Atari 800 (non XL) possible issue - help needed

[mikesk8]

Hello, I am experiencing serious of strange behaviours on my Atari 800 lately. One I think is linked with RetroTINK (posted in another thread on this forum) as I get strange reddish vertical lines sometimes without computer even powered on (just supply is connected) [update - got info from support to check HDMI cables  - will do more test].

However, the other issue feels like Atari itself or/and SIO2SD. I cannot still find a pattern yet, but maybe you can help me in this investigation.

 

What happens is that while playing a game (loaded from SIO2SD in my cases) suddenly screen gets black, music is off and after 2 seconds the game is back; looks like you start from the beginning (need to double check this). It looks randomly to me. It happed so far to me only in Frogger and some time ago in Moon Patrol. Its coming and going. Then, you load another game and it seems to be working ok. I was playing with young sons so could not really observe it clearly

 

Do you maybe have any tips how to further investigate it? In the beginning I though its just some software error or something like this, but now I am getting concerned, especially we played those two games without any issues these days.

Edited August 14, 2020 by mikesk8

[TGB1718]

This could be a RAM problem, how much memory is in the 800, if it's a 32K or 48K machine,

remove all but one RAM module, try the game, if no problem, swap it out for one of the others,

until you have checked them all, this will at least prove it's a RAM module or not.

 

As it's random, obviously may take a while to see it.

[mikesk8]

23 hours ago, TGB1718 said:

This could be a RAM problem, how much memory is in the 800, if it's a 32K or 48K machine,

remove all but one RAM module, try the game, if no problem, swap it out for one of the others,

until you have checked them all, this will at least prove it's a RAM module or not.

 

As it's random, obviously may take a while to see it.

Thank you. Indeed, this is on my list to test first  Need to just get more information how Atari is using RAM while playing from cartridges or SIO2SD. I have an impression there are some differences and I want to ensure the test are correct:)

 

The frogger version which was giving me issues does not load with 16k (at least not in Atari800Macx) and there is no 32k option in this emulator, so need to test in real Atari.