Atari 65XE Repair (keyboard and power switch) - Retro 8-bit Computer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ธ.ค. 2020
- I repair and restore an Atari 65Xe that I bought spares or repair on eBay.
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This video is strictly for entertainment only. I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or even safe. Please do not copy the techniques shown in this video. If you do so it is entirely at your own risk. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
So many memories of the Atari 65xe and the 800xl I had both with a load of cartridges (my favourite was defender) hours of fun why did I ever sell them?! and my Atari 520 ST my cat 🐈 used to love to sit on top of where the power supply was mounted (the good old days) well they seemed to be! I was looking for one on eBay but I’ve just watched price go through the roof, maybe one day after COVID-19 has stopped over inflating prices. Great video!
Hi Buzz, it was a shame to sell the 65xe, sadly I have to sell most of the stuff I repair and after fees, parts and the odd fail, I don't make money. The reason I have to sell them is space. RMC recently did a piece on his channel about his new "cave" which is 200sqm. His old cave was 30sqm... my whole flat is 30sqm, just one bedroom with a cat and my partner I just don't have any room. I don't even have a 2nd bedroom for repairs, I repair in the hall of the flat. So unfortunately if I keep making videos I have to sell stuff on. I am shocked at some of the prices on eBay nowadays and the difference between for parts and working is miniscule. Fortunately I do have lots of stuff under the bed yet to repair including a 800xl. Hopefully one day I'll do an ST, for a while they were a bargain, but prices of those are up there now too. Thanks again for your comments I really appreciate the time taken to provide feedback.
My mate Vince brought me here today! Awesome channel and content. Subscribed. You know you don't need sun to retro bright, just heat. Hence, why things parts of retro computers that couldn't have possibly been in the sun, have yellowed. Get a Sous Vide machine, coat the parts in peroxide, seal em in vacuum bags and cook them for a couple of hours. Sweet spot around 140f-150f. Be careful and do tests for heat and time with plastics you don't mind melting!
Great tip about retro bright. Thanks. Thanks also for your kind words and subscription.... Really appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed the content and thanks so much for taking time to comment
As a kid, I got the 800 XL model, which, a bit later, got upgraded with the CompyShop RAM enhancement, adding a whopping 256 kB to the base 64 kB, a built-in custom version of TT-DOS, which could be loaded into RAM at boot by pressing a button added to the right side of the case, and three modes of operation (three-way switch added), Atari OS with 64 kB (compatibility mode), Atari OS with 320 kB (here that TT-DOS came in really handy) and the powerful Q-Meg OS mode). It was a bit of a pity I was unable to get the Turbo-BASIC XL chip as a replacement for the Atari BASIC, but thanks to the upgrades above and the excellent and reliable 1050, booting this powerful programming language into RAM was a matter of mere seconds.
The only weak-point of the XL was actually its power supply, which tended to increase its voltage output over time, potentially frying the CPU - which hapenned to me once, after some 4 years of intense (almost) daily usage. But it could be remedied by using a good stock one, though, of course, soldering that custom connector was required.
Now.. My friend had the 65 XE, which looked really cool (its design was fantastic and it really made this beast look like one of the ST-line models, at least to someone not familiar with these machines), but it also had a few drawbacks, when compared to its predecessor - the overall build quality was lower (it was already made during the Jack Tramiel era), the cartridge port was placed at a rather inconvenient location at the back of the case and the universally loved PBI was replaced by something called ECI, if I remeber it correctly, which was quite similar in its functionality, but physically incompatible.
On the positive side, the OS was fine-tuned more than that on the XL machines, and the board design was much simplified (which already started on some of the later-produced XLs, where the FREDDY chip took over a lot of functions from stock chips).
However, the true reason I have fond memories of the 65 XE in particular as well, are quite fancy - that friend of mine also had one game cartridge, that introduced me to a game, which, up to this very day, still occupies the number 1 spot on my personal greatest games ever list 🙂
The game was Star Raiders.
Thumbs up for the video 😙
Thanks so much for such a detailed comment. I really REALLY appreciate you giving up so much of your time to comment on my video. I am sorry I haven't responded sooner.
There is lots of great info here, so much still for me to learn. I have an 800xl I have yet to try to repair, it's been sitting in storage a long long time. It could be a while before I get to it, but these Atari 8-bits are really my favourite platform. If they had been able to get the price point down I am sure they would have wiped the smile off the face of commodore and the 64.
Thanks again for your detailed comment. So glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks. Roger
Youjust inspired me to pull apart and clean an electron.. looks like cleaning everythng now means all the keys work! thanks dude
Hi Self, Glad I could help. I had an electron with a similar problem, but getting all the keys to work was a nightmare on mine. Glad you enjoyed the vid. Thanks so much for your feedback
Nice video and a really good find. No major issues except the expensive membrane.
I just worked on a same motherboard model but it was from an 130xe so all the ram slots were populated.
I bought it with memory issues on ebay. I ended up socketing all the ICs because it kept crashing even with new RAM. It turns out that old IC sockets stop making reliable connection (there were only two on that board for the CPU and Antic). I wish I knew that before pulling every single chip off the board.
Another thing I hate about those boards are these two ugly bodge wires. I ended up relocating them at the back of the board so they are not visible....boarder line OCD lol.
Hi Nikolas and thanks for your detailed comments. I absolutely adored this 65xe what a great 8 hir micro this platform so far ahead of its time. I'm with you on wore mods. I am slowly learning how to repair electronics and getting slowly better. I now do my mods on the rear too check out my dragon 32 video). Sounds like you had some fun with your 130xe glad you got it all sorted though. I have an 800xl I will try to fix at some point. Anyhow welcome to the channel. I'm glad you enjoyed the video but most of all than you for your detailed comments. Very much appreciated.
Excellent Video!! Found your channel while looking for teardown videos. Love seeing old consoles and computers being restored. Really informative.
Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment
I have to agree with your recapping. I own almost all popular 8bit machines of the era but the one thing I found out about Atari's 8bits is how amazingly easy it is to use it even without any previous experience and how simple and cheap it is to make it run!
I mean, you just need an old phone charger for power supply and inexpensive homemade cable to hook it on a PC and a TV..... and you are ready to go.
No need for "mystical" commands to load a program, the loading is so fast and the graphics and music are up there with the rest of the machines even if it is the oldest of the bunch.
Couldn't agree more. The self test mode is very nice too. I have a real affection for this platform well ahead of its time. I the UK though tge original 800 was very expensive when new although the later models were more affordable.
@@RetroTechRepair Yes I forgot the Test mode. Here in Greece all micros were pretty expensive. I only got my hands on a 800xl around....late 80's early 90's I think and I couldn't believe how capable it was.
I follow the homebrew community for almost all micros (8 and 16 bit). We already knew from the 80s what the C64 was capable of and the pros and cons of the Amstrads and Spectrums. We saw many improvements on all machines especially on Amstrad's scrolling abilities and Spectrum's color clash but I don't think anyone anticipated that Atari games and music would look, run and sound so good. I am still amazed and surprised of this architecture and practicality. As an Amiga user I am not surprised easily by machines of that period.
Again, a great video!!! I'm loving your channel :-)
Thanks so much Vince. Praise indeed from a TH-cam Legend. Sub count is rising I'm sure thanks to your comments. Really grateful
Great to meet you! Very nice video. So good to see the retro tech getting some care!
I do the same. More the tape decks and 1050 drives.
Subscribed!
If you get chance, 1050s are nice to work on.
Those ingots are bad, chuck it away!😊
Awesome! Always great to get a new sub. I am more sporadic than many at posting videos as I have 3 jobs! But at least I can spend some of my hard earned on retro tech. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and tips. Always welcome.
Great job as always, I really enjoyed that one. Nice result at the end too, it's lovely to see these old systems waking up after a long slumber. Tell me can we expect an Atari cassette deck repair video in the future? In any case I'm looking forward to the next one. Have a great Christmas my friend ;)
Hi @8bitsinthebasement I am so glad you enjoyed the video. Especially since I moved video editing softwares and struggled a bit with some aspects of it. I really did like the atari. Compared to the computers I had growing up it felt "solid", of course at the time it was very much more expensive than the machines I had. I forgot to mention a couple of things in the video. The cassette deck actually worked perfectly despite the seller saying it "needed new belts", so there was no repair of that. Also I sold most of the games as a lot to fund the keyboard membrane, thats why I only shot centipede by the end. I actually found a couple more games afterward that I will save those for the atari 800xl repair when i get around to it. Stay tuned, I have a CPC464, Acorn Electron, zx spectrum, Tandy Color computer 2, Atari 800xl and Dragon 32 all waiting on my attention. So hopefully much more is to come. Thank you again for your comments and support.
Quality video love old tech being repaired!
Thanks Scott. Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks so much for taking the time to comment.
Great video. Just bought myself a 65XE so this video may come in useful if I need to do some repairs.
Thanks Ade, have fun with the machine I developed a real soft spot for it. Thanks so much for your comment.
I was happy with my C64 but I was always jealous of the Atari’s speed and design.
I have to admit as a speccy/amstrad/electron owner I was always impressed by C64 but in hindsight for me the atari and its late 70s architecture ruled, thought It was quite expensive at the time.
Thanks so very much for taking time to comment. Really appreciate it. Roger (AKA retrotech repair)
Nice job! Too bad your membrane repair didn't work. Like you said, the new membrane cost alone is almost as much as the rest of the system. Ouch!
Yes, but I broke even and really liked the machine. Noel thanks so much for taking the time to comment you are my first TH-cam celebrity commenter... Thanks.
keep up the good work love the videos :)
Thanks @Piggzy I really appreciate the feedback.
A great video same the key we're still yellow
Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for your comment.
With the rusty metal, you could have wet sanded it but that is labor intensive so for your purposes it may not add value since it isn't a restoration. Enjoyed the video.
Hi so glad you enjoyed the vid. Yes you are 100% correct, in fact I gave serious consideration to sanding back the shield and maybe even painting it, but decided to mainly repair. I was surprised how good a job the WD40 did. Several months passed between me starting the repair and getting around to finishing it and the shield had not deteriorated at all no new rust and no loose rust, although I do agree a wet sand would have been a more complete solution. Anyhow thanks again for your comments, really appreciate the input. Cheers!
Thanks for another wonderful video, I’m really enjoying them. A quick question, what did you use to lighten the keys. Most channels talk about American products so knowing the product you use in the uk would be great. Again the videos are enjoyable and well paced, must be a lot of work for you, so thanks for doing them
Hi Richard. So glad you enjoyed the video. You are right it is an awful lot of work. This is very much part time evenings and weekends for me so I am sometimes absent for a while as I catch up with other things. To lighten the keys I use a hair peroxide cream from amazon... Cream Peroxide 12% - 40 vol ... the one I used in the vid is from "truzone" but I didn't pick that brand for any particular reason and others are available. Hope that's useful. Thanks so much for your support, comments and question.
@@RetroTechRepair thanks for the information, I’ll try that on a computer I have. Again thoroughly enjoying your videos.
Blast from the past...I had the Atari st..and a zx spectrum 48k and zx81 ...nice to see them get a second life again
Hi Peter, I have a zx81 and spectrum yet to repair for the channel. I had the spectrum as a kid but jumped to PC around the time the ST took off. Stay tuned for the spectrum and zx81 repairs and thanks so much for your comments.
@@RetroTechRepair excellent can’t wait... just installed speccy and commodore emulators on pc ... anyway look forward to it.. stay well
@@peterbardason5703 You too Peter
@@peterbardason5703 Thanks! specie may be a while CPC 464 coming very soon!
@@RetroTechRepair another classic ... watched a lot past few days on console restoration ie neo geo .. famicon .. some handhelds ..watching your channel has brought it all back ... keep it up
an amazing video as always, i do genuinely hope you continue to do similar content, perhaps something like a gameboy or recapping a game gear?
Thanks @Sparks N Zeros. Funnily enough I have a game gear waiting for repair... I might do it next now you have suggested it. I tried a gameboy color, didn't go too well... I'm clumsy with big hands! Thanks so much for your comment. really appreciate it!
@@RetroTechRepair if you need any advice on the game gear process please let me know, i do them professionally.
I second the Game Gear repair request 😊 I would love to mod mine with an LCD screen but it looks so fiddly and not cheap...
@@skyway73 I'm feeling the pressure! LoL I'll move it up the list. 😀.
@@skyway73 thanks again for your continued support
I have just subscribed to your channel today, love it, the items you repair/restore have a lot of nostalgic value for me personally. Don't suppose you have thought about restoring or reparing a Commodore 16?
Hi Mark thanks so much for your subscription! So glad you are enjoying the vids great to have you along. I have definitely considered a commodore 16, I have bid on a couple of plus 4's too but missed out. It might be a little while before you see one sadly as among other retro tech I have an Acorn electron, zx81, zx spectrum, dragon 32, TRS80 color and Oric 1 squirreled away and waiting my attention. If I buy another computer at the moment, it probably won't go down very well with my wife as we live in a one bedroom flat.
@@RetroTechRepair a ZX 81 would be great I was always fascinated by the Oric as I spent hours flicking through the many PC magazines wanting the PCs I knew my parents couldn't afford. If you were to come across a C16 tell your good wife to blame it on another Retro fan from Gateshead!
@@markmccreesh4916 Thanks. I'm looking forward to the repairs!
Excellent work, well done! These are quite sought after so I'm sure you would at least get your money back if you chose to sell (although I sense you've become attached to it 😊)
Eating my lunch while watching, wish you had warned us about the keyboard! 🤢😂
Thanks @skyway73, sorry about your lunch... That keyboard was pretty nasty. Not the worst ever, I once had a Nintendo Wii literally filled with cockroach carcases (sorry hope I didn't spoil your dinner). Sadly I moved the xe on late last month, I just about broke even (though as you know I don't do this for profit) but I do have a 800xl which has more significant problems to fix at some point!
11:57 "this kinda metal piece" - I think these should be called anti-roll-bars, because they have the exact same shape and function as the ones in a car's suspension.
LoL thanks MCB maybe I should try removing them and see if the cornering suffers!
Super!!! Tnx.
Thanks! Thank you for your comments. Much appreciated
Great job. Looks great.
Those ingot-shaped power supplies are junk and should be thrown out. They may test fine but will fail and spike, ruining the computer IC's. Anything over about 5.2 volts DC is bad. Save the whole DIN plug side of the wire if desired.
Perhaps the best way to de-yellow the keycaps and case is to put it out in mid-day summer sunlight with no chemicals at all. The peroxide has a high probability of ruining the plastics by marbling. Let it get warm from the sunlight to improve the results. Won't look quite as new but is safer, easier and cheaper.
The mylar could very likely have repaired with conductive paint. Your new replacement is very nice and preferred, however. The old mylar is more likely to fail again before long even if repaired.
The wire keycap puller does mark (dent) the underside of the keycaps. Pulling them out by hand or with a plastic puller may be better.
It's good to recap XE's which may have lower quality components than earlier XL models.
Centipede looks great! Glad the tape drive works. That drive is good and worth maybe 50 quid. Great to hear your impressions of the machine and that you enjoy it! They are fantastic machines =)
There are various SIO and Cartridge emulator (AVG Cart recommended) devices you may enjoy.
Thank you for sharing the repair/restoration.
Thanks so much for your detailed comments and suggestions. Very much appreciated
I will definitely take on your suggestions for my next repair. Thanks!
I have the same Atari.But the television port doesn't work, just fuzzy lines.Is there a repair for this?I have tried 3 different cables.Also i have orderd a monitor cable but waiting on that.
I am not an expert in repairing things but think the monitor cable is a good idea as it should give a better picture than even a perfectly working RF modulator.
@@RetroTechRepair ok thank you.
@@seanfiremartin3266 you are very welcome. Thanks so much for your question.
Vince sent me... :)
My subs nearly doubled overnight thanks to Vince's shout out. I hope you enjoy the content. Some are better than others but I'm always trying to do better. Glad to have you on board
Great video subbed was told to check you out by my mate vince
Great to have you along. Glad you enjoyed the video. Vince is a TH-cam hero, it's watching him that made me decide to start a channel 2 years ago. After 2 years I had 1200 subs, I got another 700 in the last 24 hrs. Absolute legend. So glad to have you join us. Thanks so much for your comments.
Why is it important to pair fuse with appliance? 13A fuse will work just fine.
Oh thanks for your comment, what a juicy topic for discussion. Bear in mind I am not an electrician so the following is just an opinion…. The UK domestic wiring uses a ring main system that can deliver 32 amps, because of this each plug is fused. The plug fuse is typically 3, 13 or sometimes 5 Amps.
A device designed to have a 3 Amp fuse might not have a cable from plug to device intended to carry 13 Amps because the expectation is that the cable would be protected by a 3 Amp fuse. This way the designers can use a cable that is thinner, cheaper, more flexible, more convenient.
In the event of a cable fault or internal fault in a device rated at 3 Amps resulting in it drawing say 12 amps. It would be drawing those 12 Amps through a puny cable designed to carry much less than that. This could result in the cable overheating (especially if it's coiled up).
So yes the device will work, but it won't be protected as it should be.
Again this is all just my understanding. I am not qualified to give advice on this. I just make sure that the plug has the size of fuse that is intended. This is often marked on the cable itself.
Thanks for your question.
I was aware they would sell without the plug, and just as bare wires. But why was that even a thing? What was the rationale of selling equipment without the plug back in the day? Surely there was a reason?
I think it dates back to the days before the 13amp UK plug as we know it. Up until the late 40s / early 50s the UK had 15 amp 3pin plugs with round blades and no fuse. The incompatible 13amp system we have today was introduced later. A home built in say 1945 would therefore have sockets incompatible with the new 13 amp system, but a house built in 1950 would have sockets with different to what most people had. So when you bought an appliance you bought a plug that suited the system you had at home. The market just got used to things being this way. Eventually in the early 90s it became compulsory to supply devices with a plug. Some of the early bakelite 13amp plugs are quite desirable I have had some retrotech where the plug has sold for more on eBay than the thing it was attached to.
@@RetroTechRepair Right! I knew you adopted a new standard pretty late, after WW2. The "force of habit in the market" reasoning, used to keep doing things the same way, makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
Having a standard so late allowed you guys to develop the best plug of any other country in terms of safety. Except when walking barefoot on one 😂
@@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365 Ouch! Yes sometimes its good to be last :) I think there was a standard before. In fact I think the UK was one of the first to have plugs at all vs hard wired appliances, but the first attempt wasn't that great.
@@RetroTechRepair I meant "last that is still in use today". Of course there were prior standards. Ours just never got updates for far longer and are stuck 😉. Heck, for a while our standard was the lightbulb socket, we would plug anything in that before getting an actual plug.
@@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365 Yes I think the previous "standard" was so bad they had to do better! everyone else's first attempt was good enough. Still laughing about stepping on a new style plug. I grew up in a house with still had some of the old shaped plugs and we used to have an adapter we plugged in to use most stuff. My mum and dad both remembered when they got electricity in their childhood homes. Before that they were lit with gas and heated with coal. Just like you say the entire install was 1 lightbulb socket for the whole house. They used to unplug the lightbulb to plug in the electric iron.
Hello
Hello to you too!
@@RetroTechRepair😂
@@tharkthax3960 hi there!