SmartBASIC - A Coleco Adam Forum

You may have bad video ram

Yikes, I hope not! Do you know of any utility software I could use to test it?

I just ran the "final" test from the Coleco Test Programs and the system passed through the ROM, RAM, Video, Sound, and got to the Controller stage. Tested my controllers too but couldn't figure out how to get past that test.

So based on this test it seems like the system is fine but I'm not sure if this can be considered conclusive or not.

Yup, this happens sometimes and is related to timing issues with VDP port communication. It's very random and solved by resetting the computer. I have not found a solution to that because it seems to be a hardware issue....

Wmaalouli wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:30 am

Yup, this happens sometimes and is related to timing issues with VDP port communication. It's very random and solved by resetting the computer. I have not found a solution to that because it seems to be a hardware issue....

Ahh okay, that is interesting that you say it is random! This morning I tried it out on AdamEm on Windows and the first time I used the editor it ran just fine (which had me thinking there actually may be something wrong with my real Adam) and then the next few times I tried to run the editor on AdamEm I got to the title screen, pressed a key and then it was stuck on a blank screen with no way to exit. Since it locked up (just on a different screen) maybe it is the same timing issue.

Interesting. I don't recall this issue occuring under emulation, only on real hardware. I used Virtual Adam for development and testing.