Paul Lambert

Yes and no. Using multiple drives on a Commodore involves such switches too, but I typically had to open the drive itself to get at them. Later models had them on the outside, I think. I can tell you that I find both the Atari and Commodore to be excellent machines. I remember as a young lad at school there were all these my-computer-is-better-than-your-computer wars of words. I'm not getting into all that. My first computer was an Atari so I am simply getting back to my roots and now learning everything about the computer. I am really excited about it. 😀

Thanks, Spookt, for bearing with me. I see now that everything is in order. At least everything is working properly. This looks like it is just a matter of me, the newbie to Atari disk operation, to look up things in the manuals and to try it for myself. I will not bother you fellows with such basic matters until I have learned much more about this. Thanks again!

Really? So if I insert the DOS 2.5 disk, and get to the DOS menu, how do I then go into BASIC so I can program? I know it shows that I am a refugee from the Commodore world. I appreciate your bearing with me. I am just very surprised that the disk system works that way.

I have a different kind of boot error problem. I finally put together a "new" Atari 800XL system. I have the 800XL connected to a TV via a SCART cable. Then using the serial cables, I connected the 800XL to the 1010 tape drive, then to the 1050 disk drive and then finally to an Epson printer via a printer interface. Now, when I put the DOS 2.5 diskette into the drive and turn the computer on holding "OPTION", it comes up perfectly fine. What is strange is that when I turn the system on, with the disk drive power on but with no disk, the computer comes up "BOOT ERROR" over and over again. It will do this as long as the disk drive is powered on. I might just want to program in BASIC or otherwise use the computer without the disk drive, but it seems that I need to turn the drive off in order to use the computer. Any explanations or solutions? Thanks!

For what it is worth, it turns out that the freeze-up on in my case was the result of a machine language routine placed in a part of ram not accessed by the BASIC portion of the program. Had I simply saved my work as I went along, I could have reloaded the program after a seize-up. Now that the program is completed and saved, there has been no problem, as a later part of the program returned control from outside the machine language routine that had been seizing up the system.

I have an opportunity to get an Epson LQ-300+. In the description it reads that it has a Centronics-type interface. Simple question: Would this work on my Atari 800 XL with a standard interface? I will buy it now if any of you guys can confirm that this set up would function. Cheers.

Hi Bee. I am using an 800 XL.

I have been looking into printers as well. What I want to ask about are thermal printers. Do they necessarily need thermal paper, or is there some mechanism by which they print onto ordinary typing paper or accordion tractor paper as well?

Interesting. I get 234, thus rev. C, yet this is an 800 XL, not an XE. Does that mean necessarily that a previous owner switched BASIC chips, or did any XLs come this way from the factory?

Yes, I plan to buy those new things in the future. I do have a 1050 floppy drive as well. So much great advice on this forum.

Sure, I will take whatever precaution I can. If I hit BREAK while a sound is playing, the sound will continue however, right? I think it is natural reflex to hit reset just to stop the sound.

Thanks, guys. I think you pinpointed it. Indeed, there are many DATA statements and calls to machine-language routines, so that likely explains it. Alright then, back to it tonight. CSAVE is my friend. That said, I love getting back into the Atari after some 34 years. Needing to relearn from scratch, so these little setbacks are just part of the process.

Last night, I was typing in a large type-in program (a few hundred lines of BASIC code). As I was entering the program, I RAN the program a few times as I was going along to make sure that everything was working right. Some instances, it was necessary to press RESET to do a soft reboot, which of course leaves the program in memory. LISTING brought the program up each time without any trouble. However, an instance came up that I would enter LIST, and then the cursor went to the next line and then the computer froze up. RESET again. I type RUN and the same kind of freeze-up. I tried several times. I had a huge program in memory that was not fully saved. I tried CSAVE. No different. Alas, my only solution was to turn off the computer and turn it on again, thus erasing all my hard work. Tonight, I want to retype my program; however, before starting, I want to get some ideas as to 1) What was it that actually happened? and 2) Is there anyway to save the situation if it happens again? We can presume that I have already learned the lesson of SAVEing my work as I go along, so please no obvious comments in that regard ;0).

Eleven years later. I just got a "new" Atari 800 XL which I have connected with a SCART cable and I am getting a hum as well. I new power unit is coming soon, so when it comes, if the sound disappears I will know that it is the old power unit that is bad, right? I don't want to fry my Atari 800 XL now that I just got it. Of course, if anyone here is familiar with such problems coming from SCART, I would appreciate your comments.