Problem getting Side2 cart loader to work

[Lord Thag]

SO I finally got a friend to install my ultimate 1mb and it is working great. I have the side2 cart set up with spartados x and several hard drive images. That part works just fine.

 

The problem I am having is when I try and use the cart's .xex loader (switch in the up position). I have formatted several different compact flash cards in FAT format and copied over games. All I get is three to four lines of garbled text. I have tried formatting the cards under both mac and linux as FAT, using several different pieces of software, and they are perfectly readable on the PC end. When I put them in the Atari, they just show up as a couple of lines of garbled text. No games.

 

Am I missing something obvious? Any suggestions? Much obliged.

 

 

[Aking]

Tried fat 32?

[Lord Thag]

I am using fat32. There seem to be some card compatibility issues. I have tried 3 different cards now and the final one (a kingston) works quite well, while the sandisk and memorex ones do not.

[flashjazzcat]

Normally one would expect problems with both the APT partitions and the FAT when dealing with compatibility issues. Are read/writes using the SDX SIDE driver 100 per cent stable?

[candle]

loader recognizes both fat16 and fat32 partitions

best would be some sort of raw image i could check to see what this is all about

[Lord Thag]

I did some more messing around. I don't have a way to image the cards at the moment candle, but I also do not think you need to be worried. Both of the non working cards are quite old, and I think, non standard/possibly defective. The newer cards work just fine.

 

The more recent cards both boot the .xex loader and Sparta X (flashed to the newest 4.47) just fine.

 

The only glitch I am currently experiencing is when I try to use .atr files with the loader. I follow the indicated procedure (enable sparta and side in bios, hit l, select files etc) but this procedure will not load the disk image(s), and hitting return on the file(s) just lands me in basic every time. No game or program.

[phoenixdownita]

ATR loading from SideLoader only works with U1MB set to SDX ON, PBI Enabled, then at the U1MB setup screen you press L (to load SideLoader that comes with U1MB not the one in SIDE2) then it should work (assuming the cart is compatible with PBI, my first was not, my second was fine).

 

So ATR loading only works in combo and driven via U1MB PBI support wich in turn goes thru SDX being set to on.

 

Given you seem to have followed the instructions maybe it's again your card (like it was for me)

Edited May 26, 2015 by phoenixdownita

[Lord Thag]

Thanks for the tip, but I just figured it out. I had a PBI conflict and setting the PBI number higher fixed the issue

 

thanks for the tips everyone, much appreciated.

[Marius]

loader recognizes both fat16 and fat32 partitions

best would be some sort of raw image i could check to see what this is all about

 

I might create a new image for you, but then I have to find a complete black CF card first, since this one is full of personal data

 

I have the same issue. I have a working FAT16 partition (the 31.995 MB space is reserved by the FDISK tool from FJC) and it is probably located at the beginning of the partition table. It's formatted in FAT16 and it as soon as the SIDE loader is started there is nothing to load (only SIDE logo and an empty, black window).

 

(I'm using the SIDE loader built in U1MB)

[morelenmir]

All this has happened before and all this will happen again... I was tearing my hair out the other few weeks trying to get the 'SIDELoader' to function myself. It seems I lucked out by finding a Transcend CF that worked. I'm sorry for the frustration Lord Tharg must be feeling over this, but I'm also glad I am not the only person with this problem.

 

Maybe candle'o'sin could have another look at the "SIDELoader" driver - or is it likely a hardware problem? I think it may be a side-case situation where several variables - which in themselves are not actual 'faults' - can conspire together to stop it working. I could not get the SanDisk Ultra from Lotharek to work on my modded REV A 800XL, but it did work on my other REV C machine. A 'Transcend Industrial' worked in both.

[flashjazzcat]

Maybe candle'o'sin could have another look at the "SIDELoader" driver - or is it likely a hardware problem?

The SIDE loader is a stand-alone application written by Candle. The PBI BIOS was written by me and is only called by the loader when mounting ATRs. Both the loader and the BIOS were written according to the ATA specification but do rely on the hardware functioning predictably (although the PBI BIOS includes rudimentary transmission error detection). If one card works and another doesn't, we can therefore conclude the problem is hardware related. Problems with the loader not picking up FAT16 partitions prepared by FDISK appear (thanks to Prowizard's vigilance) to be down to the choice of MBR partition ID and that's a trivial fix.