No colour with Atari XE Game System
Richard Hable
I recently bought an Atari XE Game System (PAL version) which seems to
work perfectly well; however, the picture is always black-and-white.
I tried the built-in game, the self-test programs and BASIC mode, with
both composite(?) and antenna output. Therefore, I think, it's a
hardware problem.
Does anybody have experience about what could be wrong? If I get a
working Atari 800XL, can I just put its video chips (ANTIC and/or GTIA?)
into the Game System and expect the problem to go away?
Thank's in advance for any hints,
Richard
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mikew
The 800XL has 2 crystals. One will be the main system clock. The other is
probably the PAL colour burst frequency. Check that are both not physically
damaged. I think that you'll find that the ANTIC / GTIA are not socketed in
all units.
Regards
Mike
"Richard Hable" <port...@eunet.at> wrote in message
news:ckmimd$mk0$1...@paperboy.Austria.EU.net...
Richard Hable
> I must ask the obvious. Are you connected to a PAL TV ?
I kind of expected that question. :)
Yes, it's a PAL TV and I even tried to switch it to NTSC to find out if
the Atari doesn't actually output an NTSC signal.
> The 800XL has 2 crystals. One will be the main system clock. The other is
> probably the PAL colour burst frequency. Check that are both not
physically
> damaged. I think that you'll find that the ANTIC / GTIA are not
socketed in
> all units.
You are right: unfortunately none of the chips is socketed. And there is
no visible damage to both crystals. So I guess, there is no easy solution...
Thank you for your response,
Richard
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maciej grzeszczuk
> I recently bought an Atari XE Game System (PAL version) which seems to
> work perfectly well; however, the picture is always black-and-white.
are you sure that's a PAL version? there are plenty of french SECAM
versions of XEGS, i personally bought one unfortunatelly, and have
the same problem. :(
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Jerzy Dudek
presence of a hole underneath, some people put there a screw and damage the
slider of potentiometer. I've seen many such damages. If it is OK, you may
try to turn it left or right to get a color picture.
Cheers,
Jurek.
Richard Hable
> are you sure that's a PAL version? there are plenty of french SECAM
> versions of XEGS, i personally bought one unfortunatelly, and have
> the same problem. :(
I wouldn't mind it to be SECAM (well not much, anyhow), because my TV is
capable of this standard too. However, no matter which standard I
select, the picture stays black & white.
It seems to me, that there is no colour carrier at all, because even
when I connect it to the luminance input of my Commodore 1901 monitor,
there isn't any of the visible distortion normally caused by composite
signals.
Richard
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Richard Hable
Hmmm, the only potentiometer I found was in the middle of the board.
According to http://www.atari-explorer.com/xegs.html this is a "Colour
trimmer". Turning it around--and also short-circuiting it--didn't change
anything, however.
How would I know, if the potentiometer was damaged? It doesn't look
damaged.
I measured a resistance of about 500 kiloohms first; after some turning
around this changed to 60 kiloohms. However, it still sits on the board,
so probably these measures are not valid. While the Atari is switched
on, there is always an electric tension of 7 volts between the poles.
Richard
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