We all know about the fan noise, and I googled and followed suggestion to turn off auto boost in bios and reduced TPD to 12w. It is mostly OK, as in windows 11, the GPU idle temp in task manager (which is very close to the CPU temp if checking with Core Temp) is around mid 60s. It is also OK when I play emulators, watch youtube or even some light games. The GPU could go up to high 80s but it wont trigger the fan. However, for many games, such as recent RDR, the fan will kick in instantly and wont stop, which is so annoying.

I decided to replace the thermal pad like many suggested. I happened to have a very old tube of mx2, probably 10 years old (I used it for my i5-2500K actually long time ago and forgot to throw it away). It is almost empty and I managed to squeeze a tiny drop out of the tube (maybe the size of 2~3 pieces of rice). Then, when I booted it back to windows, it was a huge difference! At idle, the GPU sits at low 50s, and my fan no longer kicks in when I started RDR (100% GPU usage!). In addition, I did a stress test in CPU-Z, although the temp did rise according to Core Temp, it took a few mins to reach 80s even with CPU boost on running at 3.4 Ghz (and I also increased TDP to 45W).

Apparently, Atari did a terrible job design this thing. One drop of thermal paste will not cost much more than a piece of thermal tape, but the results are huge (my 10 years old thermal paste does a much better job). Now I could only hear the loud fan noise during booting and I suspect the unit probably don't really need a fan if they used a slightly better heatsink. I might even try to unplug the fan later since it still spins at low speed and I could still hear the noise if I pay attention to it.

I wish I have done this much earlier, but if you haven't please do yourself a favor and do this!

https://atari.com/pages/rewards-program-page

I see that Amazon has a deal for the All-In bundle at $200. Is it worth the purchase at that price point in 2024?

Thanks in advance for the info!

I have launched Debian from the official Atari USB drive (newer 64GB version) plugged into a rear USB port, but I do not get the left side menu. All I see is the photo of the VCS and the controller. I have done this twice now, on 2 different VCS units. I thought that I was having an overscan issue, but I tried 3 different HD TVs until I got one that let me adjust to 4:3 screen size. Still no menu. Thinking back, I believe that adjusting aspect ratio does not fix overscsan, but I cannot remember for sure. So, I need help. What can I do to get the menu system so that I can start using Debian. I plan on installing 16GB RAM and 1TM SATA M2 drives in both, but I need to solve this problem first.

Hello folks from the VCS community. I have tried all the bios passwords that I learned from surfing the internet. These are all the ones i have tried and none seem to work listed above Any thoughts?

Hi everybody,

I purchased my VCS brand new, as part of the Indiegogo campaign, and received it in 2021.

Today, after a long time away from it, I decided to play a game… but I can’t login as myself, nor play games a guest.

My numeric passcode wasn’t accepted and when I tried a passcode reset via email, it did not work.

I checked the updates for the OS and tried to update, but the system hangs on step 2.

I’m stumped as to why this unit is not updating nor allowing me to play.

1. Has anybody else experienced these problems?
2. If so, and you are able to point me in the right direction for troubleshooting or support, I’d appreciate it.

Atari USB on my old Intel Mac.

I’ve had this issue for months no matter how many times I spam escape key it won’t go to bios I have windows 10 on the emmc and look at the error I get when I boot https://youtu.be/l1NSuvh3hQU?feature=shared I’ve had this issue for so long and I wanna make it into a thin client

Just received my atari vcs and while playing stuff like centipede or games on antstream it seems like the controller does not always keep up with my inputs, the controllers have been updated and everytime I inch closer to the vcs it gets better, so I'm on my couch which is about 9 feet away from the vcs is it maybe that's to far for the controller.if so that kinda sucks

Out of curiosity, what's your reasoning? I know people mention this as a cool thing to do on VCS but I don't really see the point with such low specs and varying degrees of instability?

Personally the largest reason I got it was to have a modern Atari so I love just sticking to the Atari OS.

If I ever went for a retro PC like that I think I'd prefer the new Commodore 64 way more.

I wanted to launch Discord from the AtariOS and it tells me that a new version is available but I can't seem to download and install the newest version. This stinks. Anyine know how to remedy? I'm attempting to download using the PC Mode USB Stick and Chrome freezes up when I try to search for the "Discord Debian Download". Do I need to install Debian onto my hard drive or something?

Update: I finally did get Discord to download on Debian. I think my PC Mode was going slow as molasses because it had to update just about every app. Having said that, I still would like to use Discord in the AtariOS because it's just faster.

After refusing to pay 79.99 on eBay..I patiently waited for Atari to get it back. Just received it put it in and nothing!! Does not boot to PC mode..if I press PC mode once started says plug in USB and restart..I do that and nothing..I see it recognizes it in storage .so I'm guessing they sent me blank usb. Could that be??

I have been using my vcs as windows PC since I got (installed on a m2). Today when I tried to boot to the original system, it automatically started updating process. I somehow remembered that they changed the admin bios password and you could not longer go into advanced bio settings (please correct me if I am wrong), so I unplugged the power as soon as I saw the update screen.

My question is, will the system update also update the bios? I want to keep the ability to turn off the secure boot option in bios so I could boot into an OS like Batocera. Of course, I would not mind if people has figured out the newest admin password in bios (last time I had to downgrade my OS in order to change the admin password, but that was two years ago I think). Thanks.

First off I want to call out this community for providing me all the info so that I could (eventually) dig myself out of my issues.

I attempted to go with Bazzite and then Mint on the m.2 drive. The end result was that Bazzite worked and the Atari OS drive was rendered unbootable. With the Mint install it rendered both OS's became unbootable. The fix for either exceeded my comfort level for making changes, my Linux skills are mediocre as I am not an OS enthusiast. I painted myself into a technical corner.

After reading posts and re-watching videos, I went with Windows 11 as it seemed the path of least resistance. This was completely painless and took about an hour total, counting downloading the image. End result is a dual boot Atari VCS that I am happy with so far.

I want to thank the community here, your posts got me through this drawn out process of trial, error, pain and eventual happiness.

I could be misremembering but is the VCS 100 dollars cheaper? Or was it always 200 USD for the bundle?

I have turned off the turbo boost in bios as people suggested. No more loud fan which is good. But when I listen closely to my VCS, I could hear some sound like low speed fan spinning, although when I tested at the back of the unit with tissue paper, it does not feel any air being blew out. If the noise is not from the fan, what is it then? Some kind of coil whine? But it did sound like mechanical sound.

In the realm of a PSA. I was looking to try virtualization on my side OS (I use Tumbleweed). Pulled my hair out because I couldn’t get it to work. Finally realized virtualization needs to be turned on in bios. Easy peasy after that. Hope this helps someone!

Recently bought the new Yars game and the 50th collection along with a few other games and when I went to download them it stopped me saying my internal storage was full. I have a 256gb usb drive plugged and have been deliberately selecting it as where to store everything. However, when I check the storage settings nothing shows up in the internal storage aside from the non-selectable applications. I have 230gb of free space on the usb and everything moved to it that I can but still it says the internal storage is full and won’t let me download the games I bought, any solutions?

Does anyone know when it will be available for the VCS?

Harrison (Antstream)

26 Sept 2024, 12:10 BST

Hi, Frank, We no longer do a free tier anymore at the moment, I have however given you a 3 months free trial as a gesture of goodwill since you have not been able to play it on the Atari VCS it should be set up for you. The Antstream Team... I guess it was nice for them to finally realize it and give me something.. but I was going crazy for 3 days trying to get it to work.. including emails to them. And then telling me how to do it.. posts on here and looking through forums.. honestly should have gave me a year for all the hastle.

So I bought a vcs used on eBay. I created an Antstream account. I don't know how to play anything on the free tier..some game challenges say unluck for 40 etc..but when I click it always says to switch to premium.. I probably will..39.99 for a Year is not bad..just wanted to try some stuff first..it says I have 100 coins on top right by the cart...thank you

Type the zip first when inputting the info, then do the card number and fill out everything else like normal. I usually didn't have issues but I had to put a new card in tonight. It was giving me issues at first, but this method did the trick. Now I'm going to go play Mr Run and Jump 2600... 🏃

Is there any chance that Atari would consider putting together a bundle of the Homebrews from the VCS for Steam?

I missed the Labor Day sale and will probably wait for the next sale, but how is the framerate on games? I bought Asteroids Recharged on the Switch which has a lot of frame pacing issues. NeoSprint on Xbox One seems mostly 60. How do games perform on the VCS? Is it a more consistent 60 or does it vary?

Thanks for any input!

Wasn’t there supposed to be a software update coming for the Atari os a few days ago?

The 50% off sale got me. I order on Sept 2 and it arrived today.