Jump to content
IGNORED

Odd probelm with Ultimate 1Mb upgrade & Side 2?


Recommended Posts

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!

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.....

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...