The whole 8 bit line was so sacred to my back in the day and still is. The only model's I am currently missing are the 600xl and 1200xl. The 600xl was, back in 1983, my first exposure to the 8 bit computer line.
The xl xe computers are my personal favourites. Got a few set up here, all recapped and working! The colours and effects on those demos are sublime for a humble 8 bit. Enjoyed your video and will subscribe.
Wow that 130XE is yellowed! Great job on the repair. That screenshot really took me back as I had the exact same setup - 130XE, 1050 disk drive, Atari joystick and running Colossus Chess as I often did.
I used to have an Atari XEGS and also an Atari 130XE with 2 disk drives. I gave them to family members when I Upgraded to an Amiga 500. Used to have a full collection of Analog and Antic magazines. Remember spending hours typing programs from the magazines. I miss my 130XE. I remember in Miami Beach there used to be a store that had a 1450XLD for sale.
@@8bitandmore In Poland the 8 bit line is still popular in the demoscene and they have lots of competitions going on yearly. You can buy all sorts of upgrades for your 8 bit Atari in Poland. You can upgrade your 130XE to a whopping 4 Meg, stereo sound, USB and video upgrades like the vbxe that increases the resolution and color pallete.
Excellent Work ! Just a personal preference - I enjoyed the 800XL keyboard the most, the 800 was more stiff, the 130XE was a bit more mushy. 800XL was just right ! :-)
True if you piggyback the new RAM, the bad one could still try to output a different level so there could be conflict on output lines, no telling if new chips be strong enough to override depending what went bad on the old chip. Another problem is if the bad chip just doesn't stop outputting when it shouldn't. That makes another good chip look like it's not working so gets confusing.
I traded a Sega Genesis (with Sonic 2, power adapter,and two controllers) for an Atari XEGS (with two joysticks, 1050 disk drive, keyboard, XEGS version of Mario Bros., 800 version of Joust, programming manual, and $10 on top), when I was in high school in the late 90s. I still have the system, keyboard and power adapter. The 1050 succumbed to my curiosity and was dismantled (destructively). Not sure where the games went to though.
When removing known bad ics after desoldering I use really fine precision snips th clip all the legs flush with the body of the ic, then I can use my soldering iron to hook the legs out individually, that method reduces the chance of lifting a track.
An excellent job done! Keyboard issues where it is totally dead or dead rows, check/replace the 74LS245s (2 of them) near the keyboard connector. They are static sensitive so beware...
That mismatched ram chip is from the factory. Pretty much every 130XE I've seen is that way. There is a lot of speculation about why but no one really knows for sure. Also, keep in mind that the built in RAM test does not test the extra 64K the 130XE has; I think it only tests 48K of the lower 64K. There are some 3rd party utils out there that will test all the memory; even the Rambo etc upgrades. There is also a trick where you swap how a couple of resistors are connected and it will effectively swap the 64K banks around. If you do some searching on the Atariage forums, its in there. Enjoy your vids! /|\ !!
@@8bitandmore Check out this app: atariage.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=24346 It will test the memory over 64K. The interface looks like it can test up to 4MB total. There are some posts about errors it will give for the RamboXL on those forums as well.
Great !! I also have an old 130 XE with the same issue, now I know how to repair it... (but I think it will take me ages to do it if several chips have to be changed... I may need to buy a better soldering iron if don't want to damage the motherboard...)
Goob job!. In Spain I had a Atari 65xe 64kb of ram cpu 8bit. 130 xe 128kb of ram cpu 8bit. Atari st and commodore amiga are cpu 16bit. A friend had a amiga 2000 and was the most.
Will the XE accept larger memory or is it capped? If I was already out there with a soldering iron, I'd probably want to throw on more memory, but I suppose that would be a waste of effort if the Atari wouldn't actually access it.
You can upgrade it to 1MB of RAM. Old software and games will not benefit from it but if you want to run modern games and demos, it is worth it. Google for ULTIMATE 1MB upgrade. Also, it is nice to add a second POKEY chip for stereo. If you have a 65XE, you can upgrade it to 130XE easily but it depends on the board revision. Some 65XEs use 130XE board but without the memory soldered in (also, you need an additional MMU chip or a replacement for it), some 65XEs use dedicated board so it is harder to do and it is basically better to go full 1meg anyway.
Hello and thank you for the excellent and informative videos! I have an Atari 130XE (I'm the original owner); it was in a closet since about 1991; but fired it up last week using an HDMI upscaler. For about 40 minutes, everything ran perfectly, then the sound went out on both a PAC-MAN cartridge and the audio video self test. The keyboard beep still works fine, just no other audio. Do you have any ideas? I'm guessing I blew a capacitor or something, but can't figure why the keyboard beep still works. Everything else works well
Time to start checking components near the pokey chip and audio out section. Search google for the 130xe schematic. If you want you can send me the computer and I will fix it.
@@8bitandmore thank you! I couldnt find any. I owned it back in the day (I still am although RF output is not working properly). In neverending fights😀 with C64 owners I could never prove that 130XE is better with double the memory size, since most games looked the same.
There are definitely some dedicated programs. Atari itself released a special version of the Atari Writer word processor for example. Or check a word processor called The Last Word. A lot of demos require 128 kb or even more. I'm sure there are games too.
Hello this Piggyback method are only works if you have a internal Chip RAM failure. If the output pin of one of the RAM have a short to VCC/GND you can't find this type of failure in the RAM bank. Can you tell us which RAM symbol on the self test it is which RAM IC? What we can write in Assemble is a RAM test for this machine and build it in the ROM. For this we must disassemble the ROM and rewrite the RAM test. :-) Also we can program a connection to a network that will be nice (well fix IP no DHCP because this is lot of work)
It's never a bad idea to socket all the ram chips. The MT chips are notorious for failure and it would just make it simpler in the future when the rest finally go. Nice job regardless.
How do you know all this stuff? for some reason, I thought that you were just some guy out there like the rest of us, but seem so knowledgeable about the hardware, and you have tools and spare parts.
@@8bitandmore you're welcome. Cool. Did you see the question I asked about your machine language program that added horizontal stripes to the border/background? I asked because I didn't realize that the hardware even had the capabilities to do that. Do you remember how you did that?
@@8bitandmore what you say reminds me of the adventure game for the 2600. The rope/vine was actually just a cursor that was plotted many times as the scan made its way down the screen. It's too bad that we can't customize cursor shapes. Doing so would effectively turn it into a 5th player or missile.
I had a 130xe just like that one with all but one ram chip made by MT. Because MT ram is so bad I elected to remove the 15 ram chips and socket them. After removal I used a ram tester and only 2 of the 15 MT ram chips tested good.
Great job. Wow that's the brownest XE I've ever seen! 3:04 well the XL's weren't exactly aging (being out not much more than one year) but the XE's were cheaper cost reduced. Likely a necessary step to stay competitive as the XL's were not competitive against the C64 on price and availability. Tramiel was on an ego mission to outcompete C=. If you hold OPTION down when powering these on, the RAM test will test the last 8K. Notice how your RAM test did not complete the last eight blocks at 21:55 You are good at desoldering. I have two POKEY chips to remove from 7800 carts. Tried from one cart and failed.
POKEY lives happily in an 8-bit environment, but wouldn't really work on a 16bit data bus, higher system clocks etc. Plus, it is functionally tied in with the XL/XE chipset. So, using it in the ST was simply not an option.
Follow-up comment; I just opened a new-in-box 130xe I had on the shelf and it's first memory chip is an NEC unit as well. My unit is as well. So I think they might have left the factory like that. Weird.
The dumb this is (unless I'm mistaken) all XLs and XEs, even the 130XE, just have the same Self Test from the Atari 1200XL... which is why the Keyboard Self Test shows the layout it does. And it only tests the main (64KB, or 16KB on 600XL) RAM, not the 130XE's extended RAM! 🙄
Bill Kendrick yes your right all xl’s and xe’s have the self test... was not sure about the extended RAM no being tested though...i need a good recommendation for a program to test the extended RAM
@@8bitandmore The later version XE/XEGS self test DOES check the full 128k of RAM. You'll know by it showing about four more blocks of a different shape below the standard 64k blocks area. There is a good memory test program out there I forget it's name right now.
Great video. Turned my XE on the other day and I'm getting horizontal line issues. ruclips.net/video/KPNKUsKn6T4/видео.html Was hoping that it might be the Antic chip or a GTIA chip issue.
It could be for several reasons. I would first try another power supply. Next would be to open and check voltages to major parts of the mother board. If you don't have any luck I would be happy to look at it for you.
You have a power supply issue. The 7805 regulator has blown. I would also replace the filter cap. If you can pull it out of circuit and test it, that will determine if you must. Considering the power supply is old, might as well since the caps are getting old. But the 7805 has gone bad. Hopefully you have a repairable power brick. Make sure the new 7805 has a good heat sink. I use a 2 amp cooling fan on mine, separately powered.
The whole 8 bit line was so sacred to my back in the day and still is. The only model's I am currently missing are the 600xl and 1200xl. The 600xl was, back in 1983, my first exposure to the 8 bit computer line.
The xl xe computers are my personal favourites. Got a few set up here, all recapped and working!
The colours and effects on those demos are sublime for a humble 8 bit. Enjoyed your video and will subscribe.
I'm learning a lot from your videos. Thanks!
Wow that 130XE is yellowed! Great job on the repair. That screenshot really took me back as I had the exact same setup - 130XE, 1050 disk drive, Atari joystick and running Colossus Chess as I often did.
I used to have an Atari XEGS and also an Atari 130XE with 2 disk drives. I gave them to family members when I Upgraded to an Amiga 500. Used to have a full collection of Analog and Antic magazines. Remember spending hours typing programs from the magazines. I miss my 130XE. I remember in Miami Beach there used to be a store that had a 1450XLD for sale.
That's cool, I used to live in Miami Beach, there was a cool Atari scene down there in the late 80's
@@8bitandmore In Poland the 8 bit line is still popular in the demoscene and they have lots of competitions going on yearly. You can buy all sorts of upgrades for your 8 bit Atari in Poland. You can upgrade your 130XE to a whopping 4 Meg, stereo sound, USB and video upgrades like the vbxe that increases the resolution and color pallete.
Guille O yes I have seen those from lotharek as well, thanks for the info!
@@8bitandmore You can pick up Lotharek's products (some of them) from Amiga on the Lake, a use based retro computer on-line store.
succsessfull repair... always nice to see! GOOD VID FELLA
Excellent Work !
Just a personal preference - I enjoyed the 800XL keyboard the most, the 800 was more stiff, the 130XE was a bit more mushy. 800XL was just right ! :-)
True if you piggyback the new RAM, the bad one could still try to output a different level so there could be conflict on output lines, no telling if new chips be strong enough to override depending what went bad on the old chip. Another problem is if the bad chip just doesn't stop outputting when it shouldn't. That makes another good chip look like it's not working so gets confusing.
I traded a Sega Genesis (with Sonic 2, power adapter,and two controllers) for an Atari XEGS (with two joysticks, 1050 disk drive, keyboard, XEGS version of Mario Bros., 800 version of Joust, programming manual, and $10 on top), when I was in high school in the late 90s. I still have the system, keyboard and power adapter. The 1050 succumbed to my curiosity and was dismantled (destructively). Not sure where the games went to though.
When removing known bad ics after desoldering I use really fine precision snips th clip all the legs flush with the body of the ic, then I can use my soldering iron to hook the legs out individually, that method reduces the chance of lifting a track.
An excellent job done!
Keyboard issues where it is totally dead or dead rows, check/replace the 74LS245s (2 of them) near the keyboard connector. They are static sensitive so beware...
Thanks for the tip!
Just hold OPTION key while booting (with no drives attached) to go straight to the selft test. Also, instead of writing 'BYE', you could use 'B.'
I have found my people! Subbed and I will be reaching out! Thank you.
Welcome aboard!
That mismatched ram chip is from the factory. Pretty much every 130XE I've seen is that way. There is a lot of speculation about why but no one really knows for sure.
Also, keep in mind that the built in RAM test does not test the extra 64K the 130XE has; I think it only tests 48K of the lower 64K. There are some 3rd party utils out there that will test all the memory; even the Rambo etc upgrades. There is also a trick where you swap how a couple of resistors are connected and it will effectively swap the 64K banks around. If you do some searching on the Atariage forums, its in there. Enjoy your vids! /|\ !!
Thanks for the info, any names of programs that test the extended RAM? I LOVE THESE 8BIT MACHINES!
@@8bitandmore Check out this app: atariage.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=24346 It will test the memory over 64K. The interface looks like it can test up to 4MB total. There are some posts about errors it will give for the RamboXL on those forums as well.
Cool video. Thank you
Great !! I also have an old 130 XE with the same issue, now I know how to repair it... (but I think it will take me ages to do it if several chips have to be changed... I may need to buy a better soldering iron if don't want to damage the motherboard...)
Goob job!. In Spain I had a Atari 65xe 64kb of ram cpu 8bit. 130 xe 128kb of ram cpu 8bit. Atari st and commodore amiga are cpu 16bit. A friend had a amiga 2000 and was the most.
I'm surprised you didn't hold Option down to force the 130XE directly into the Self Test while turning it on.
Will the XE accept larger memory or is it capped? If I was already out there with a soldering iron, I'd probably want to throw on more memory, but I suppose that would be a waste of effort if the Atari wouldn't actually access it.
There are several RAM upgrades for the XE
I’ve done a 320KB upgrade on an 130XE.
You can upgrade it to 1MB of RAM. Old software and games will not benefit from it but if you want to run modern games and demos, it is worth it.
Google for ULTIMATE 1MB upgrade. Also, it is nice to add a second POKEY chip for stereo.
If you have a 65XE, you can upgrade it to 130XE easily but it depends on the board revision. Some 65XEs use 130XE board but without the memory soldered in (also, you need an additional MMU chip or a replacement for it), some 65XEs use dedicated board so it is harder to do and it is basically better to go full 1meg anyway.
The XF-551 didn't come along until quite a bit after the 130XE.
Hello and thank you for the excellent and informative videos! I have an Atari 130XE (I'm the original owner); it was in a closet since about 1991; but fired it up last week using an HDMI upscaler. For about 40 minutes, everything ran perfectly, then the sound went out on both a PAC-MAN cartridge and the audio video self test. The keyboard beep still works fine, just no other audio. Do you have any ideas? I'm guessing I blew a capacitor or something, but can't figure why the keyboard beep still works. Everything else works well
Time to start checking components near the pokey chip and audio out section. Search google for the 130xe schematic. If you want you can send me the computer and I will fix it.
Very goood!
05:35 but what about the Commodore SX-64? It had a detachable keyboard too.
Good to know. thanks
Nice work...!
Thanks ✌️
5:58 Why didn't you play the actual POKEY audio in those demos?
Is there any dedicated games/programs for Atari 130XE?
I'm sure there are a few written to take advantage of the extra ram and or GTIA modes... As for DEMO's I would say YES
@@8bitandmore thank you! I couldnt find any. I owned it back in the day (I still am although RF output is not working properly). In neverending fights😀 with C64 owners I could never prove that 130XE is better with double the memory size, since most games looked the same.
There are definitely some dedicated programs. Atari itself released a special version of the Atari Writer word processor for example. Or check a word processor called The Last Word. A lot of demos require 128 kb or even more. I'm sure there are games too.
Hello this Piggyback method are only works if you have a internal Chip RAM failure. If the output pin of one of the RAM have a short to VCC/GND you can't find this type of failure in the RAM bank. Can you tell us which RAM symbol on the self test it is which RAM IC? What we can write in Assemble is a RAM test for this machine and build it in the ROM. For this we must disassemble the ROM and rewrite the RAM test. :-) Also we can program a connection to a network that will be nice (well fix IP no DHCP because this is lot of work)
Thank you soooo much!
You're welcome!
It's never a bad idea to socket all the ram chips. The MT chips are notorious for failure and it would just make it simpler in the future when the rest finally go. Nice job regardless.
How do you know all this stuff? for some reason, I thought that you were just some guy out there like the rest of us, but seem so knowledgeable about the hardware, and you have tools and spare parts.
Eugene Wong lol, Eugene I have a background in electronics repair and programming so I just have years of working with this stuff.... thanks
@@8bitandmore you're welcome. Cool.
Did you see the question I asked about your machine language program that added horizontal stripes to the border/background? I asked because I didn't realize that the hardware even had the capabilities to do that. Do you remember how you did that?
Eugene Wong yes that program basically changes the background color register while the horizontal scan wait happens
@@8bitandmore what you say reminds me of the adventure game for the 2600. The rope/vine was actually just a cursor that was plotted many times as the scan made its way down the screen.
It's too bad that we can't customize cursor shapes. Doing so would effectively turn it into a 5th player or missile.
I had a 130xe just like that one with all but one ram chip made by MT. Because MT ram is so bad I elected to remove the 15 ram chips and socket them. After removal I used a ram tester and only 2 of the 15 MT ram chips tested good.
I have a 130xe and when I plug my game in and turn the system on nothing happens why might that be?
Could be one of many things, bad power supply is the first thing to check.
@@8bitandmore thanks. I may have to crack it open and do some cleaning
Jack was obsessed with the low price point.
Great job. Wow that's the brownest XE I've ever seen! 3:04 well the XL's weren't exactly aging (being out not much more than one year) but the XE's were cheaper cost reduced. Likely a necessary step to stay competitive as the XL's were not competitive against the C64 on price and availability. Tramiel was on an ego mission to outcompete C=. If you hold OPTION down when powering these on, the RAM test will test the last 8K. Notice how your RAM test did not complete the last eight blocks at 21:55 You are good at desoldering. I have two POKEY chips to remove from 7800 carts. Tried from one cart and failed.
Thanks for watching! More to come...
Micron Technology memory chips were always flaky. Best to just replace them all. You have mixed speeds on those rams too.
Good point
They'll all run at the slower speed. You can have fast RAM run slow, but slow RAM can't run faster.
When Atari moved on to the ST, why did they ditch Pokey for the crappy AY?
POKEY lives happily in an 8-bit environment, but wouldn't really work on a 16bit data bus, higher system clocks etc. Plus, it is functionally tied in with the XL/XE chipset. So, using it in the ST was simply not an option.
Follow-up comment; I just opened a new-in-box 130xe I had on the shelf and it's first memory chip is an NEC unit as well. My unit is as well. So I think they might have left the factory like that. Weird.
Love your channel, but the music is usually too loud.
Noted! that's the first I have heard...I will check it out.
That's true for so many sites and usually the content is so good that the music needn't be there at all
@@8bitandmore I hardly heard the music at all.
The dumb this is (unless I'm mistaken) all XLs and XEs, even the 130XE, just have the same Self Test from the Atari 1200XL... which is why the Keyboard Self Test shows the layout it does.
And it only tests the main (64KB, or 16KB on 600XL) RAM, not the 130XE's extended RAM! 🙄
Bill Kendrick yes your right all xl’s and xe’s have the self test... was not sure about the extended RAM no being tested though...i need a good recommendation for a program to test the extended RAM
@@8bitandmore The later version XE/XEGS self test DOES check the full 128k of RAM. You'll know by it showing about four more blocks of a different shape below the standard 64k blocks area. There is a good memory test program out there I forget it's name right now.
Great video. Turned my XE on the other day and I'm getting horizontal line issues. ruclips.net/video/KPNKUsKn6T4/видео.html Was hoping that it might be the Antic chip or a GTIA chip issue.
It could be for several reasons. I would first try another power supply. Next would be to open and check voltages to major parts of the mother board. If you don't have any luck I would be happy to look at it for you.
You have a power supply issue. The 7805 regulator has blown. I would also replace the filter cap. If you can pull it out of circuit and test it, that will determine if you must. Considering the power supply is old, might as well since the caps are getting old.
But the 7805 has gone bad. Hopefully you have a repairable power brick. Make sure the new 7805 has a good heat sink. I use a 2 amp cooling fan on mine, separately powered.
Great vid! Soul-der please. )
Soul-der? Sod off! :p
Amazing potential especially when the ST was such a incapable pile of crud