New Falcon a lemon?

[Atarian Computing]

oh? how do you know this? my friend says he thinks this falcon is pre-production.

Your serial # starts with Y4 and ends in 002, making it the second one.

[Atarian Computing]

An original ST keycap is just the opposite: dark plastic on the inside, light plastic on the outside.
IMG_4387.JPG

I guess a Falcon keycap is just the other way around with light plastic on the inside? I don't think it's painted and you're therefore wrongly "accusing" the seller. Maybe a Falcon owner can confirm by posting a photo of a keycap of his?

Yes, the ST-line at least has doubleshot keycaps, which is the most expensive type to manufacture, making it an odd choice for a Power Without the Price computer. Anyway, being doubleshot means that the legends are not painted, laser-etched, or stickered. The legend is a different color plastic through and through, meaning you cannot scratch it away.

That's why doubleshot keys have two colors. One for the key itself, the other for the legend.

[troed]

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[Tomswork]

Just a side note on ntsc and pal the oscillator should match the 50 or 60 hertz for tos. Even if your using the rgb.

Tom

[tzok]

It is 100% genuine Falcon keyboard... in a very nice shape.

For VGA modes, you don't need a MultiSync monitor.

Dead RTC battery can cause TV out to operate erratically.

[Steve]

It is 100% genuine Falcon keyboard... in a very nice shape.

For VGA modes, you don't need a MultiSync monitor.

Dead RTC battery can cause TV out to operate erratically.

Yes IMO if you are going to keep the machine and not return it, this is the route you will need to take. But if clearing the NVRAM on boot does not help, it may not be the fix. It is a gamble. Exxos has new Falcon NVRAM replacements in his store, you will need to be good at soldering/desoldering.

[Gyrussfanx]

I'm afraid my soldering is mediocre at best. Now that I have had the cover off I cannot get it to use the VGA monitor I was using before and I cannot get RF out either. Maybe something isn't being grounded properly anymore. Anyway another observation is that the AVHDMI adapter (mini upscaler that previously gave the B/W image) suddenly says it's a PAL signal (after doing all these resets with various key combos to clear the NVRAM.) hmmmm.... I also get no picture now from either VGA or RF.

Finally, I noticed under the cf card there is some really odd capacitor wiring. It's a tangled mess under there. I don't think this would be original way from Atari but maybe one of you with Falcons could check yours or just know. This seems very wrong to me. I can't really tell without pulling the HD case but it seems like two of the three transistor poles are being touched or are close to being touched by this capacitor.

Did I mention that when I had RF out there was a terrible high pitch sound coming from the TV audio. I suspicious of this.

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[troed]

I think you need to worry less about things in your Falcon. I didn't want to remove my CF bay, but you should see the hint of the same original Atari solution here. They had a few such early patches on the motherboard and the Falcon never sold in enough numbers for major fixed revisions to appear.

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/Troed

[Gyrussfanx]

Fair enough, but the ebay seller has been in contact with me and did say there was flickering that he could not solve. He confirmed that all video modes (including VGA) had worked using an old Dell CRT (I don't have one of those lying around). So I was looking around a bit to see what might have been done by the original user of the board. I do realize that sometimes these things are done at the factory (hence me asking and just trying to learn). I appreciate everyone's patience and help . Without a picture, trying to do anything on this CF is out of the question so I need to get that working again.

[exxos]

I've not read the thread, but in terms of video faults.. maybe this will help... https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 310#p19310