exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Quickly got dinner and then went back out and dismantled the machine.

Took out the GTIA and cleaned the insides of the pins, which were a bit crusty.

Success!

Fully working and now back together.

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Dec 2025 19:02 Quickly got dinner and then went back out and dismantled the machine.

Took out the GTIA and cleaned the insides of the pins, which were a bit crusty.

Success!

Fully working and now back together.

Single wipe sockets by any chance?

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Dec 2025 21:15 Single wipe sockets by any chance?

Of course! :-)

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Dec 2025 21:19

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Dec 2025 21:15 Single wipe sockets by any chance?

Of course! :-)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Other than the lack of a badge, after a clean the machine doesn't look too bad.


It seems that the original owner in the 80s must have been a heavy smoker as the sides of the keys were coated in orange powder. The smell and the stickiness have all gone, just leaving the powder behind, which is easily cleaned off.

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Dec 2025 21:47 Other than the lack of a badge, after a clean the machine doesn't look too bad.


IMG_4835.jpeg


It seems that the original owner in the 80s must have been a heavy smoker as the sides of the keys were coated in orange powder. The smell and the stickiness have all gone, just leaving the powder behind, which is easily cleaned off.

Not too bad at all :)

I love an 800XL :) Well any A8 as it goes.

I think that the XL machines look the best in terms of the 8 bit machines.

They're more compact than the originals and have their own style, unlike the XE machines which look like cut down STs.

Anyway, A8PicoCart and FujiNet ordered now I have a known working machine. :-)

This morning I've been running the machine in self-test mode as a burn in and designing a new badge.


Not too bad, though LibreOffice makes the Atari font slightly smaller than the other font used for the 800XL. I've solver paper on order so I can print the badge on that. Once that's done I'll spray some lacquer over the top to seal it before cutting it out and gluing. Not quite the brushed aluminium of the original but as close as I'm going to get I think.

Reduced the size of the 800XL by half a point and it looks a lot better.

Upgrading to the latest version of LibreOffice has now allowed me to get the kerning of the "800" far closer to the original. Of course Ariel isn't quite the right font as the cross on the 8 is not quite right but it's very close.