i14@nikhefh.nikhef.nl (Martin Los) (05/06/90)
Hello netters,
I used to be a atari freak for over 4 years. The 800 xl I own, I
bought almost 9 years ago (I think), it then took all of my time
and I think I know quit a lot what can and what can't be done with the
machine (in a software-matic way however, I never did any soldering).
After the 5 years that followed, I had a somewhat busier life (social life,
,university ...)but managed to keep "hacking away" on PC's off all kinds.
Occasionally I used the 800XL for playing games or quick algoritmic tests.
Not long ago I moved to a new house in amsterdam , where I could find
place for the 800Xl and I thought it would be fun to start playing with
it again in the afternoon hours.
Ok, after this introduction (to set moods ...) I'll come to the
point. History of events:
1) starting about 1 year ago , problems with booting
(spark noises and so on , sometimes they were there, then for
longer periods booting was ok)
2) Later there could also be problems while booting went ok, then the
screen would disappear during work for short moments,
accompanied with dry clicks.
3) Booting became harder and harder (is it in the air or not today), and
I clearly had the idea that it needed to 'warm up'.
4) Two weeks ago, I couldn't let it boot anymore
Although I can see a quick glance of READY sometimes.
Dos can be loaded sometimes (after pressing break most often) and
I'm sure the diskdrive and connections to the outside world are ok.
My problem is that there are no people in my neighbourhood that own
a 800 XL and I have the idea that there are very few left in Holland.
So cause I'm very fond of this 'little' one , what could be the problem,
before I break my habit an go soldering away?
Hardware :
Atari 800 XL 64K, Rev B
1050 Diskdrive+Casette recorder+Plotter
DOS 2.0,2.5,3.0
Thanks in advance.
ML
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Please e-mail to
los@nikhef.nl or
los@vxcrnb.cern.ch
Or reply in this news group (luckily it isn't that big as comp.sys.ibm.pc ...)
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