Okay so at this point we’ve got things moving along.  At the suggestion of DG Guru Marty, I decided to reduce the number of potential problem areas by removing the extra RAM boards and focusing on just getting the basic system running.  That meant removing and resoldering the jumper wires in the center of the CPU board, which are used to tell the system how much RAM there is.

When I did that initially nothing major changed.  However, I then began to pull the newest 2102 RAMs from one of the now removed expansion boards.  As I did that, I started to get changes in the character patterns on the screen.  I noticed too that the more I hit the Reset button, the more of those characters became / marks.  So something is happening.

Marty reminded me of the video RAMs.  He was a bit doubtful I was going to get much further absent the availability of major diagnostic tools, but it was worth a shot.  Borrowing more 2102s from my newer RAM board, I began swapping out the 8 video RAM chips.  When I powered up, something interesting happened:

Note from the video what’s on screen.  No reset button being pressed, but things are changing.  Man!  I’m beginning to feel that frantic sense of excitement.  I’ve nothing to support it, but I feel like momentum is on my side!