Atari 800 XL burning power adapters

[bullmuscle]

Hi, a year ago a bought an Atari 800 XL. It came with the 1050 Floppy Drive. All of it worked for several days but then all the sudden the screen went blank with some slight strange low beeps on the screen. I then bought another power adapter and this appeared to have resolved the issue, powering up the 800XL. I reconnected the 1050 Floppy and loaded games from disk just like previously with the last adapter and it happened again. While powered on, the tv screen goes black with low sounding random beeps.

 

What do y'all think this is? the computer (800xl) frying the adapters? Bad capacitors? is this a known issue?

 

 

Help me resolve this for me and you get a $60 gift card sent to you of whatever retail store you wish. (Im serious.)

 

Please help

 

Thank joe

 

[Grover Torbel]

How do you know the first power supply was bad? Did you check it with a multimeter? To me, it just sounds like something in the 800 is failing, but it's hard to tell without doing some testing.

[Keneg]

You may try it again after it cools off. It sounds like it may be a component overheating. Also, if it is truely killing power adapters, that is most likely something shorted. I just repaired a 1050 drive that turned out to be a leaking capacitor. It finally burned up. As suggested above. Use a multimeter to test the output of the power supply. First with the computer off and then with it turned on. Report the results here and we can go from there. Your symptom does sound similar to what I got when the power supply on my 800 XL failed.

[Osgeld]

+1 to keneg

 

does it go away after 30 min to an hour when things have settled back down to room temp

what have you checked, have you checked anything?

have you tried it just computer only without the drive or anything else attached

 

btw my car has a misfire on cylinder 3, 60 bucks to the one who can pin point it ... its similar to what your asking

[shoestring]

How many amps is the power adapter rated for ?

 

A800xl needs 5vDC at 1.5 amps. Anything less and you risk burning it out fairly quickly.

 

Don't go cheap on power adapters, those are house fires waiting to happen.

[Keneg]

+1 to keneg

 

does it go away after 30 min to an hour when things have settled back down to room temp

what have you checked, have you checked anything?

have you tried it just computer only without the drive or anything else attached

 

btw my car has a misfire on cylinder 3, 60 bucks to the one who can pin point it ... its similar to what your asking

 

Check the resistance of the plug wires. LOL

[1050]

Keep your money guys, use it to buy needed stuff with.

 

Like a voltmeter. Be sure to test it without the computer

connected first. You are looking for 5 volts where 7 or

so means the power supply is a RAM killing machine. Check

both power supplies or all you have for that matter.

Connect good 5 volt supply to computer and turn it on to

measure again, you still need 5 volts and if you don't

have it then the computer is drawing too many amps.

To be continued...

 

Move your #3 coil to an easy to work on spot and move that

coil to #3 spot. Start it up, if the miss follows the

coil, buy a new coil. If it stays on #3 buy a spark

plug and spark plugs wires if that is applicable in your

particular case. Still no joy you need to do a compression

test on #3, today's engines should be over 100 PSI with

185 being near new condition. To be continued...

[Keneg]

When my Ingot supplies failed, they provided 5v until the computer was turned on and then dropped to about 3v. So it might just be a weak supply, not the computer drawing too much. I got different symptoms on my 600 XL and 800 XL, but both now work with supplies I built.

[+mytek]

How many amps is the power adapter rated for ?

 

A800xl needs 5vDC at 1.5 amps. Anything less and you risk burning it out fairly quickly.

 

Don't go cheap on power adapters, those are house fires waiting to happen.

Unless there are a bunch of upgrades, 1 amp is more than sufficient for an 800XL. And that is the lowest rated 5 v power pack that Atari made for their computer line. Of course going higher in amperage never hurts .

 

I agree with whoever mentioned that it's possibly attributable to a component failing when warmed up. So getting a voltmeter on it, as was also suggested, and then watching the voltage level after switching on the 800XL is a good idea. You're watching to make sure that an excessive load isn't placed on the power supply when the problem occurs (voltage drops below 5 v), or is too high (way over 5 v). If the power stays good, then get yourself some freeze spray and selectively start cooling down one chip at a time until the problem corrects itself. This will help you isolate it. BTW, freeze spray is often available in drug stores or pharmacies if you can't easily find it elsewhere.

 

Good luck hunting .

 

Edit: Check the power supply all by itself first before plugging it in. If the voltage is high then don't use it.

 

Edit2: When using the freeze spray, start with the 40 pin chips first and then move on to the smaller IC chips afterwards, specifically the RAM chips. A quick spray should be all that's needed to cool the chip down enough to start working again.

[Osgeld]

Move your #3 coil to an easy to work on spot and move that

coil to #3 spot. Start it up, if the miss follows the

coil, buy a new coil. If it stays on #3 buy a spark

plug and spark plugs wires if that is applicable in your

particular case. Still no joy you need to do a compression

test on #3, today's engines should be over 100 PSI with

185 being near new condition. To be continued...

 

see that's the joke, its nothing to do with ignition, its a snotted up injector

 

so keep guessing with jack squat information eventually someone will hit the jackpot

[shoestring]

 

Unless there are a bunch of upgrades, 1 amp is more than sufficient for an 800XL. And that is the lowest rated 5 v power pack that Atari made for their computer line. Of course going higher in amperage never hurts .

 

 

Depends on what he is using. The power supply may be rated higher than what it is actually capable of, this is often the case with a lot of cheap Chinese made AC to DC adapters.

 

They generally have a lot less parts than they should, particularly in the high voltage filtering section and will often use components that are under spec.

 

https://www.edn.com/design/pc-board/4441830/Teardown--12V-AC-adapters---The-Horror

[+mytek]

 

Depends on what he is using. The power supply may be rated higher than what it is actually capable of, this is often the case with a lot of cheap Chinese made AC to DC adapters.

 

They generally have a lot less parts than they should, particularly in the high voltage filtering section and will often use components that are under spec.

 

https://www.edn.com/design/pc-board/4441830/Teardown--12V-AC-adapters---The-Horror

 

Yep the OP should tell us what power pack(s) they are using, or better yet post a picture of such.

[Vinnie D.]

I don't have any Atari specific experience on this problem, but I have had a power supply eating C64 before. After 3 different power supplies I realized the problem was with the system. In my case it was a bad bridge rectifier that was overdrawing the power supply, and just wasting the power back to ground. That's a recipe for dead power supplies right there. If everything is OK with a new PSU then you should be fine, but if it eats another one it might be time to break out a multimeter and a circuit diagram.

[+mytek]

The OP has only posted once, that being their topic starting post. After 3 days of silence, I have to wonder how eager they really are at wanting to solve this .

[shoestring]

I don't have any Atari specific experience on this problem, but I have had a power supply eating C64 before. After 3 different power supplies I realized the problem was with the system. In my case it was a bad bridge rectifier that was overdrawing the power supply, and just wasting the power back to ground. That's a recipe for dead power supplies right there. If everything is OK with a new PSU then you should be fine, but if it eats another one it might be time to break out a multimeter and a circuit diagram.

 

Can't say I have much experience with most Atari supplies either, I do have one that come with the Atari & a c64 version both of them made by FutureTronics. They were a distributor in Australia during the early 80s. Both very reliable as far my experience with them goes.

 

http://www.vintageisthenewold.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/C64Power.jpg

 

However, I am also guilty of having used a cheap USB hub AC -> DC adapter briefly which was virtually brand new, I noticed a slight rolling of the picture. Voltage checked out fine but when I opened the power supply, I saw the mains 400v cap was swollen, board was off colour from being exposed to heat and the components around it were no longer in place.. the parts were just dangling around in their plate-through holes.

 

From that moment onwards, I only buy quality stuff that I can trust my life with. The cost in savings just isn't worth risking your life and equipment.

 

Phone chargers seem to work well though ( genuine iphone or samsung ), especially in a stock machine. Ipad chargers are a better choice for people with expansions.

Edited September 2, 2018 by shoestring

[Osgeld]

The OP has only posted once, that being their topic starting post. After 3 days of silence, I have to wonder how eager they really are at wanting to solve this .

not everyone is a raging atari nurd

 

I have had my 65XE like 2 years and the screws to the thing are still sitting in a bin .. though it does work

Edited September 2, 2018 by Osgeld

[+mytek]

not everyone is a raging atari nurd

 

I have had my 65XE like 2 years and the screws to the thing are still sitting in a bin .. though it does work

 

Pardon me, I may very well be a nerd, but I don't think I'm a raging one Anyway I guess that's my cue to shut up now .

[+DrVenkman]

 

Pardon me, I may very well be a nerd, but I don't think I'm a raging one Anyway I guess that's my cue to shut up now .

 

I've watched your YouTube videos and you don't rage. And no, you don't need to shut up. You raised a valid point. If the guy actually cared about the issue he brought up, you'd think he'd at least post back to thank folks for the suggestion and/or reply with more details. *shrug*

[_The Doctor__]

Who knows, I find a number of problems that get posted 'suspect' these days. Esp one's that end with the only 'solution' no one posted or it just fixes itself etc. The only way I see a power supply getting borked is if the primary cap is dang near shorted, or a device is taking something again darn near to overdrawn on the sio daisy chain. While anything is possible, someone normally would see the leaky cap, bulged cap, smoked component, or hot thing on the board. Otherwise it would be the other modes of failure discussed all over these forums. It would be possible an external device could back feed the Atari as well but unless their is great disparity it wouldn't burn out power supplies either...

Edited September 2, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[SS]

Speaking of power supplies, I've got three "good" ones now to go with my three XLs - one big black brick, one of the smaller black bricks with the silver labels, and one of Lotharek's brand new ones. The question is, what do I do with my two ignots? Both are still functioning correctly; one is in almost brand spanking new condition. It doesn't seem right to just throw them away but now they're just going to sit untouched in some storage bin until the end of time.

Edited September 2, 2018 by SS

[+DrVenkman]

Speaking of power supplies, I've got three "good" ones now to go with my three XLs - one big black brick, one of the smaller black bricks with the silver labels, and one of Lotharek's brand new ones. The question is, what do I do with my two ignots? Both are still functioning correctly; one is in almost brand spanking new condition. It doesn't seem right to just throw them away but now they're just going to sit untouched in some storage bin until the end of time.

 

Cut off the DIN cords to solder to better, modern 5V supplies.

[BillC]

 

Can't say I have much experience with most Atari supplies either, I do have one that come with the Atari & a c64 version both of them made by FutureTronics. They were a distributor in Australia during the early 80s. Both very reliable as far my experience with them goes.

 

http://www.vintageisthenewold.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/C64Power.jpg

 

However, I am also guilty of having used a cheap USB hub AC -> DC adapter briefly which was virtually brand new, I noticed a slight rolling of the picture. Voltage checked out fine but when I opened the power supply, I saw the mains 400v cap was swollen, board was off colour from being exposed to heat and the components around it were no longer in place.. the parts were just dangling around in their plate-through holes.

 

From that moment onwards, I only buy quality stuff that I can trust my life with. The cost in savings just isn't worth risking your life and equipment.

 

Phone chargers seem to work well though ( genuine iphone or samsung ), especially in a stock machine. Ipad chargers are a better choice for people with expansions.

For a modern switching power supply I think the ones that come with many routers would be a good option(if they are the correct voltage/current), they are designed for continuous operation. I have a +5V/3A version that came with an obsolete D-Link WIFI router.

 

USB type power adapters are often phone chargers which are designed more for short duration intermittent use, even if they meet the voltage/current requirements.

Edited September 2, 2018 by BillC

[Osgeld]

I ised ome for a ras pi and the noise it produced caused image distortion I swapped it out for one that was better and everything is good

 

So dont cheap out (not saying all pi power supplies are junk but the one I got from radio shack in a clearance starter pack was)

[zylon]

Speaking of power supplies, I've got three "good" ones now to go with my three XLs - one big black brick, one of the smaller black bricks with the silver labels, and one of Lotharek's brand new ones. The question is, what do I do with my two ignots? Both are still functioning correctly; one is in almost brand spanking new condition. It doesn't seem right to just throw them away but now they're just going to sit untouched in some storage bin until the end of time.

 

The silver label ones were designed for the 130xe and supposedly offer the most stable output. Makes a great 2nd choice just below the rebuildable ones and just above the "logo ribbed" one sold with 65xe.