EamonShoot Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Something weird has just started happening on my Atari 800XL with 1MB Ultimate upgrade in combination with my Side 2 cartridges (of which I have 2) Everything has been working great for a while, with both the Ultimate and Side 2 cartridges flashed to SDX 4.47. The problem is that with either of my Side 2's plugged in (with the switch in the SDX down position), my 800XL will not boot. When switching on, I get a brief flash of the red led on the Side 2, then a frozen blue screen and cursor on my monitor. Nothing else. This happens regardless of whether SDX is enabled or disabled on the Ultimate upgrade - which boots to SDX fine BTW without the Side 2 plugged in. Both Side 2's work fine when plugged into my 130XE and boot to SDX as expected. As I say, this problem has just started happening recently so I am thinking it may be a hardware fault on the 800xl? Can any of you offer any insight as to what might be going wrong here? Many thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Perhaps a stupid question... but: Did you have PBI driver enabled? (That means: SIDE W/O BUTTON or SIDE with BUTTON enabled in the u1mb menu). If yes: your SIDE switch should be in UP position, and you should use SDX in U1MB. What happens when you use Fat32 loader? Will that work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Does your 130XE have ultimate 1MB btw? When I have PBI driver enabled here on my 800XL and I try to use my SIDE cart with the switch in Down position I have exactly the same behavior as you described, so probably that is the issue... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EamonShoot Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 ProWizard - many thanks for your speedy response. Of course, your first post was not a stupid question at all - you had spotted that I was having brain trouble today and this was classic case of user error. On the plus side, this means that my hardware is all working fine - its just me that's getting old and dysfunctional! Thanks again..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 (That means: SIDE W/O BUTTON or SIDE with BUTTON enabled in the u1mb menu). What is the functional difference between with or without button? I use on Altirra and I have seen it work the same I think both with and without button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 What is the functional difference between with or without button? I use on Altirra and I have seen it work the same I think both with and without button. Button enabled forces the external cart OFF and lets you swap ATRs. The PBI BIOS (IIRC) checks the button regardless of whether it's enabled/disabled in the BIOS, but this will be fixed shortly. There's also another related bug caused by MADS evaluating ".IF .NOT .DEF Incognito" to true when label "Incognito" is undefined (solution: use ".IFNDEF" instead) which will also be corrected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 So "with button" is supposed to mean that U1MB will pay attention to the state of the button (pressed or not), and "without" button means U1MB will ignore the state of the button? If that much is true, how do go about actuating the "button" in Altirra? Is that the System -> Console Switches -> Activate Cart Menu Button? And at present time, do to a bug, the U1MB operates in the "with button" mode regardless if you have it set that way or set to "without button?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 So "with button" is supposed to mean that U1MB will pay attention to the state of the button (pressed or not), and "without" button means U1MB will ignore the state of the button? Yes. If that much is true, how do go about actuating the "button" in Altirra? Is that the System -> Console Switches -> Activate Cart Menu Button? Yes. And at present time, do to a bug, the U1MB operates in the "with button" mode regardless if you have it set that way or set to "without button?" Yes, but this makes no practical difference at the end of the day, since the external SIDE cart is unusable in either situation (PBI BIOS on with or without the button activated). Button off in the BIOS would leave the external cart active, but the PBI BIOS disables it regardless. It's a bit of an arbitrary bug fix, but in the meantime, if you want to ensure the button remains inactive when turned off, don't press it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.