Introduction I friend brought me his Atari 800XL that was not generating any video signal. I confirmed with a multimeter that the chips were all getting good voltages. None of the chips were overly hot, and I confirmed with a working machine that they were all good. Case Study Given
Read postCase Studies in Retro Computer Repair #14: Diagnosing and Fixing a Faulty Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) Signal on an Atari 800XL
Introduction I recently received an Atari 800XL from a friend that was booting to a black screen. This required breaking out the oscilloscope to track down the problem. Case Study I started troubleshooting this computer by probing the pins of the 6502 with an oscilloscope after making sure all the chips were
Read postUse a Multichannel Oscilloscope to Test Multiple Pins of an Integrated Circuit Simultaneously (15-30 mins)
Task: Use a Multichannel Oscilloscope to Test Multiple Pins of an Integrated Circuit Simultaneously Needed: Multichannel Oscilloscope with Multiple Probes Time: 15-30 mins Introduction I have previously posted about using an oscilloscope for testing and troubleshooting failed chips such as the 6502 CPU and ANTIC. However, this was done one signal at a
Read postPurchase an Oscilloscope for Troubleshooting Problematic Retro Computers (30-60 mins)
Task: Purchase an Oscilloscope for Troubleshooting Problematic Retro Computers Needed: An oscilloscope Time: 30-60 minutes Introduction As I reviewed in my previous post about multimeters, I have been learning how to troubleshoot and repair Atari 8-bit computers. Central to this effort is an oscilloscope that can be used to measure
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