Wierd Sio2Sd loading problem on 600xl

[Asure]

Recently sold my 800xl which was working perfectly with my sio2sd, and started using it on my 600xl, it has some wierd loading problems.

 

SD card is loaded with Pitfall 2 w/ trainer, Star Raiders 2, and the 'disk1.atr - disk4.atr' images which are 16mb and hold a load of games.

 

1. Normal ATR images (pitfall 2 w/ trainer) for example seem to load fine.

2. I can use the sio2sd.xex and select disks, but sometimes the atr images show up 4-5 times, if i press space to read again.

3. The sio2sd.xex menu is really unstable.. i need to select the atr quickly, and press X to run the disk. If i stay in the menu too long, it will freeze completely..

4. The multi-game disks produce 5-6 'white noise' bursts and go into 'boot error' no matter how i try to boot them. The selection menu does not load.

5. Sometimes, if i reset several times, the multigame disks load into the selection menu, but show no disk content

 

All worked fine on the 800xl but the 600xl seems to be having some data errors when reading from sio.. Are there any hardware mods needed on the 600 to get better loading?

[mimo]

does the 600 have more than 16k ram?

just a thought

[Asure]

Bump. I never got to the bottom of this. It's a 64k modded 600xl.

it's done this always.. Even when I was a little kid I remember that it would only load a single game from tape when it booted cold in the morning.

 

The loading sound bluurp noise gets distorted after a while when loading tape. I guess the beeps also get screwy with the sd2sio but have no clue why. Any caps or resistors I can check?

[djmat56]

If you're having loading issues and sound becomes distorted then maybe you have a defective POKEY. Would be a quick and easy thing to try to at least rule that out

[TheMontezuma]

Try to control SIO2SD with the keys K1-K5 only.

If it helps, the issue may be related to sio2sd.xex.

600XL has different OS than 800XL and somebody reported already problems with sio2sd.xex on Atari 800:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237177-sio2sdxex-on-an-800/?do=findComment&comment=3219050

Edited May 12, 2015 by TheMontezuma

[jmccorm]

Data errors when using the SIO2SD could be due to the SIO High Speed setting in the SIO2SD's menu. I had to set mine to $07 to get reliable and high-speed IO. There is also a version with the SIO highspeed I/O disabled by default. It might be worth a try.

 

I came across this thread because it was around the period I got my SIO2SD. I purchased it from someone in Poland, and I was sure it was from Lotharek, but he claims that my model wasn't produced by him. I'm trying to figure out where I got mine from! It was the old config with the buttons in the lower left, two on top and three on bottom. I remember flashing the unit, twice, to a newer firmware.

 

[Level42]

Did you cut out the caps on the SIO lines ?

[_The Doctor__]

many 600XL have a power supply that put out less than the solid 1.5 to 2 amps that ths sio2sd loves to have and need caps removed from SIO lines,

 

the SIO2SD that was sold on ebay etc. from 2 different names rabitka poland etc etc. (whom later made better products under their real names) had thin traces and solder joints that went bad, terrible SIO cords.. incorrect fuse bits!

 

Please take some photos...

 

1. check SIO2SD sio cords (notoriously intermittent) repair or replace

2. check 600XL SIO caps, and remove if needed

3. Check 600XL Power supply under load voltage

4. Check SIO2SD solder joints especially around Transistor and re flow the joints

5 re seat SIO2SD ATmega

6. make sure correct firmware version for SIO2SD revision #

7. reflash AtMega with the correct fuse BITS and version for your SIO2SD

 

That's quick list I've use to fix these power hungry poorly made units... it's almost always the the cord, power and solder issues that cause a need to re-flash. You end up doing all 3

Loading issues with sputtering correctable by lowering SIO2SD speed index are almost always the speed cap issue, or need the lower index firmware mentioned in the other post

 

Have a good one

 

_Doc__

[+DrVenkman]

Did you cut out the caps on the SIO lines ?

Neither of my 600XL’s have caps on the SIO lines. I’ve only ever seen them on NTSC XE models.

[+CharlieChaplin]

OS problem maybe ? A friend of mine also had a 600XL (PAL) upgraded to 64k and still many polish games did not run or had strange bugs. Reason was the OS: XL-OS Rev. 1 which is quite often found in a 600XL machine (most, but not all 800XL do have XL-OS Rev. 2).

 

Most 600XL computers have a small extra pcb where the keyboard is plugged in, but I have also seen 600XL's without this small pcb (think there must be a reason why Atari spent money for this small extra pcb)...

[Asure]

Finally found back my 600XL after moving house over a year ago. I've tried the following at this point:

 

- Swapped out the pokey with a known good one from my Atari Tetris Jamma pcb. Both work fine and Tetris works fine.

- I'll confirm again that the 800XL has no issues at all with high speeds, but alas its sold.

- I've found the location on the 600XL where the capacitors were, and temporary disconnected them. This did not help.

- Removing the caps did make a noticable change in sound when it works ok at cold boot.

- The block of data is just white noise KZZZSST KZZZSST KZZZSST when it fails. (Normally they are bleeps, and when high speed, a bit high pitch bleeps.)

 

Now i just need to find my multimeter and i'll do the remaining tests.

[Asure]

Ok, so i checked the ingot, tried with a different PSU and so on and so on.

I put the 600XL away as i just got a dirty 800XE that i cleaned, and played a bit with that. Funny enough, i can duplicate the exact behaviour on it.

To get this to happen i just need to reset some games and they end up at the sio2sd loader option/start selection. Once i press start or option/start, i get this:

 

 

If i turn off / on the 800XE the problem goes away and i can enjoy loading another game/demo whatever. (The machine is off for say, max 3 seconds.)

On the 600XL i have 64K ram installed. I was under the impression that powering off clears the ram completely, but in my 600XL i need to wait at least a few minutes before it behaves. 

Guess this is not a problem, just a different understanding and coming from a C64 that boots much different.

[_The Doctor__]

some games do not like high speed sio, do not exit cleanly or were never designed to go back to dos or any other things for that matter, many are rips from cartridge roms and were never made agnostic, they are only hacked enough to run... the Atari was designed to perform both a cold start and a warm start and has a sophisticated OS. These hacks may dump out into memory they expect to be ROM instead of RAM etc. The Atari tries to pick up the pieces and continue running no matter what... if the loader is still in memory for either the sio2 whatever or the game/rom etc... then they are corrupted as to not find the rom in the address space any longer (since the cartridge was really never there) the Atari may try to boot from other real devices. Any number of anomalies can display if even that core area is over run or corrupted.

Edited January 21, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[archeocomp]

Maybe @Asure will reply in few years or so:-)

[_The Doctor__]

his last post was sept 2020 in this very thread, so it's possible. since it's only 3 and a half months ago.