Bad 32K PEB Card

[snume]

So I was wondering how one would be able to diagnose a bad 32K card for the PEB. I seem to have one.

 

I have only had my PEB since April and it came with a TI 32K card. When I set it up, I had no Disk Drive or Controller, but I was able to see the extra memory with my Extended Basic cart so I assumed it was good. I had a Cassette recorder but I had never used it before and the few small basic programs I typed up, saved and loaded fine. Owen was kind enough to send me a Shugart Drive and TI Controller but I hadn't had the free time to install them till this past week. I had moved all my TI stuff into the house from the garage for winter and I finally was able to get to hooking it all up. I had also purchased a RS232 card in the meantime and I had bought a CF7+ back in May so with some final pieces from Texin Treasures I had everything I needed.

 

Here's where I got stuck. Owen included in his package a disk with the MFM program on it and I had bought a USB to Serial adaptor off eBay so I could do PC to TI/TI to PC transfers. The disk didn't seem to work when I attempted to use it. I ran some tests with Disk Manager II and it found errors with the Disk. I was new to the software and inadvertently did a destructive test so there went my Disk with MFM. Now what do I do? I thought maybe I could copy the MFM files from my CF7+ to a cassette and then from there to a Diskette. All went well till I tried to load the files back off the cassette while running Extended Basic. They were all garbled and would crash the TI when I tried to list them - the screen filled up with weird artifacts and needed to be powered off to reset. After a few hours of screwing around and typing up programs and attempts to save and load them I came to a dead end. I could type up a basic program, save it and load it fine from both Disk and Cassette. But any attempts at loading or saving in Extended Basic were fruitless. I have 2 Extended Basic carts so I tried them both numerous times always to come up short. I left it for the night.

 

Tonight, I set to it again and after a few fruitless tries I thought I may as well try something different and I shut it all down and pulled out the 32K card. Then I did a simple load from the cassette in Extended Basic and, voila, no gibberish. I remembered the Myarc 32K card Owen had also sent and I installed it and tried loading files again. Still working. I think everyone who has tinkered with one classic computers or another can recall a similar incident of their own and knows the feelings of relief mixed with excitement I had. After about half an hour I had the MFM files copied from the CF7+ to a diskette via a cassette and I set up the Serial Link. Success. Now I just need to learn how to copy files to the TI from my PC and have them work. The first ones I tried were some games that need the E/A cartridge to work and they gave me errors, but I think I'm on the right track.

 

Finally, I have the TI setup I dreamed about when I was a kid and typed up all those progams only to have them vanish into thin air when the TI was powered off.

 

I welcome any tips on how to get the transfer working or things I can do determine what is exactly wrong with the 32K card that was screwing me up.

 

Steve

[Willsy]

HI Steve

 

Your best option for testing the 32k card would be to use a mini-memory cartridge.

 

The Minimem cart has 4K of battery backed ram inside it, and you can write programs in TI BASIC and actually save them to the memory on the cart, as if it was a disk. A kind of mini Ramdisk.

 

With the mini-mem, you also get a few extra commands added to TI BASIC IIRC. They are CALL LOAD and CALL PEEK (if my memory serves me correctly).

 

Using those two commands, it would be possible to write a program in TI BASIC to write test values to each memory location, and then read them back, reporting the addresses that fail.

 

It would be a fairly simple program to write, and would run from VDP RAM, since it would be running in TI BASIC.

 

Of course, it would be very slow, but you'd only run it once!

 

As far as repairing the card, should be possible if you can locate the RAM chips on the second hand market, alternatively, you could purchase a replacement from Texin Treasures, or even better, buy a SAMS board (available from the same place) which includes the 32k and 1MB of extra RAM IIRC.

 

Hope this helps and let us know if you want us to write the test program.

 

Regards

 

Mark

[Willsy]

Had a dull moment at work, so wrote a quick test program:

 

10 ADD=8192
20 CNT=8190
30 PRINT "TESTING LOW MEMORY..."
40 GOSUB 100
50 ADD=-24576
60 CNT=24574
70 PRINT "TESTING HIGH MEMORY..."
80 GOSUB 100
90 END
100 ENDP=ADD+CNT
110 FOR I=ADD TO ENDP STEP 2
120 CALL LOAD(I,255,255)
130 CALL PEEK(I,A,B)
140 IF (A*256)+B<>65535 THEN 200
150 CALL LOAD(I,0,0)
160 CALL PEEK(I,A,B)
170 IF A+B<>0 THEN 200
180 NEXT I
190 RETURN
200 PRINT "MEMORY FAILURE AT";I
210 GOTO 180

 

Takes a while to run, but seems to work...

 

You can save this to MiniMem with a simple SAVE MINIMEM

May have to do a CALL INIT first, I can't remember

 

Mark

Edited November 5, 2010 by Willsy

[matthew180]

I would suggest a test program written in assembly language, simply because speed might be a factor in the card's failure, i.e. it works fine except when doing big block copies to/from the RAM. Again, this is just a possibility, but I have seen a memory test pass, but the RAM still fails under a real work load (talking more about modern PC's in this case, but the principle still applies.)

 

I'd write you a test program, but I have to go to the Faire today...

 

An alternative: I'll fix your 32K card for the cost of shipping and any necessary parts (basically I'm willing to give my time for free.)

 

If you want to fix it yourself, then you will need some basic electronics tools (soldering iron, flux, cleaner, braid, etc.), spare parts, a way to test chips once you take them out, a logic probe would help, an O-Scope really helps, schematics of the card (should be available online), a PEB extender card if you want to test in-circuit, etc.

 

All PEB cards have 5V regulators, and if that is failing it could cause sporadic behavior. Also, most cards have buffer chips, like 74LS373 or 74LS374 which could be failing too. Finally the RAM chips themselves could be going bad, or a few internal memory cells could already have failed.

 

Best thing to do is start with an assembly language memory test that writes then reads all 32K addresses in the card, then changes the bit pattern and does the test again. Preferably the test would run all 256 byte values to all memory locations. Are you going to the Faire?

 

Let me see if I can get a cartridge ROM image made up. You have a 64K multicart, right?

 

Matthew

[Tursi]

Let me see if I can get a cartridge ROM image made up. You have a 64K multicart, right?

 

The Corcomp diagnostic cart will run as an 8k ROM cart. It's not comprehensive but it works. It's on WHTech so I guess I can post it here:

ccpdm99C.bin

[snume]

Hi Guys. Thanks for the quick replies. I have a mini memory cart and I also have a couple 64K carts but no way to write the eprom for them.

 

The card that is working is a Myarc and the one that is acting flaky is a TI card. Does that matter for the Corcomp Diagnostic Cart?

 

I am definitely going to consider your offer Matthew.

 

Have fun at the Faire for me.

[Opry99er]

Is the card I sent you bad?? I'm sorry buddy, I tested it before I sent it, but only superficially. Hope you get it working.

 

Additionally, how did you get MFM onto cassette?! I thought it had quite a bit of assembly support....

[snume]

It is NOT the one you sent. You sent me the Myarc one. I got the TI one with the PEB I got off eBay so it's just lucky for me you included the one you did.

 

All I know about my transferring MFM onto cassette and then onto disk was that I needed to be in Extended Basic to do the copying. It may have some assembly support, but it didn't seem to affect it. I was using it to transfer files last night, but I may have done something wrong with the transfer as the files wouldn't load in E/A. I'll have to try some more that aren't E/A dependant to test.

 

Incidently, I'm sure confused about file sizes, etc. The two files on the MFM disk were mfm and load. mfm has like 50 lines of code and load has 10, yet load is a BIGGER file? When I saved load to cassette I thought to myself "It takes that long to save that small file? How long is it going to take to save mfm!!" but it took the same amount of time. Huh. Again, I never had a cassette recorder before so it's all new to me, though I'm glad I had one. I bought it like 8-9 years ago off eBay but I didn't have the cable or even my TI at the time. When I got the PEB and the stuff from Texin, I got the TI from my Mom's farm and fired it up. I had to dig through a box in my garage where the recorder had sat since we moved in here 7 years ago! The TI memories just keep piling up.

 

Thanks again.

Edited November 6, 2010 by snume

[Gary from OPA]

By the way, I have about dozen 32K original metal TI cards.

 

If anyone needs one, just cover shipping from me (Toronto, Canada) to you and it is yours.

 

Limit 1 per person, unless their is real 911 problem and you need more then one.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Gary from OPA

[Opry99er]

That's very kind of you Gary

[matthew180]

Hey Gary, send me one if you don't mind. That way I can trading people a good one for a broken one, and then fix the bad one.

 

Matthew

[Gary from OPA]

Hey Gary, send me one if you don't mind. That way I can trading people a good one for a broken one, and then fix the bad one.

 

Matthew

 

Sure, just PM your postal address. -- By the way thanks for those 6 cartridge boards.

 

Do you need any other original TI junk (sorry, bad choice of words, super-goodies-instead!), I have alot of TI Disk Controllers also?

Edited November 8, 2010 by Gary from OPA

[matthew180]

I don't know... not really, but I like old computer junk, uh, I mean super-goodies. It is hard to say no. Do you have any that don't work? I like to fix stuff.

 

Matthew

[Opry99er]

Hey Gary!! I am trying to set up a second system now, and I gave all extra TI cards away to friends in need... I am in need of a 32k, disk controller, rs232, and flex cable interface... I would be happy to purchase them from you--- as I was prepared to buy them off eBay or Tex*In Treasures. I am always looking to upgrade my systems... If you have any 3rd party cards or unique hardware/software items you are looking to get rid of (including cartridges) , I would love to hear what you've got-- I am certainly looking for 3rd party cartridges, as that is my main TI passion (other than programming games). I'll be looking to spend some money in mid-December, as that is when I plan to do sweeping upgrades of my systems... One will be a dedicated RAMDisk system (I have a plan for that system) and the other will be my all-purpose machine.

 

I hope you are getting good use out of that GK. . I never knew what the hell to do with mine. I traded my first GK to another 99er... I happened to get a 56k GK in a later trade--- which ended up being an 80k, and I didn't know it!!! I am glad it is in good capable hands now.

Edited November 8, 2010 by Opry99er

[matthew180]

Damn Owen, you should have gone to the Faire. There was a guy there with all that stuff and no one was taking any (same guy who had the fifty cent carts.) He even had this mega huge SCSI card and drive, with attached power supply! It was literally half the size of a PEB and weighed about the same. He also had a brand new, in the box silver console that no one wanted... I would have taken it, but I'm pretty sure it worked.

 

Matthew

[Opry99er]

SCSI?!???!?!!???

 

Oh my GOD!!!!!!! I cannot believe that.... Dude, I am completely shooting myself (figuratively) in the face right now!!!!

 

I am more disappointed now than I've been in a LOOONG time.....

[Opry99er]

I guess it's good that my biggest disappointment this year is that I missed out on TI gear and TI fellowship.....

[Opry99er]

I am interested in what happened to that SCSI system... Was it a WHT SCSI card? What kind of drives did it have? Did someone buy it?

 

 

 

 

[matthew180]

This is the guy, and I even circled the BFHD (big f-ing hard drive). That picture was taken by Jon Guidry. I talked to the guy, but can't remember his name. I'm sure Hal knows him. He was pretty nice and just wanted to get the stuff to a good home. The hard drive itself was about 1/4 the size of the whole unit, and I never saw anyone able to lift it. I think they just made a concrete podium under the thing and left it there till next year.

 

Matthew

Edited November 8, 2010 by matthew180

[Opry99er]

Can't believe it.. I'm gonna contact Hal now.

[Gary from OPA]

This is the guy, and I even circled the BFHD (big f-ing hard drive). That picture was taken by Jon Guidry. I talked to the guy, but can't remember his name. I'm sure Hal knows him. He was pretty nice and just wanted to get the stuff to a good home. The hard drive itself was about 1/4 the size of the whole unit, and I never saw anyone able to lift it. I think they just made a concrete podium under the thing and left it there till next year.

 

Matthew

 

Does not look SCSI to me, looks like Myarc HFDC with a huge whooping maybe 10meg MFM hard drive!

[Opry99er]

Damn.... I would have LOVED to have gotten my hands on that thing... It would have solved my current issues. =)

[marc.hull]

This is the guy, and I even circled the BFHD (big f-ing hard drive). That picture was taken by Jon Guidry. I talked to the guy, but can't remember his name. I'm sure Hal knows him. He was pretty nice and just wanted to get the stuff to a good home. The hard drive itself was about 1/4 the size of the whole unit, and I never saw anyone able to lift it. I think they just made a concrete podium under the thing and left it there till next year.

 

Matthew

 

Does not look SCSI to me, looks like Myarc HFDC with a huge whooping maybe 10meg MFM hard drive!

 

 

It was a HFDC with a st225 in some kind of half assed PS/enclosure/home made kludge. He Wanted only 75 bucks but being a HFDC that was 75 bucks to much .

[Opry99er]

Really? I thought HFDCs were freakin sweet. I don't have one--- never seen one in person... but I was under the impression that they were really nice tools to have.

 

Still, I was hoping it was a SCSI. =) Would have LOVED to have a working SCSI setup. =)

[marc.hull]

Really? I thought HFDCs were freakin sweet. I don't have one--- never seen one in person... but I was under the impression that they were really nice tools to have.

 

Still, I was hoping it was a SCSI. =) Would have LOVED to have a working SCSI setup. =)

 

HFDC's are the schizzle until you try to depend on them IMHO. Like a strange dog... fun to play with until they bite you This is only amplified by the fact that the bowling ball heavy drives are older that me.... er well perhaps you . To each his own but the guy who was selling it's name was Ted something or another. I think Tim knows him so ping him.....