Can someone fix 800xl computers?

[flashjazzcat]

I suppose since I mostly do the odd fix for charity, to help someone out.. or to rescue a machine from the thrifty mart, I just take a little pride in giving someone a solid unit with all the designed strength, protection, and longevity as possible.

 

In the spirit of solid UN-insulated metal to the PCB or exposed keyboard connections... well heck lets just jack them into mains without a step-down transformer.

I take pride what I do as well, and people are actually prepared to pay for it. Again, I'm not arguing the toss, but merely trying to balance all this rubber spacer business by telling you what I've observed. For what it's worth, heavier stuff sometimes breaks easier in the mail. But half the machines I work on still have the shield anyway, and at no point did I imply otherwise.

 

As for hooking straight up to the mains... You lost me there.

[_The Doctor__]

@ XUCEAN ,

 

glad it's all sorted, and we could help in some small way

[SS]

My populated 800xl board arrived today from Best. I'll work on that this weekend.

When I get that working I'll post an update.

My brand new populated 600XL motherboard from Best Electronics arrived today. Still wrapped in plastic. Thanks for the heads up about this, xucaen. Hopefully I will have some time to get everything up and running this weekend.

[+xucaen]

And that reminds me... I installed the board on Saturday and it's working great. I've been playing Star Raiders and trying out a bunch of games I've never played before. Ultimate cart is the best!

[zylon]

And that reminds me... I installed the board on Saturday and it's working great. I've been playing Star Raiders and trying out a bunch of games I've never played before. Ultimate cart is the best!

 

I bought the Maxflash programmer and the 5 8MB cart deal from Atarimax. Managed about 60-70 games per cart, so that made one instant collection of goodies.

[_The Doctor__]

I like to buy the 1 mbit carts in a 5 pack deal when offered.

[Mr Robot]

As if by magic...

[_The Doctor__]

imagine that!

[+Stephen]

That's a good price. Damn it - do I "need" another 10 carts for my Atari when I have a 2 1m, 2 8m and every other flash and SD cart made in at least duplicate. I will be good boy and defer.

[zylon]

The programmer can also read the ROMs on your existing carts or those borrowed as well. I'm adding the 5200 adaptor and SIO2PC eventually.

[SS]

The programmer can also read the ROMs on your existing carts

I keep thinking about picking one up for just this reason. I don't really have the need to make any AtariMax compilation carts but I would like to try dumping a few.

[+DrVenkman]

Well don't forget the variants with a spring that contacts the shielding for the cartridge door as well, a piece of spring metal protrudes from the cartridge port doors, I am serious.... and yes there are keyboards that may not be supported in the way described, depends on the backing plate. Again, some had tabs, some had plastic... some foam rubber.. etc etc.. Looks like a solid metal backing plate in his photo. There were varying methods (I thought I conveyed that).

 

I still say an adventure might lie within the clearly opened machines shielding. (fun to fix and discover the mysteries

 

Okay, I stand corrected and I owe _The Doctor_ an apology for the doubts I expressed. Jon's latest 800XL repair video (streamed yesterday) shows him opening an 800XL with an Alps keyboard and there are indeed rubber (?) support blocks resting on the shielding, presumably to prevent the PCB of the keyboard from flexing. Since all my 800XL's have Stackpole keyboards with metal backing plates, I've never seen this before.

 

https://youtu.be/p3_QYvOVXxQ?t=2925

 

[zylon]

^^ I've never seen one of those keyboards before. I can see why they'd need the blocks.

[SS]

Jon's latest 800XL repair video (streamed yesterday) shows him opening an 800XL with an Alps keyboard and there are indeed rubber (?) support blocks resting on the shielding, presumably to prevent the PCB of the keyboard from flexing. Since all my 800XL's have Stackpole keyboards with metal backing plates, I've never seen this before.

Interesting. I have a 1984 Olympics boxed Alps keyboard. My top shielding is off to make room for a U1MB board, so I dug it out of the closet to check what it looks like. Definitely no supports attached to mine. I wonder if the blocks were only attached to later revisions? From what I can tell, Alps keyboards were only used for a short period and started around the time of these "1984 Olympics" boxes through early Taiwan made models. Perhaps there were some complaints about keyboards flexing and this was some sort of quick-fix solution?

[hueyjones70]

I have bought at least two dozen 800XLs in the last two years. 75% of them were working, of those that didn't work, I have been able to repair all but two of them. Most of the non-working ones had bad RAM chips. I have not been able to fix two and I keep going back to them when I have some down time. I usually perform the SuperVideo 2.1 mod and resell them. I have modded several with 256K memory upgrades and/or UAV upgrades. When I sell them as tested and working, they have been tested for several hours on games, programming, and disk operations. If you are still in the market for a repair guy PM me.

[SS]

When I sell them as tested and working, they have been tested for several hours on games, programming, and disk operations. If you are still in the market for a repair guy PM me.

It seems like I am always looking at your XLs on eBay. I like the idea of the video upgrades but I don't really need another 800XL. Do you work on 600XLs too? I have one here that could really benefit from a UAV upgrade.

 

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Edited December 27, 2018 by SS

[Sugarland]

I have bought at least two dozen 800XLs in the last two years. 75% of them were working, of those that didn't work, I have been able to repair all but two of them. Most of the non-working ones had bad RAM chips. I have not been able to fix two and I keep going back to them when I have some down time. I usually perform the SuperVideo 2.1 mod and resell them. I have modded several with 256K memory upgrades and/or UAV upgrades. When I sell them as tested and working, they have been tested for several hours on games, programming, and disk operations. If you are still in the market for a repair guy PM me.

 

Good service to keep these machines working and in circulation. Thank you! I might buy one from you one day.

 

Someone on ebay replaces the power LED with a *bright* blue one. That's why I don't buy his. I absolutely love the stock dim red LED it's beautiful, even if slightly misaligned with the hole. I have dreams of trying to correctly align it.

[hueyjones70]

In my limited experience I have found that the keyboard support strips are only present on some mechanical keyboards. I have never found them on a membrane keyboard. There is a particular model of Mitsumi keyboards that has two metal bands about 1 inch wide that run the length of the keyboard to provide support. This mechanical keyboard does not have the rubber supports.