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Understanding the Mega STe


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Coolness! Found the Link! Will apologize to the wife later :grin: Was attached to the ICD cable :-o It's the older one, didn't see the drives with ICD Pro, then remembered the older ones need term power from bus. Found some huge 230mb Apple driver, but couldn't tell if they were supplying power. Have a CD changer on the bench for the Falcon, and it did see that as unrecognized device. Pulled out the good ole trusty EZ 135 that already was loaded with softs, and bamo, booted right up! Even ran Ease 4.0 just to be sure, and it loaded.

 

I guess for anyone that has a Mega STE that originally came without a HD or ASCI card, could be jumpers on the header pins are all you need, that is if you have a Link. The Ultra satin sure looks cool for the price, a Link would set you back $100.00 in the day!

 

Thanks for the space bar tip, works miracles :thumbsup:

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Thanks for the space bar tip, works miracles :thumbsup:

 

Heh, that one seems to get a lot of users that are exposed to Newdesk

for the first time. I think it was implemented back when hard drives were

still prehistoric. You remember, when you turned them on it sounded

like a jet engine warming up, the lights in the neighborhood dimmed

while you looked nervously around, and then drank a cup of coffee

waiting for it to boot up. :D

 

PS BTW, you're gonna love TOS 2.xx! So many new and wonderful

features compared to older versions...

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Boots off the EZ drive. Remember now what I was doing with them. On the Quadra under MagiCMac, could transfer files back and fourth on the Falcon, before getting one of those SCSI ethernet adapters. Have 4 EZ drives, one in each chain should keep data flowing freely. Going to switch to HD Driver for giggles, since that's whats on the Falcon. Think my latest version is 7.5.5 that Uwe registered. After being away for a spell, will honestly have to say seeing applications such as NVDI and all the ASH apps out there kind of bummed me out. I have tons of the store bought stuff. Need to get in contact with Roger at Anodyne and update my ExtenDos and such.

 

16 hour day on Atari. Nice to be retired :)

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I've still got an EZ135 in the chain on my Mega ST4 that runs my BBS. Got a Link2 in there too.

I always liked the EZ's. Were very good performers for me.

 

You can probably just download the updates from Rogers website: http://www.anodynesoftware.com/

 

Go to Uwe's page, http://www.seimet.de/atari/en/hddriver.html, contact him by e-mail, and he'll probably

update you as well. He's probably got you and your serial # in his database if you ever registered.

 

16 hour Atari days...man, that sounds nice! :)

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Well, I have 7.5.6 HD Driver, and 3.04 ExtenDos Gold. Works great on the Falcon, and on the Mega STE HD Drivers sees a CD ROM drive attached. When ExtenDos scans, it does not see it. Missing something here, not sure what it is. Noticed HD Driver reports the Mega ASCI device for itself every time I chance the ID on the CD. I had SCSI Tools and CD Tools, and CD Recorder from Sound Pool, thought about trying the CD Tools on it, about the same vintage. Tonight I loaded the EZ up off the Falcon, and just moved it over. Would be nice to have a CD, but not mandatory. Once both are set up, I can just move data between the removable drives, for lack of time and money. There is a CT63 calling my name, SuperVidel has to be close.

 

Or maybe I'm missing something, like one device on the bus at a time. Will verify that by hooking two EZ drives up tomorrow. 18 hours, I'm beat, especially beating my head on the Quadra card for the Falcon. Threw that across the room Friday night. :spidey:

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Not that this hasn't been covered the last 20 years, thought I'd follow up on my results.

 

First mistake, going from a 1040ST when they came out at Federated, to a Falcon with a TT or two in between, assumed all Mega STE's had the high density floppy. Fought like crazy with floppy problems, until catching on the 720k disk were working fine. Even swapped out the drive with the same results. Managed to get the EZ 135 up with ICD 6.5.5 (and Link), as it was on a older disk. My STE has TOS 2.05, and the WD chip. Since bugs were fixed in 2.06, think it a good upgrade to the machine. After reading on Brad's site about how Mega STE's are fussy with the HD floppy's, even with an Ajax chip installed, may just leave that as it is. 30 bucks is 30 bucks. The EZ drive is much more productive a way to move software around, especially seeing now most everything is floating around or been cracked (he says with a tear in his eye :_(. I'll Jekyll and Hyde the Falcon and STE together (it's still ok to say that isn't it?), that gives a decent file transfer protocol as well. The other upgrade considered is a 68881 or 2. Need to look at DynaCadd, Chronos and Phoenix to see if they support the 881 (2) on a 68000 before going further. Guess all I need is a GAL (anyone that can burn one up, sell and ship, would be grateful, have the FPU's).

 

Noticed a lot of innovative hardware for the ST(e) since last booting one up. Being a Thrift Store hound, have picked up old Apple drive cases and CD drives for a buck or two, and other hardware that was compatible. This town has a large military base that use to be heavy R&D, before the government started selling stuff for scrap, lot of deals to be had. Honestly have supported the Falcon market more than I could afford since 1994, so am likely not to upgrade much on the STE.

 

Thought I talked a lot about fitting an 060 on the Afterburner.......

 

First CD R+W tested did not show up on ICD, HD Driver 7.5.6 or ExtenDos 3.04 scans. No worries, more where that came from. Got a nice ($2.00) Lacie case with a TEAC CD-R558 connected, it was immediately recognized. Did set jumpers on the back (whether or not it mattered) to No Parity Check, small Long Block Size. ID is switchable on the case, as is selecting TERM power to the bus or not (enabled, that's two sources to the Link, including the EZ drive). ExtenDos was being fussy running it from the EZ, today ran the install from floppy, with appropriately named directory folders on EZ disk, went like a breeze. Did notice once changing disk, the system seemed to loose the directory of the newly inserted disk, but not on another. Not sure what the hick up was, maybe something to do with the ICD driver.

 

Picked up an old 1984 Sears 4084 RGB 15" monitor, has the old RGB plug, need to make a cable up. Don't have too high hopes, but you never know, at $5.00 figured it a deal, if not for gaming. Also found a SCSI II Compact Flash unit made by Accent, imagine for Mac's. No reason that shouldn't work either.

 

Found a couple of auto folder utilities wrote (apologize for forgetting the authors name) for the STE that boot it with cache on at 16MHz or 16Mhz cache off, so as not to have to use a CPX. Sure makes it snappier!

 

Other than just blowing some of my last paycheck on the last two Wizztronics Falcon RAM cards Best had, that's about it for this endeavor. I know, not very techie from what I see going on with development here, but it was a good refresher course for me :-D .

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My two Mega STe computers have HD drives. I had trouble though getting reliable operation from anything that was not an actual Epson SMD-3xx like the ones Atari used. I know one of the computers has the Ajax chip the other has a different one. Not sure what it is.

I've only ever seen one problem with the one that is not Ajax.... The Dbug Cannon Fodder patch doesn't like my saved game disks and makes the drive scream terrible on that computer when I try to restore a game. But that is the only difference I've noticed.

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  • 3 years later...

Hello guys, sorry for digging up an old (interesting) thread but I have a simple question that I cannot seem to find an answer for. I have a Mega STe running TOS 2.06 and I can force 16MHz by using a utility like Bootsie and this works great for me because I leave the one floppy in the drive you see. All my software is on ultrasatan so I've not much need for floppies. Anyhow, I know about XControl and that also works well...

 

But - is there a PRG/TOS that I can run at anytime to toggle between 8 + 16Mhz? It seems like such a simple request yet I can find nothing online that can do this? I could place the icon on the desktop too, which would be ultra cool for me!

 

So, a PRG to flip between cpu speeds. Anything out there?

 

TIA, Steve :-)

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Of course there is such PRG - and it is very short, because all to do is set 1 HW register to proper value. I will post it tomorrow.

There are actually 4 possible settings: beside CPU clock there is cache on or off setting. But that has not much sense to run without cache at 16, so normally you set 8 MHz and cache off or 16 MHz and cache on.

Cache is 16 too - sadly not 16 MB, just 16 KB :-D

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Thanks, that's handy to keep around!

 

Instead fllpping PRG I did 2 separated - for 8 and 16 MHz set - that may be better for cases not sure on what runs at moment

 

The manufactures of modern consumer devices seem to have forgotten this principle.

Edited by galax
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  • 5 years later...

Hi, its me again, after change my home, now, i want to upgrade my STE with FPU. i need the Program to burn the U801 Gal (Pal), In Mega STE Schematic its a PAL 16V8, is that right?

 

Just bought a Programmer for Gal, so i just need the Program to do it. Anyone , who can help or give Informations about?

 

Thanks a lot.. Rene.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, think about this is not normal. Maybe you have installed a Turbo or running at 16MHz or higher..?

Here you can get a newer one CPU with more efficient power consumption...

 

-> https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/store2/   (Item #0092)

have bought one an my CPU is a lot cooler as before.

 

To my Posting before, solved the Problems. Got the 68882 FPU and GALS and Program, so i get full FPU Support now.

Please ask, if you need further Information.

 

 

Edited by SparkX
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Yes, org. CPU in Mega STE tends to get hot. But at 8 MHz it produces not more heat than DIL version of CPU - only because smaller size it is getting warmer.

Mine worked a lot, over hours at 16 MHz, so I don't see reason to worry. CPU is designed to work well at higher temperatures. Surely CMOS version is colder, but I don't see reason to spend money just  because it 'almost' burned your finger  ?

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/7/2016 at 5:01 AM, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Here is it: MSTECPCL.ZIP

May use on floppies, from AUTO folder too - then rename to *.PRG

Instead fllpping PRG I did 2 separated - for 8 and 16 MHz set - that may be better for cases not sure on what runs at moment, and for AUTO run.

bringing up an old thread.  I just purchased a mega ste and downloaded your speed switching programs.  One question do they also switch the cache (8 off and 16 on?)

 

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13 hours ago, mickster said:

bringing up an old thread.  I just purchased a mega ste and downloaded your speed switching programs.  One question do they also switch the cache (8 off and 16 on?)

 

Yes, of course. Without cache 16 MHz gives only minimal speed gain (some 15%), with it it is 60-70% . And no sense for cache on while stay at 8 MHz.

Mega STE cache of 16 KB is pretty much compatible with most of SW, so no need to keep it off when CPU is set to 16 MHz.

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