Megamania

Is it a problem if it is soldered? Can I just desolder it, or is it going to be a problem (i.e. it won't fit unless it's perfectly clean)? I'm asking because I was going to buy one of those pokey chips soldered on a game cartridge that are being sold here on the forums...

I swapped the Pokey chip from a working Atari 800, and I got sound again! I'll just need to put my hands on a Pokey now. Thanks guys!

Thanks everybody for all the inputs. I will try exchanging the chips from one Atari 800 to the other, hoping they're not soldered. Can you give me an idea of where Pokey is located? I searched google but I want to be sure I make no mistakes.

When I was very close to finish restoring an old, bad condition Atari 800, I realized it has a weird problem: I get no sound, except for (apparently) the noise generator. For example, when I turn it on I get the familiar noise of the computer looking for devices. When disks are loading, I can hear the "bleeps". When I try a game, I only get *some* noises and no music. In Berzerk, for example, I can hear the synthesized voice and very few other noises; River Raid is completely silent except for a low-volume "mmmp" when I shoot a missle. Megamania is completely silent. I know it's not the video cable or the TV because both are working fine with another Atari 800. Any ideas about what I can do? I know I can break it if I just start try to fix it on my own, so please help me!

thanks, drive formatted and up and running!

You don't know how many google searches I had done before your post, but... you were right! First of all I looked for pictures of scsi hard disks, and found that there often are switches on the bottom of the disk. I checked mine, and found two switches. Yeah! I then looked and searched and tried. Conclusion: THE DISK IS BEING FORMATTED NOW! I had to set both switches (I confess I tried all combinations) for the hard disk to be recognized. THANKS again for your precious advice so far, Gunstar, jflemaire and ppera. I'd have given up without the help from this forum. One last thing: is it ok to create a set of 512MB partitions, or should the boot partition be smaller (16/32MB)? This is on a TT and I'm using ICD PRO 6.5.5. I'm asking because every time I partition the disk it takes hours to test it for bad sectors...

Ok, some progress... If the original internal drive is connected and I connect the new one to the external unit, the external disk is recognized! (some proper ID setting was required, because the settings that worked for the Falcon didn't work with the TT). However, when the external disk is recognized, the internal drive spins but is not seen anymore. Mutually exclusive! This is some progress because it proves that the drive is ok and could work on the TT... I think. However, I can't get the drive to be recognized if I install it internally... It definitely has to do with SCSI termination, in my opinion. I don't see a SCSI termination jumper on the drive though. I feel I may be close to solve this problem, but still need some expert's help...

Thanks for your suggestions. I had searched before and have just searched again, but found no solution. I installed a program called atari-fdisk-cross (for linux) and ran a test of the scsi disk on my pc. Here is an excerpt: Can the "at least unusual" note be the cause of my problems? And how can I fix it? I'm not even understanding what the problem is... You know, I would give up if the hard disks had never been recognized, but since they were recognized the first time I formatted them...

http://little-nz.com/public/halflife/valve/sound/pacmanhl/

Anybody? I'd really appreciate some suggestions. EDIT: Ok, I realized that for some reason the TT doesn't like the external unit, or even a simple SCSI cable! The computer will freeze at boot if I connect the unit internally AND there's the external unit connected (even if it's switched off, or if only the SCSI cable is connected - can it be a SCSI "termination" problem?). If I connect the new hard disk internally and leave the external SCSI interface unused, I get an "unrecognized unit" message. The strange thing is that at my first attempt (before re-formatting it), the hard disk WAS recognized.

I re-formatted/partitioned the hard disk(s) with ICD 6.5.5-PRO with my FALCON. Everything went fine, and all the partitions are accessible (these utilities have a "enable partition" feature, and the two partitions which weren't shown were not enabled by the Atari HD utilities...). Both disks work fine when connected to the Falcon through a SCSI box. However, they are not even recognized by my TT030! The partitions are all smaller than 512MB, but that's not the point - the drive is completely ignored by the TT (although the hard disk's led blinks when the TT is booting). I tried attaching them externally and internally - AHDI says "no unit", ICD either hangs or says "unrecognized unit". Strange, because the same drivers detect the hd on the Falcon! Needless to say, the old TT hd still works perfectly, so it's not a matter of wires, broken connections, etc. I'm wondering if there are any dip-switches to set on the TT... Or any special settings on the hard disk? it has a 20-Pin J3 connector: -the first 3 positions select the disk ID, -4th: FLT LED/Blank -5th: BSY LED/Spn Sync -6th: 5V / unused -7th: Delay Spin/GND -8th: Stagger Spin /GND -9th: Write Prot / GND -10th:Spin Sync /GND The only position i'm setting is the 8th, otherwise the hd doesn't spin, and the 1st one to select the hd ID. So, thanks to your suggestions I've solved all the hard-disk related problems with my Falcon, but I'm lost with my TT. Any ideas?

You're right! But I finished formatting/partitioning at 1a.m. (see my previous msg) after a day at wrok and I was dead tired... sorry about that. I used the Atari hard disk utilities (last version, I believe). When I run them, the disk is seen as partitioned in 4 partitions plus some unused space.... In addition, another strange thing is that the same SCSI disk when attached externally to the TT is recognized at boot (or when running ahdi.prg) but not accessible. Please bear with me guys, I really want to sort things out... EDIT: ok, I know, I should stop working on the ataris late at night. The hard disk is not accessible on the TT because the partitions are around 1GB each, while TOS 2.x/3.x limits partition sizes to 512MB, right? If that's correct, I still have to find out why I'm only shown 2 out of the 4 existing partitions...

So, today I received two quantum 4,2 GB scsi hard disks. I connected one of them to an external scsi box which is attached to my Falcon. The hard disk was correctly recognized at boot, so I formatted and partitioned it to one big partition. I used the Atari Hard Disk Utilities because they are the ones I'm more comfortable with, and (more importantly) I have a problem with my floppy driver on the PC. The drive was partitioned, but not accessible. I tried to reduce the partition sizes to around 1GB (999MB to be on the safe side), so I ended up with 4 partitions of 999MB each, and left the remaining space as unused. Things got better: I can now access 2 of the four partitions. That can be ok, but I'm wondering why? Is there any way I can access all 4 partitions?

Ok, I'll go with ICD then. I also realized I have a SCSI CD Rom and an Optical 44Mb removable drive (not an Atari Megafile, it's scsi if I remember correctly) in my cellar. I don't even remember if it came with the MSTE, the TT or the Falcon. I'll try to get them back up and running today... and I'll let you know. Thanks!

Thanks guys. I bought the hard disk (3 euros) but I don't have it yet. I'll try to install it in my TT030 first. I have the ICD Pro V 6.5.5 utilities and the Atari HDI 6.0.6.1 (a "repackaging" of the original disks). Which one would you suggest to use? Any significant differences?