Atari 520ST - White screen, brief flashes of bombs?

[reverendshoebox]

Hello all.

 

So, I fired up my Atari 520ST for the first time in a long time and it was working just fine.  Then I left it running for about an hour while I ran upstairs to do something, and when I came back I had a white screen.

 

Now, whenever I fire it up, I get the same white screen - with a row of bombs occasionally flashing very briefly on the screen (not long enough for me to count them.)

 

I searched on these symptoms and most of what I've seen is around modded systems - pretty sure mine is NOT modded (though I got it used years ago, so not certain.)

 

Any recommendations for first steps here?  The fact that it happened while it was running and is still happening makes me think caps maybe?

 

Thanks.

 

 

[reverendshoebox]

Okay, well, I took it apart, hooked the board directly to the power and monitor to see if I could get a video of the screen and maybe capture the number of bombs, aaaaand it just plain worked.

So, figuring this might be the age-old "drop the computer a couple of inches" issue, I checked all the traces, re-soldered a couple of iffy ones, and reseated all the socketed ICs.  It's back together now and working just fine, so...?

 

 

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Yeah, could be.  It you can get a hold of those metal clips they put over the socketed plcc chips on later models, they do a good job of preventing it.

Edited March 15, 2021 by TheNameOfTheGame