bfollowell

Hahahahahahahaha!!! Sealed and never opened he says! Yet, in the picture, you can plainly see that it isn't sealed in any way, shape or form. Also, you can see the little bend marks and creases that come from use on a manual made from this type of material. Talk about full of crap! When I see auctions like this, it just makes me want to contact them so badly and comment on how insane their price is. I usually don't however. I just do my best to ignore them because I know they'll never get anywhere near what they're asking and any true Atari fan will know how insane those prices are and couldn't be stupid enough to purchase something like that for such a price.

Thanks! I'll check it out. Oh, and it's Byron, but I've answered to a whole lot worse than Bob over the years.

First I’ve heard of it. What is it? Also, I have to bite. Is the PCB was designed in 2017, why is it called Atari Freezer 2011?

I didn’t realize that Marlin had them. If Mac has them at The Brewing Academy, then I’d say go with him. Best of the lot by a long stretch if you’re in North America.

I finally received a response from Keir on the FlashFloppy version, but haven't heard anything from the HxC version of the file selector. Keir send me this new AUTOBOOT.HFE file with the new keymap file included. I don't have my ST setup and don't have the time to test it out right now. I'm including it here. If anyone else has a chance to check it out, put this new autoboot file on your flash drive and give it a try. Let me know if this seems to fix the issue. Specifically, he said: Sorry for the delay. Here you go: Please test. If it works I will happily make this the keymap for next release. ST_AB_330_1.zip

Yeah, that would be a hard one. If you somehow stumbled across a find like that, it would be really hard to let it go. At the same time, that’s a lot of green!

There’s so much sadness in this one post! Got a 1090 but traded it off. Got a 1400XL, but had to sell it. I think I’ll be depressed for the rest of the day! I’m curious about the 1400XL. Was it a complete, cased unit, or just a motherboard? I’ve heard of a few 1400XL and 1450XLD motherboards floating around out there in the wild, but I’ve never heard of any cased units making it out into the public.

Yes, they’re scalping, unless they’re already setup for those that don’t have the skills to do it themselves. If those are basic, factory units, those are ridiculous prices. Also, depending on where you are, you may not be looking very well. I just did a search on U.S. eBay and had not trouble at all finding about thirty different Goteks for sale for $25 or less, and that’s about the right price for a factory unit that still needs to be setup.

Also, for ANALOG, there used to be a list of filenames and files sizes for the disks printed in the magazines. It was on the other side of the staple portion of the subscription card insert and it didn’t come along until later issues. The ANALOG magazines themselves have been archived fairly well, but I’ve never seen those little inserts included. I made scans of the few that I had before I sold my issues to The Doctor.

You can’t really “make” an STE. It had a different motherboard with added hardware and added capabilities and these could not be added to an existing machine. The STE had blitter, an enhanced color palette and stereo sound. The only way to get an STE is to buy an STE. You can still do other things to max out your existing STFM and possibly even add blitter but that still won’t make it an STE. It’ll be a maxed out STFM, not a maxed out STE.

I'll play around with the scope some this weekend and see if I can clean those signals up, or determine if they're actually an accurate representation of what I have. Like you mentioned for yourself, I really haven't used a scope much to speak of in 30+ years, and I only bought this one last week, so I could be messing things up. That being said, I did most everything about the same way you did, right down to pressing run/stop to get a good, still signal image. I think I connected my ground connector to the ground point on J1, the PSU connector, so I'm sure I could probably find another ground spot a little closer. Also, my scope has IC leg covers for the scope leads, so I'd already pulled off the standard cover and put on the little IC leg lead cover to help me hold it stable on the legs. I'm certain that I have a lot to learn with it though, so never assume that I know anything, because there's a good chance that I don't. I really appreciate your guys' help!

Well, searching through archive.org, I managed to find and download 87 different issues of Current Notes. I have 8 issues from 1984, every single issue from 1985 through 1991, 7 from 1992, and one each from 1994 and 1995. I'm going to keep looking though. I don't expect to locate them all, but I'm hoping to find a few more. I found 40 issue of Atari Interface between 1989 and 1993, but I didn't search quite as hard or as long as I did for Current Notes. I'll probably look for some more Atari Interface issues over the next day or two. It would be nice to compile all of these and give them a common naming structure and put them together as a DVD image or something. Does anyone now how large an attachment we can attach to a thread? I'm not sure if that would be the best way to make them available, but it would be nicer to have them as one large download rather than having to spend hours searching for and downloading separate files.

That says a lot right there. It makes me feel bad, and very good at the same time. I mean, I'm working every night, sleeping half the day, and spending much of my free time trying to get another rental house my wife and I have purchased ready to go as well as spoiling our newest grandson as much as possible. I only get odd bits of time here and there on the weekends to tinker, and here you are thinking all day about my problem! I feel a little bad, but also very good knowing that I have friends on this forum that are willing to go out of their way to help when needed. I want you to know that I really appreciate it. I'll use the same measurement points and play with my scope some over the holiday weekend and compare my waveforms to yours. I'll also check out the 74F08 as well, in case there's a problem with the soldering, install or socket. Thanks for clearing up the signal abbreviations. Those were kind of what I'd assumed those were, but it's good to know for certain.

OK, I've checked out several of the signals you guys mentioned and have screenshots from my scope. Keep in mind that I've only had this scope for about a week and have only played with it a few times. Also, my last real experience with a scope goes back to college over thirty years ago. Anyway, I checked pin 7 on the CPU, the clock, and here's what I got. This image is of the clock at the point that the boot process freezes at the 1088XEL logo This image is of the clock after I've pressed F12 and the system had booted into SDX I wasn't 100% certain what you guys were referring to as Phi2. I couldn't find that anywhere on the 1088XEL schematic, but I did find PH2 on the CPU, ANTIC and GTIA. These are all images, in order, of those three signals. They all looked fairly similar, and they didn't change from before and after the boot freeze. CPU: ANTIC: GTIA:

Thanks. Current Notes wasn’t normally sold in my area back in the day. I was an ANTIC/Analog/STart/STLog man pretty much exclusively. I’ve liked the issues of Current Notes that I’ve seen since that time though. It was a nice magazine with lots of good information.

I have a spare Sally from my 800XL, as well as any other socketed chip in my 800XL. That being said, I'm fairly certain that I've already swapped ANTIC, GTIA and SALLY at different points in my troubleshooting and had the same results. I can try again though. I will add these points to my troubleshooting log as to-check items and see what they look like.

OK, to add a little more detail, I get some occasional graphic corruption on the screen. I'd say it happens 10-20% of the times I boot. The other times, it seems like a somewhat normal looking boot with the exception of hanging up and requiring me to press F12. When I do get the screen corruption, another press of F12 clears it and the boot will proceed normally from that point. This first one is major screen corruption and something like this, when it happens, is typically after the board has sat unpowered for two or more hours with the power connector completely removed. I should mention that I don't always get this even after that board has been down for days. Sometimes I'll see a somewhat normal boot. The only time I see this particular amount of corruption though, is after a fairly long down time. Pressing F12 again will clear it right up and take me right back into a good boot though. These next several are just common little bits of screen corruption that I sometimes see at boot. Again, sometimes it will go right on through, and sometimes it will require a second F12 press to boot properly. This last one is even more odd. Where most of the others boot into SDX or the U1M menu, this one just randomly boots right into the XL self-test mode. I should also mention that, regardless of whether or not I get screen corruption, or the amount, once I finally get booted properly, the machine acts normally and I can even reboot from the U1M menu and will not experience these issues again until I cold boot again. A warm boot doesn't seem to experience any of these same issues.

Maybe. I know the Cool Novelties STE SCART cable that I have does not work on my STF. They have another one that is supposed to work on all other ST models though. I sort of depends on the cable and how it’s wired.

I have Simius' Sophia DVI and you can't get a clearer picture. It is razor sharp and, nothing against Quadrunner's photography skills, but his picture doesn't come close to doing it justice. In all honesty, I'm not sure anyone's picture would. You can watch this video and get a good idea how sharp it is, but it'll still only give you an idea of what you'll experience in person. He goes through the install, so it's really useful, but if you just want to see the image quality, he finally boots it up around the 5:30 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao2m5cy9g14&t=94s As some have mentioned, sound is the major drawback with the Sophia DVI. Most modern displays made in the past five or six years expect sound to come in on the HDMI signal and don't have separate audio inputs for the HDMI source. The good thing about DVI and HDMI is that they're both digital signals, so there's really no conversion needed. All you need is a DVI to HDMI adapter cable. I use this simple AmazonBasics cable and it works great. https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-DVI-to-HDMI-Cable/dp/B014I8UQJY/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords="dvi+to+hdmi"+audio&qid=1589769179&sr=8-3 If you wanted to use your display's sound rather than a external speakers or audio system, you would need to convert the analog audio to digital and inject it into the HDMI stream. This first device would work with the aforementioned DVI to HDMI cable and analog audio input. https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-BlackbirdTM-HDMI-Audio-Inserter/dp/B01B5FR7PY/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords="dvi+to+hdmi"+audio&qid=1589769179&sr=8-5 This second device would do the same but it has a DVI input, so you'd just need to use a standard DVI cable to the device then an HDMI cable from the output. https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Video-Converter-Audio-DVI2HDMIA/dp/B005G3VQ5E/ref=sr_1_35?dchild=1&keywords="dvi+to+hdmi"+audio&qid=1589769281&sr=8-35 On those last two devices, I just want to make it clear that I have no direct experience with either of them, though I have been looking into both. I may pick up one of them eventually and will gladly post my results on this forum once I do, but I have no idea at this point whether or not they really work or how well. If you decide to purchase a Sophia DVI, one thing to keep in mind is to really research the resolution you have it programmed for. He has about four different ones available and in my experience, some of them are really compatible, and some of them are really not. When I first purchased mine, I had it programmed at 1536x960. I have ten different displays in my home, a combination of TVs and monitors, all made within the last decade, half within the last five years. I couldn't get my Sophia to display on a single one of them. I contacted Simius and got the firmware for another resolution and reprogrammed my Sophia. 1280x1024 on the other hand, works on every single display in my house without the first hiccup. Take that for what it's worth. You can get the other cores from Simius and reprogram your Sophia, but it requires a special device and cable, cheaply and easily bought, and some free programming software. The process isn't super hard, but it is a little involved for those not experienced with such things, so please keep this in mind when making a resolution decision. Finally, right now, with a lot of us having a lot of free time on our hands, it seems like a great time to play with all these upgrades. Keep in mind that most of these are coming out of eastern Europe and shipping has been down for months. I ordered a VBXE and a Satandisk for my STE from Lotharek the first week in March. I have a tracking number, but my order still hasn't left his house yet, because the standard shipping methods aren't shipping internationally yet. If you order from him, you'll need to pay extra for FedEx or a special carrier like that to get it shipped in a reasonable amount of time. I think Simius is in Poland as well, so I'm certain he's in the same boat, so you may just ask him about it. For the Sophia you could also try MacRorie at The Brewing Academy for North America. I think he sells Sophia cards as well, assuming he has any in stock. I hope this is helpful.

Yes, it is a good monitor with a decent picture, medium res quirks aside. I'd still be using it if I hadn't decided to spend the money on an OSSC. I wasn't necessarily planning to purchase an OSSC. I just got a lot more for a 520STM and a couple of SC1224 monitors that I auctioned off than I had expected and the OSSC was an impulse buy.

Well, the auction text says this: It comes from Cool Novelties. They make excellent products and their quality can't be beat. I have their STE version of this same cable and I use it with my OSSC. The image quality is top of the line and, in my opinion, the image can't be beat. Keep in mind that SCART only works for the two color modes. You can't use it to display High Res. You can use an RGB to VGA adapter and a VGA cable to get high res to the OSSC though.

OK, I tried booting with the keyboard disconnected. It exhibited the same behavior, except I obviously couldn't proceed since I didn't have the keyboard connected. It just hung up at the 1088XEL logo, which I should also mention was really, really dim, not bright white like I see when others boot in their videos. It's like it's hanging before the logo is fully on the screen. It's a really dark, dark gray, easily missed if you don't look from the right angle. If you weren't really paying attention, you could easily miss the logo altogether and think it was just a black screen.

You, know, I'm not 100% certain. I believe I have, but I'll check and will let you know what sort of behavior I see.

OK, I've started troubleshooting a little again. Just fits and starts as I find a few minutes of time. To refresh, my system is hanging at boot. I get either a blank screen or it hangs at the 1088XEL logo. From there, if I press F12, the system will go ahead and boot. I know that "hang" isn't normal though. Once I press F12 and get it booted though, everything seems to work as I would expect it to. So, remembering some of the suggestions, I've gone through everything from U7, the TK-II out. I've checked for any shorts or opens and can't find any and I've confirmed continuity from the shoulder of every pin on U7 out to the next component or junction. Same from the PS/2 keyboard din back the previous junction. I've confirmed the polarity is correct on D1 and C19 is a small ceramic and doesn't have any polarity. As near as I can tell, everything is spot on. I think the soldering looks decent and I've cleaned the solder joints with IPA. I've confirmed the TK-II configurations from the SDX menu and everything looks good there. I've confirmed my PIC is programmed with v2.4 of the firmware. I really don't think there is anything wrong with any of what I've checked so far. I haven't had a PC with a PS/2 port in about a decade and I got rid of all of my old PS/2 keyboards years ago. The only one that I currently have is the one I ordered just for my XEL. I'm using a Logitech Y-SU61. From all I can tell, it appears to be just a run-of-the-mill PS/2 keyboard and I've used nothing but Logitech in almost twenty years. I hate to, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying to find another keyboard, just to rule that out as an issue, if someone could suggest a known compatible model. I really don't think the keyboard is the issue, but I'll look for one if you guys think I should and can suggest a compatible model. Should I move on and make all the same confirmations a made with the TK-II with the left POKEY? Anything else I should try? I'm definitely open to ideas.

Ok, I thought so, but I’d read another post somewhere else that seemed to imply that it might not, and I just wanted to confirm. I didn’t necessarily think it was causing my issue, but I wanted to make certain I wasn’t introducing anything extra into the equation. Thanks!