Rainbow Walker scramble suddenly and the video stops working

[Mr SQL]

Right as I  was about to play another round; my 800XL had been on for 24 hours with just Rainbow Walker, it's a fun game.

 

Mostly Rainbow Walker was in demo mode, when I wasn't playing but now my Atari gives off a band midway down the screen of blue luminescence, that's it.

 

I've been playing it a lot lately and did the same thing with Archon, Gauntlet and Defender so my XL was probably on for a few days with little off time - I've done this with my VCS and C64 too and never had an issue besides blowing the PSU both. Is this likely what's happened again, or is it a chip failure within the machine?

 

 

[Rybags]

I get the feeling I've heard of this before.  Maybe boot it holding Option?

 

If the colours at the right are still present then the computer hasn't locked up as they're changed by the CPU.

[gozar]

Does your 800XL have a memory upgrade and are you using an off-brand Sega gamepad by chance? 

[Mr SQL]

15 hours ago, Rybags said:

I get the feeling I've heard of this before.  Maybe boot it holding Option?

 

If the colours at the right are still present then the computer hasn't locked up as they're changed by the CPU.

Awesome!   I tried holding down Option and it worked - my 800 starts with or without option and plays games again now BUT -

 

There is an annoying loud buzz and a blue bar slowly travels up all screens - possible I messed up the PS and have interference or  something else?

Before it showed just the blue bar in the center of the screen.

5 hours ago, gozar said:

Does your 800XL have a memory upgrade and are you using an off-brand Sega gamepad by chance? 

 

I'm not sure. I have an AtGames joystick plugged in, the regular kind with no extra buttons. I did use a Sega pad a while back and left it plugged in like that overnight.

[_The Doctor__]

your describing is possibly a hum bar from the power supply that can cook your Atari or is cooking your Atari... so that could lead to dead chips... the warnings about this with the infamous ingot, boat anchor power supply are from one end of the forums to the other... You are a well seasoned person on the forums.... not sure how you could have missed all of these discussions....

while the ingot is notorious for this kind of failure, modern usb power solutions sometimes fail badly. Very rarely does any of the other power supply options fail in this manner. While it is the slimmest I won the lottery chance of them failing that way... the other thing people do is use a commie or other supply on the Atari and kill the Atari sometimes instantly and sometimes moderately as the commie supply has different spec and pinouts.

 

bad conductors in monitor cords can make similar aberrations(without the damage)... so you could check cable and jacks.

 

the question about joysticks and upgrades is because current draw for one reason or another could be more than your supply will deliver....

Edited March 31, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[Mr SQL]

11 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

your describing is possibly a hum bar from the power supply that can cook your Atari or is cooking your Atari... so that could lead to dead chips... the warnings about this with the infamous ingot, boat anchor power supply are from one end of the forums to the other... You are a well seasoned person on the forums.... not sure how you could have missed all of these discussions....

while the ingot is notorious for this kind of failure, modern usb power solutions sometimes fail badly. Very rarely does any of the other power supply options fail in this manner. While it is the slimmest I won the lottery chance of them failing that way... the other thing people do is use a commie or other supply on the Atari and kill the Atari sometimes instantly and sometimes moderately as the commie supply has different spec and pinouts.

 

bad conductors in monitor cords can make similar aberrations(without the damage)... so you could check cable and jacks.

 

the question about joysticks and upgrades is because current draw for one reason or another could be more than your supply will deliver....

Thank you Doctor - I was aware of the C64 power supply issues but I thought the A8 was more stable.

Glad the XL has no damage I will pick up whatever power supply I can find besides the ingot.

 

 

[Colleton]

4 hours ago, Mr SQL said:

I will pick up whatever power supply I can find besides the ingot.

https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/atari-xl-xe-power-supply/

[Mr SQL]

47 minutes ago, Colleton said:

https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/atari-xl-xe-power-supply/

Thank you Colleton, great Atari support site - I ordered that power supply