STe died. Help? [SOLVED]

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Reluctant16bitter
Posts: 31
Joined: 06 Aug 2025 09:43

STe died. Help? [SOLVED]

Post by Reluctant16bitter »

My Atari 1040 STe died today while playing Titus the Fox. It froze (both video and audio), and displayed a number of bombs that I didn't count, after which a reset produced just a garbled screen. After turning it off and on again it just showed a brown-red screen that quickly faded to black. A couple of times I succeeded in getting to a floppy desktop since, but now all it seems to do it light up the keyboard LED. The floppy drive is not making any sounds any more and I get nothing but a black image.

After buying the STe, I replaced the power supply with a SidecarTridge. I replaced the 1024Kb with four HYB41256-15 chips of 1024Kb each. I also added a Blitter chip, which was missing, and replaced the faulty keyboard.

I don't have the knowledge to fix this. Is there someone in the Amsterdam area who could have a look at my STe?
Atari 1040STE (4 MB RAM) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A | Sony HB-F1XV MSX2+ (512 KB RAM, 7MHz Z80, WozBlaster OPL4, PowerGraph Light V9990) | Philips VG8235 MSX2 (1 MB RAM, 7MHz Z80) | Mitsubishi ML-FX1 MSX
Steve
Posts: 3305
Joined: 15 Sep 2017 11:49

Re: STe died. Help?

Post by Steve »

First thing I would normally do is remove any socketed chip, spray contact cleaner, replace chips.

Yours sounds like an older model STe with replaceable blitter, like this? viewtopic.php?t=7419

So I would do this on the CPU, Blitter and Shifter. I would also re-seat the RAM.

Then if this doesn't work... move on to more advanced troubleshooting.

ps - you mention upgrading RAM chips, I assume you mean SIMMs. Or are you mistaking an STf for an STe?
pps - you mention replacing the PSU with a Sidecartridge, I assume you mean one of their PSU replacements, like this or this?
Reluctant16bitter
Posts: 31
Joined: 06 Aug 2025 09:43

Re: STe died. Help?

Post by Reluctant16bitter »

Steve wrote: 22 Feb 2026 19:52 First thing I would normally do is remove any socketed chip, spray contact cleaner, replace chips.

Yours sounds like an older model STe with replaceable blitter, like this? viewtopic.php?t=7419
Thanks. It's the one in the picture in this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=7938
Steve wrote: 22 Feb 2026 19:52 So I would do this on the CPU, Blitter and Shifter. I would also re-seat the RAM.
Then if this doesn't work... move on to more advanced troubleshooting.
I'll try that. Thanks!
Steve wrote: 22 Feb 2026 19:52
ps - you mention upgrading RAM chips, I assume you mean SIMMs. Or are you mistaking an STf for an STe?
Yes, I meant SIMMs.
Steve wrote: 22 Feb 2026 19:52 pps - you mention replacing the PSU with a Sidecartridge, I assume you mean one of their PSU replacements, like this or this?
The former: this
Atari 1040STE (4 MB RAM) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A | Sony HB-F1XV MSX2+ (512 KB RAM, 7MHz Z80, WozBlaster OPL4, PowerGraph Light V9990) | Philips VG8235 MSX2 (1 MB RAM, 7MHz Z80) | Mitsubishi ML-FX1 MSX
User avatar
dml
Posts: 842
Joined: 15 Nov 2017 22:11

Re: STe died. Help?

Post by dml »

Do you still have the original power supply?

Do you have a multimeter/voltmeter?
Reluctant16bitter
Posts: 31
Joined: 06 Aug 2025 09:43

Re: STe died. Help?

Post by Reluctant16bitter »

Resocketing the SIMMs was all what's needed. Thanks all!
Atari 1040STE (4 MB RAM) | Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A | Sony HB-F1XV MSX2+ (512 KB RAM, 7MHz Z80, WozBlaster OPL4, PowerGraph Light V9990) | Philips VG8235 MSX2 (1 MB RAM, 7MHz Z80) | Mitsubishi ML-FX1 MSX

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