Keneg

That would be great.

I cleaned the rails using isopropanol,on a q-tip and rap then used sewing machine on another q-tip to lubricate them. The head is stepping nice and quiet. The seller said it worked sometimes. I have noticed a change in how it acts cold vs warm. I probably have a chip problem. Guess I will download the service manual and try troubleshooting when I have time.

I have been doing that. It looks to me like you need a known good disk in the drive for most of the tests to work. I don’t see a sensor for the index hole. There is a bracket that looks like it could hold something, but I don’t see any unused place to put anything in. Does the drive use some other means to tell where the first sector is? I haven’t removed the shield, but the chips I see are socketed.

I tried to call and then email Best Electronics today. No answer and got an undeliverable message back. I used a piece of self stick felt to replace the pad. I ran the drive with the lid off. It starts and spins, steps 39 times, pauses and then repeats a few times before giving an error 173. I ran diagnostics speed test and it gives a time of zero ms. Is it using the index hole for this test? I am thinking the sensor may be bad. Where can I get the diagnostics disk that is required to fully test the drive?

I have an S-video cable on my 130XE. The clarity of the display is amazing. M6 7nderstanding is that the XEs and 800 have the proper pins connected to use S-video. On the XLs you need to do a mod.

I tried to fix it tonight. Broke off the pad that presses the disk against the head. Anyone know if/where I can get one?

It has actually given me different errors at different times. 144 and 173 most often. Hopefully, cleaning the drive rail will clear things up.

Ok, that is good to know. I haven’t taken it apart yet. Probably won’t have time until tomorrow.

Thanks. It passes all tests except the head step/settle. So cleaning the drive rails sounds like a good start.

Ok, thanks for the answers. Where do I get the 1050 diagnostic software?

I don’t have any disks for it. I am trying to create some. It seems to try to format about 7 tracks, if the bears mean a track has been formatted. On IBM compatible drives, I have often had to clean and lubriacte drive rails, so that is my first try. Can the drive be used with the top cover off? It would be good to watch what it is trying to do.

I got a 1050 drive off eBay. The seller said it works sometimes. Usually when first powered up and then fails later. I tried formatting a diskette and get error 174 repeatedly. Are there any utilities I can download to test the drive? I have an SIO2PC-USB I can use to load things. I already used a cleaning diskette on it. I thought the next thing might be to open the case and clean things up. Especially the drive rails. Any other suggestions?

I’m probably going to sell my 600&800XLs as soon as I make two more power supplies. I only have room for one Atari 8-bit. I did buy the RAM chips to upgrade the 600XL to 64k. That seems simple and should increase it’s value.

I had a power adapter that tested good until the computer was turned on, then only about 3 volts. I build my own now.

I got.my s-video with composite cable today. WOW, I cannot believe how much better the picture is! This plus extra RAM makes the 130XE my favorite Atari 8-bit. If you connect the luma to the video port on an 800XL, how close does that get?

Good to know, but I already ordered a cable.

I finally found a cable with both S-video and composite. Seems to be a rare item.

I believe it is discontinued. It looks like he used to sell a service to install the Ultimate 1MB in your 600XL.

Ok, thanks for the answers. I just looked at the inputs on the LCD-TV I am using. It has two AV inputs, both just have video, L, and R. It has component and DVI inputs. I don’t think those help unles I mod the Ataris. It has VGA that I use for the Win10 machine I run RespeQT on. It doesn’t have separate Luma and Choma, unless they are part of component. It does have an S-Video port, so I guess I know what cable to buy.

I took a chance on an 130XE on eBay no video cable or power supply. I have tested it with the power supply I made for my 800XL and the video cable from the same that only has composite video and audio. If I buy a cable that has separate luma and chroma, that should improve the video, right? Thevideo is already better than on the 800XL, but since I need to buy a cable anyway, I want to get something optimal.

Good puzzles. The tricky part is mak8ng them solvable, but not too easy. Things like needing to get a set of switches set right or answering a riddle.

I am enjoying the way this thread has developed. I got the answers I was looking for and now am avidly following the programming discussion. I want to try creating my own game once I retire and have time. I used to program in Pascal, so that would be my choice also. I did some 6502 assembly on my VIC 20 and C128 also. 6502 ASM seemed a lot easier than 8086.

I have been reading about all of the options for SIO and Cartridges. I have an SIO2PC-USB and it is great, but I have to switch back and forth between the Atari and my PC to change disks when needed. The carts have their own menus. I just had a thought. Could a cart be made with a cable connection to the SIO port so the combination could handle all file types and be totally controlled by the Atari? Pressing a button on the cart would bring up the menu to mount another file or load a .car file into the cart. Then exit back to your program to load the file or reset to run the .car. So, totally weird and not possible?

So RespeQT is better, but won’t get me more speed without a cart like the autocrat or Ultimate 1MB?

I am using AspeQT because I followed the instructions on Lotharek’s site to get the SIO2PC-USB I bought from him working. It works fine, but I can only get 19200 baud regardless of what I set the option at. Is RespeQT better? How can I get faster loads? I think maybe I need a cart with an advanced O.S.