hueyjones70

I just wondered if I could possibly copy some of my 5.25 disks to 3.5 disks and many of them are in single density and some are enhanced density. I haven't used any 1.44 HD disks.

I have come back to this topic in order to enter an update and a few observations and ask a couple of questions. It appears that most of my earlier problems were cable problems. My first breakthrough was by using a card edge adapter with a known to be good cable. Then I purchased a commercial cable (flat ribbon) instead of trying to make my own. Another thing I found was that I needed to stick to one DOS. I suppose I could switch between DOSes but it didn't seem to work for me. Another observation, and this is largely unsubstantiated, if my screen shows the hyper ROM info with what looks like error 16, then the disk is not formatted correctly. Lastly, it seems that 3.5 disks are prone to lose their formatting. One question I have is; can you format a 3.5 in single or enhanced density using DOS 2.5? I know I can test this myself but if someone already knows, I can save myself the time.

It appears that this topic evolved into the Idea:external ST Drive... .

The XF551 board is working now. I replaced the Oscillator.

Has anyone besides me had any problems with their assembled boards? I have done two and neither one is working. I am pretty sure that I have done something wrong but I can't see the problem. I have compared my work with a blowup of Manterola's pictures and nothing looks wrong. I also had a problem with one of my XF551 boards. I assembled two and only one works. I have examined all of the components and found nothing obviously wrong. I have checked solder joints, looked for solder brIdges, and even swapped out socketed chips all to no avail. I just wonder if it may be these old tired eyes and an unsteady hand that is the main problem.

I have another 800XL motherboard that I have tested every IC on the board and they are all good but the computer boots to a blank blue screen. If I boot with a Star Raiders cart it sometimes makes some static like noise and then the screen goes completely black. I plan to eventually start checking voltages on pins but that is a job for a bad weather day or something.

I ended up replacing the ICs mentioned earlier plus the GTIA, ANTIC, and that strange IC that in in a 16 pin socket but only has 4 pins on each side. Now everything is working.

I just started troubleshooting a nonworking 800XL and started with memory chips. All of the memory chips were bad, the MMU was bad, and the BASIC and ROM were also bad. Before I replace a bunch of chips I would like to know if there is a likely cause for all of those chips being bad. I would hate to fry another set because I didn't know enough to check for a likely cause.

I have used one with my system for several years and it has worked fine for me. I have the XEP 80 connected to one of the inputs and the chroma/luma connected to the other input. You can use one of the audio inputs as a video input as long as you match it up correctly on the monitor.

David Young's version only works with a 130XE or with a 800XL with a Newell 256K upgrade. The upgrade has to be slightly modified by adding a switch to select between banked and main memory. I worked on that problem for several months until I just happened to purchase a 800XL with the said memory mod. Way too much trouble for the reward. Now I just use my 130XE.

You can probably have some made at most "Trophy Shops". I had some 800XL and 130 XE labels made that way.

How did you attach the cut piece to the other mech?

I went back changed to a 5.25 EPROM and tried the board with a 5.25 drive and everything works. Evidently my EPROM has somehow gone bad.

I removed the drive from the case and removed the heat sink to insure that nothing was grounding or shorting.