Atari 800 Repair and Restore Video #3

Join me as I complete this epic journey repairing the faulty Atari 800 I sourced from ebay. Plenty of ups and downs in this video which I thought would be a lot shorter after earlier breakthroughs, but nothings ever simple!
Contents:
00:00 - Intro and discovery
06:04 - Another discovery
07:52 - Progress
12:35 - Atari 800XL Testing
23:04 - Atari 800 reassembly
33:31 - Tests after reassembly
38:08 - Another good test and reassembly
38:46 - Another test
39:20 - Back at bench
43:31 - Socket work
1:01:26 - Another test ;)
1:03:00 - Reassembly and minor issues
1:08:36 - Another test, and we're calling this done
1:10:59 - Using the Atari 800 and discussion

[@michaelstoliker971]

Thanks for giving the Atari some love.

[@J0ermungand]

Thanks, this scratched an itch for old hardware 😊

[@KLund1100]

The power board has 3 holes for screws to secure it to the large RF shield. Plus a centering pin. If you do not put them in (at least 2) the plugging, unplugging of cables will cause broken solder joints in the long pin connector between the power board and the main board. With all the work done. you may want to re-flow those joints.
Plus you probably did not need to re-cap the computer. They are all very high quality, and I have never had any go bad in the 100+ 800's I have fixed. But no harm done in doing it.
There are upgrades you can do that will eliminate the jail bars shown on the blue screens.
Good videos !

[@TJGames-Atari]

Thanks, I willl be tidying the machine up for sure, as I know I was more focused on getting it working than keeping track of how everything went back together. Working on a broken 800 as first one i've had open was a great way to learn how they are put together.

[@michaelstoliker971]

That's the spacer that keeps the expansion cards separated.

[@TJGames-Atari]

Aha, thank you. I was working on this over an extended period and storing the 800 packed in bubble wrap disassembled meant I lost track of what that part was. I shall return it shortly as I have left the replacement 10k rom card caseless due to what I heard about these originals having thermal issues if cased. Thanks for subscribing. It's great to know people are appreciating my vids, and keeps me going :)

[@waltciii3]

Be careful screwing those fasteners in. You really should do that by hand and reverse screw until you match the threads, then screw it in gently. Those screw bosses will turn to glass in a minute! (don't ask me how I know...)

[@TJGames-Atari]

Fair comment. You'll notice in earlier videos and i think early stages of this one, everything was being screwed in by hand, but i know i got lazy and used an electric screwdriver to put some of the case screws back in towards the end. I wouldn't reccomend either, but I was quite fatigued at that point, and rushing a little to move forward. I'm feeling suitably penitent ;)