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Atari XE boots to memory test only


tcpuccio1

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Ok I already know the answer but looking for a solution. Brought my Atari 130XE out of a 35 year old coma when I turn it on with a cartridge in it it boots to the memory self test the rom bars are both green and a good majority of the ram blocks are red so I'm assuming I have faulty ram and that's why it will not run a cartridge or boot a disk. that bing said I don't have the ability to desolder and solder new chips on the board let alone know Which ones are bad most of the block on the self test are red.  I found a couple of boards on Ebay that are rebuilt the question I have is there are different ones all for a 130xe which one do I need I'm in the USA I can't find a concrete answer as to which one will work on a TV here . thank you in advance. 

 

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If you don't want to desolder an easy option might just be to replace the whole MB and try to sell the board you have.   Best electronics has fully populated MBs for the 130xe at about $80.   http://www.best-electronics-ca.com part # CB101089.  I'd definitely do this over eBay as it is probably cheaper in most cases and these are new old stock.

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8 hours ago, tcpuccio1 said:

 

the question I have is there are different ones all for a 130xe which one do I need I'm in the USA I can't find a concrete answer as to which one will work on a TV here . thank you in advance. 

 

 

The 130XE motherboards are all pretty much the same AFAIK. They may have moved to higher density RAM (fewer chips) in later years. I'm sure you can swap in any working NTSC motherboard and be fine. You'll need a TV that supports composite and/or s-video(chroma+luma). If the TV has pixels jumping/flickering where they should not be then it's the TV's fault and not the computer.  LCD's from pre-2010 tend to better handle the old video signal.

 

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12 hours ago, Sugarland said:

 

The 130XE motherboards are all pretty much the same AFAIK. They may have moved to higher density RAM (fewer chips) in later years. I'm sure you can swap in any working NTSC motherboard and be fine. You'll need a TV that supports composite and/or s-video(chroma+luma). If the TV has pixels jumping/flickering where they should not be then it's the TV's fault and not the computer.  LCD's from pre-2010 tend to better handle the old video signal.

 

I have one of those RF adaptors to import the video into the TV that's how I could see that the ram was jacked up I have an old 5" TV I want to use it on. I wound up ordering a mother board from Best electronic's  today they seem like really nice people to do business with. less then $100.00 with shipping. the ones I was looking at on eBay were more and were PAL a pole Pal1 which apparently will not work on a US tv

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got my mother board today and it works! Yeah!  no this question will morph into something else forgive me. 

in basic Load"D1:filename.exttension" Correct?  Just like that? 

How can I access the files on a disk though Basic? 

I have a bunch of program I wrote back in the day and never wrote down the file names. Doh! 

particularly I wrote a BBS system and I have all the disks 

I'm shocked I have a couple hundred disks with games and files and a majority of the disks still work holding down Option when turning on they all seem to boot. the files I wrote were all in basic basic xe to be exact it will load the basic cartridge and it's looking for a prompt command or what ever … so that all works. :) 

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yes, the disk will boot dos and dump you to basic

then just type as in your' example

you can just do

RUN "D1:filename.ext"

or

ENTER "D1:filename.ext"

if it's a listed basic proggy

 

you can alway type

 

DOS

then get your directory of names from there and then B run cartridge to go back to basic  to help you recall what a filename is.

 

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yep got it surprisingly I have a couple hundred disks full of game files and programs etc. I only ran across 2 so far that will not boot. amazing after 30+ year that this stuff still works! they have not been stored in really a climate controlled environment either which is really even more amazing. 

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just remember to clean the drive head right away, old disks shed material and are usually dirty. Make sure the head is dry when done, before running another disk. after a couple time working through your pile most of them should be okay, I back them up 1st time just in case using sio 2 pc... then if they fail I can re create them...

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