landed here with one and once I identified the PS was bad, decommissioned it.

 

It might be the case you've fried multiple components and find it cheaper to just buy a new machine - but chances are that between the 2 computers there might be enough to have one working system, the problem is just working out what's good and what's dead.

[erichenneke]

Thanks for the quick feedback.

 

The power supply i was using was "the box" C061982 variety.

 

I just measured it and it was 5.10V and seemed stable at 5.10V.

 

Is that okay, or could that have been the cause of the failure on both systems ( within about 20 minutes of each other ) using the same power supply?

 

-Eric

[erichenneke]

Did you have buzzing through the audio or colours seem off what they should be?

 

Buzzing audio is a common symptom of an overvolting PS - I have a machine that landed here with one and once I identified the PS was bad, decommissioned it.

 

It might be the case you've fried multiple components and find it cheaper to just buy a new machine - but chances are that between the 2 computers there might be enough to have one working system, the problem is just working out what's good and what's dead.

No, I didn't notice any buzzing or coloration issues before they just went dead. They don't do anything now ( not even power LED light).

 

Before the 130XE went it did glitch a couple times with some random video pattern of bars/stripes up and down the screen. I guess it was restarted about 3 times before the it died.

 

The 800XL glitched one time in a similar way before it died too (15 mins later).

 

That's why I figured there had to be some common denominator and the only thing in common was the power supply.

 

Actually, come to think of it the other "common denominator" was that I had them plugged into a atarimax sio2pc (usb version) in both cases. Hadn't thought about that as a possible issue. Hmmm.

 

-Eric

[erichenneke]

Well, good news! My systems are NOT dead!

 

I dug around and found a few of other old power supplies and tested the voltage on them (they were all between 5.10V and 5.19V).

 

Even though the power supply I was using Saturday night also read 5.10V I thought "what the heck" and plugged in a different power supply. Bingo, both systems work perfectly with a different power supply.

 

Not sure why this is the case, but for some reason even though that "bad" power supply measures 5.10V it will not power either of the two systems. If I use a different power supply then they both work.

 

Just happy both my 130XE and 800XL seem to be doing fine now.

 

-Eric

[Paul Westphal]

Take them all apart and dust 'em. It's also a good idea to take off the shield and gently push down on the chips to seat them more/better after all this time.

[MrMartian]

Well, good news! My systems are NOT dead!

 

I dug around and found a few of other old power supplies and tested the voltage on them (they were all between 5.10V and 5.19V).

 

Even though the power supply I was using Saturday night also read 5.10V I thought "what the heck" and plugged in a different power supply. Bingo, both systems work perfectly with a different power supply.

 

Not sure why this is the case, but for some reason even though that "bad" power supply measures 5.10V it will not power either of the two systems. If I use a different power supply then they both work.

 

Just happy both my 130XE and 800XL seem to be doing fine now.

 

-Eric

 

It's quite likely the power supply itself is failing after a time.. Since it's been unplugged, something has cooled and it works again... Either take it apart and look for bad solder joints, or just toss it as dead Ataris due to a flaky supply is a sad thing..

[_The Doctor__]

I would repair the power supply, they are easy to fix. The voltage regulator may have gone thermal.

The reason why the ingot is considered bad and the others are considered good is due to the design, especially during failure. The ingot fails and passes higher voltages and even sometime actual a.c. causing the infamous 'humm bars'. The others were desinged to fail by either open circuit or low voltage failure. I would repair the others as they assure should a failure occur again the computers remain protected. The black beauty and white brick beauty got their nick names because of the reliability and ease of repair. Truely things of beauty. The ingot is an epoxy filled nightmare that destroys Atari's sometimes permanantly, all ingots are ugly and evil. Repair all beauty and 'reliable' supplies as they are built to protect and serve. I stick with 1.5 amp and up supplies.. so when you run upgrades and Atari powered add ons like IDE, SIO SD card and sio to pc devices I don't have to worry about burning up a 1 amp or so low supply. You said yours was the box supply so it's 1.5 and reliable and fails low. Definately a rebuild in my book.

[simbalion]

 

One thing you can do is measure the voltage of the ps you used.

 

If you have the 'ingot' power supply, that's the bad one.

 

C061982 'The White Brick' (Upper left) 1.5A very reliable, rare

C061982 'The Black Brick' (Lower Left) 1.5A very reliable, rare

C061982 'The Ingot' (Center Top) 1.5A if this PS fails it can damage the computer. Not recommended for unattended operations

C061982 'The Box' (Top Right) 1.5A very reliable, recommended for XL/XE computers

C70042-011 'The Mini' (Bottom Center) 1A shipped with most XEGS systems, use the 'Logo' for continuous 1A operations

C70042-01 'The Logo' (Bottom Right) 1A very reliable

Port picture is looking in at male pins.

 

 

I have just about one each of those power supplies I found in a box full of power supplies that had tested as working, but the guy was getting ready to scrap because he needed the cash at the time. Always wondered what the two bigger power supplies were for. Also, I think I have one of those 'Ingots' which I will now just send on its way. I'll have to test out my black and white bricks once the weather warms up and I can get back into storage.

[_The Doctor__]

Just remember to test them under load and give them sufficient time to warm up. Most of the time its just a fuse for disk and printer power supply. they are basically just transformers. The computer supplies are normally just a cap, diode, transistor or fuse. not complicated in the least

Edited January 28, 2014 by _The Doctor__