Story about an eBay Auction

+SoulBuster · October 17, 2017

Recently, there was an eBay Auction with 2 1040 STfs, a track ball, an external Hard, an ICD Link II, a Hi-Res monitor cable and a Serial to USB adapter for a PC mouse. You can look here if you want.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Two-Atari-STf-with-ICD-Hard-drive-and-more/232518121704?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

My offer of $150 was accepted. I noticed that it was only 30 minute drive for me. We agreed on a time on Saturday that I could pick them up.

Right before I left, he calls and tells me that one of the computers does not boot now and asked If I wanted to cancel the auction. I told him let's wait and see what we have before we cancel it.

I drove out there and he booted the first up to show it worked. He said he could refund half for the one that does not. I told him that 1/3 is more appropriate as I was counting 1 for each ST and 1 for the Hard Drive. He agrees, but offers to refund $60 to help pay for may gas, nice guy, and he refunds me right then. He also said I could take the one that does not boot for parts, so we did not even try it.

Here is what I took with me when I left his place

2 1040 STfs - one working

1 540 Meg SCSI HD

1 Link II

1 Trackball

1 Hi res monitor cable

1 serial to usb mouse adapter

2 SF354 Floppy Drives with cables and power for 1. One works and one does not.

1 Astra Systems MIDI Box

1 Standard ST Mouse

1 Flight Simulator complete.

1 Chess Master 2000 complete

1 Commodore 64 no cables

4 previously never used 80k Shugart Floppy drives that were intended for the Texas Instruments Expansion unit. There are still stickers on them that say Texas instruments. They even have the metal frame for the expansion box on them.

Various other software.

I got home and sure enough the second STf was not working, but the screen did come on with weird patterns. I opened it up and there is a Best Electronics Power supply and a memory upgrade to 4 megs installed. I reseated all the socketed chips and still a no go. I reset all of the cables on the memory upgrade and it starts working. What a bonus. I will put some more TLC into this later.

Now, the Hard drive did not come with a power supply. So I tried a 19v power supply that my USB charging station uses and it fires right up. But it was not set for booting from the HD. It had Cubase installed on it, but not much else.

I have not done any other testing as I am pressed for time to make it to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this weekend. I am not even sure if the "working" ST had any upgrades. I will check all that out when I get back.

Not a bad haul for $90.