falter
Veteran Member
I think I posted about this a while back. I used to frequent a computer store in Vancouver called Cal's, and they had a computer museum in the front of their store that I always enjoyed having a walk through. At some point Cal's went out of business or moved, and the museum was sold off. I managed to grab a few pieces including this original Atari 800. It didn't have the power supply and I forgot about it for about 20 years.
I got the power supply recently and fired it up and found I was only getting a blank screen. After fiddling around with the RAM and ROM boards I did manage to get Memopad and BASIC but it was very touchy. I tried cleaning the ROM slot with pure alcohol and a little wiper but that made it worse. Presently all I get is a white screen, unless I press down with considerable force on the ROM cart, in which case the screen might turn to black or red.
I suspect the ROM slot is the problem. I've removed the motherboard and shielding and have carefully inspected all of the traces. I see nothing amiss and the random connections I've tested all come out good. I tested all of the voltages at the header that connects the two mainboards - that's fine. Also seeing the right voltages at the socket pins.
My question is this... does it matter which slot the ROM cart is installed in? To my eye it looks like all of the slots are wired the same way and I don't see any warning against putting the ROM cart in any of the others. I just want to see if the machine behavior changes as I know some of the other slots are better off.
I got the power supply recently and fired it up and found I was only getting a blank screen. After fiddling around with the RAM and ROM boards I did manage to get Memopad and BASIC but it was very touchy. I tried cleaning the ROM slot with pure alcohol and a little wiper but that made it worse. Presently all I get is a white screen, unless I press down with considerable force on the ROM cart, in which case the screen might turn to black or red.
I suspect the ROM slot is the problem. I've removed the motherboard and shielding and have carefully inspected all of the traces. I see nothing amiss and the random connections I've tested all come out good. I tested all of the voltages at the header that connects the two mainboards - that's fine. Also seeing the right voltages at the socket pins.
My question is this... does it matter which slot the ROM cart is installed in? To my eye it looks like all of the slots are wired the same way and I don't see any warning against putting the ROM cart in any of the others. I just want to see if the machine behavior changes as I know some of the other slots are better off.