Is my 600XL doomed?

[Rybags]

It works as a replacement OS to do system diags, it appears to use sound and PM graphics to communicate the status which is useful for partially dead systems.

 

I guess this thread should have the most up to date info https://atariage.com/forums/topic/282022-shoestrings-atari-8bit-ram-tester/

[candle]

as for aliexpress and surplus chip stores - i have pretty good experience with any place i bought chips from

i try to buy from more than one seller in case of counterfeit chips, but even if they do sell me something "relabelled" to say the least, it appears to work as required - most of

ie "MOS" branded 6502 chips - couldn't be MOS for sure, or MOS had the technology to laser etch their logo on chips back then - but out of 5 bought, 4 were working

point is, if i stay away from more recognizable "brands" like MOS, chances are i'm getting genuine stuff after all, and even if not, then i'm getting relabelled chips from other manufacturers, but still the parts i require

 

[+Nezgar]

On 2/19/2020 at 3:37 AM, Grumps said:

Ah, the aliexpress gamble. Have you had good experience with chips from them? Or anybody else?

IC's from China via Aliexpress is basically the same as from China via eBay. My experience is a good number of chips are recycled (that's OK), about 10% are "counterfeit" (relabelled) and 10% are bad. For the prices though, that's acceptable...

 

For EPROMs, the chips have an internal ID you can read with the programmer software and compare against the expected brand.

 

Edit: Here's a great video introduction i found to identifying fake/counterfeit/relabelled IC's:

 

[Grumps]

Just a quick update on my 600XL.

Have replaced the CPU (which made a big difference).

Have just replaced POKEY and the PIA (which I had suspected as dead).

And now....

... She's alive

 

Early days as I've only tested with a game or two. But looking good.