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Doug_in_NC

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    Charlotte. North Carolina, USA

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  1. OK, I spoke too soon! The Side 3 works but isn't stable. I had to switch off, wait 30 seconds and reboot about 5 times before it decided to read an SD card when I switched it on again just now, after 4 hours off. After the 5th time it happily read 4 cards that a minute before, it couldn't even see. It's hot swapping cards without an issue, but if I switch it off again, I have no idea if it is going to behave properly or not [EDIT] Definitely something still wrong. I ran a couple of cartridges, and they play for a few seconds and then the machine crashes. I have currently got Galaxians locked up with random characters on the screen in front of me. I am able to reboot right now but the it crashes after less than 30 seconds accessing a cartridge.
  2. Thanks, that solved the problem! I had updated using the U1MBS3FW.ROM firmware last month, but had a brain fart and forgot the correct procedure and wiped it out when I upgraded the U1MB yesterday
  3. Hi. I'm tearing my hair out (or what's left of it) trying to get my Side 3 running. Today I finally got hold of a 74F08N and installed it, and bingo! it worked. The I thought to myself that this was a good time to update all of the drivers for the UM1B and Side 3. I noticed that FlashJazzCat had a later version of the UM1B firmware on his site, and installed it. Lo and behold, my system now doesn't recognize the Side 3, just giving "No Device" on the Loader screen. Has anyone else had this issue or is it just Sods Law deciding to kick me in the unmentionables when it saw that things were going too well? I had version 4.00_050621 installed, and upgraded to 4.0_070721. It's running on an 800XL with UM1B and Sophia RevC. I have tried the other suggestions I have been given - swapping out the CPU, though as the one I used came from a board that had missing chips, who knows how good it was, and I have also tried both a modern wall wart and the original 1980's PSU. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I could try? I noticed that when it was working, the red and green LEDs actually do something more than just a brief red flash on power on. That has stopped happening now the Side 3 has decided to ignore me, so my assumption is that the firmware update isn't the problem, but I wanted to confirm.
  4. I wanted to add my comment to this thread too. On my 800XL, the audio was at basically the same level as the background noise coming into the speaker, so though I could hear it with the speaker I have connected to it turned up, it sounded terrible. I replaced the LM358 with a new socketed one first without success. As I have bought cheap "no-name" chips, I tried half a dozen to make sure the chips weren't faulty, and no impact. I got myself a logic probe and tried what was suggested above and them checked the capacitors and resistors linked to the sound circuitry, and nothing seemed unusual, so I moved onto what I should have done in the first place - make sure all of the "big" chips were properly seated, and that did the trick. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions on this thread.
  5. Did you ever find out what the issue was? I have a similar setup, (though no UAV) and the same issue. I'm not sure that my audio issue has any connection to these mods though. Could just be a coincidence. I also changed out the audio op amp today (bought a pack of them from Amazon and tried half a dozen just in case) and it had no effect at all. I guess the Pokey could be damaged, but the impression I get is that the problem is a lack of amplification. I'm going to change out the Pokey tomorrow for one I have on a dead board and see if it makes any difference.
  6. I didn't have a problem with my Ender 3 stock extruder - printed about 10 rolls of filament with it until the Bowden tube (the tube that feeds the filament into the head) loosened and I covered the inside of the head with PET fiber
  7. It wasn’t just the differences in disposable income, it was the prices charged. I always remember the comments in the computer press that the prices in USD for computer peripherals, memory etc was roughly 1 to 1 with prices in British Pounds when the actual exchange rate was 1.6 to one, ie a lot of peripherals, especially disk drives and memory was way more expensive in Europe. I still remember GBP80 or $135 for a 16k RAM expansion for a VIC 20.
  8. I have an 800XL with a Sophia Rev C (ie DVI output) card installed, that gives me a great picture on my old Dell 4:3 LCD monitor, but I'm having problems with the audio. I hooked up a composite + S-video audio cable to the conventional video out port and to a speaker with a built in amp, but all I get is a loud hum. The same with a cable that just has audio out. It isn't the cables or the speaker because I get decent sound (but meh video) with an unmodded 800XL with the same setup and either cable. Does anyone else had a similar problem and found a solution? I should note that the machine is also modded with a U1MB and I bought it in that condition so I have no proof that the audio issue is connected to the Sophia mod. I guess it could have a bad Pokey but that shouldn't give interference on the audio lines, right? I haven't tried taking the Sophia out yet, as I was hoping for some advice from someone who has seen this problem already before I start playing swap-a-chip.
  9. If you ever watch the Adrian's Digital Basement retro computer restoration YouTube channel, you would see he built what he calls a Commodore ZIFty Four by putting ZIF sockets in a machine that he uses for checking main chips (not glue logic or RAM) from faulty C64s. Anyone doing repairs on a regular basis would find an Atari board with space for Ziff sockets very useful. I can't see it being useful for many people, but leaving a little extra space around the main chips is one of those things that's good idea for those that need it and doesn't hurt anyone else.
  10. OK, that's reasonable. How about a really easy fix. On the Side 3 loader page on your website, it says "For proper Ultimate 1MB operation with SIDE3, please install the release candidate main BIOS and PBI BIOS for SIDE3:". How about adding something like "Please note this firmware is NOT backwards compatible with Side 2." or something similar.
  11. I think a lot of people would be happy with a U1MB bootup message providing a warning the firmware does not support the attached cartridge type if the "wrong" Side variant is in the cartridge slot. It would certainly have helped me ?
  12. Yes, I think the same way for the same reason - 32MB partitions at drives C and D with "removable" disks in A and B, even though the removable disks are much bigger than 32 MB ?
  13. Thanks. That makes sense. I will pull out my multimeter and soldering iron over the weekend and have a play. I have a stock machine too, so I can compare voltages etc between the two.
  14. On that case, mine is probably not that unusual. There's something unstable with my machine but I'm not sure what, though. I got the Fujinet, a SIO2SD and the Side2 working together for about 5 minutes this evening, rebooted and haven't managed to do so again
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