perplexing issue

[Koji77]

Guys I have a modded 1200XL from Steve at Atarimax and a Happy 1050. I recently purchased "working" 1050's from a warranted ebay seller. When I plug them in they both say boot error. I contacted the seller and he sent me another unit so I could send this one back... same issue... says boot error.

 

Any ideas? my Happy 1050 obviously works... using the same sio cable and power supply... even swapped power supplies ...same issue. Is there something proprietary with Steve's Modded 1200XL?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Android8675]

What's on the disks? Disk's won't boot unless there's something on them that tells the drive what to do?

 

Have you tried just using carts, starting the system without the drives, or anything else?

 

Drive ID's?

 

How fast does the error come up (one a second, one every 4-6 seconds, etc.)?

 

How is the 1200XL Modded? I mean I have 3 different Atari's each modded some way or another.

[Koji77]

Drive ID's are fine. I am only running 1 drive with the 1200XL... I was gonna have 1 dedicated to the PC to write back to floppy using APE. The system is fine, once I power up she tries to engage so it seems and just states boot error. The 1200XL is modded with all the upgrades you can do. Steve at Atarimax sells them.

• Rare 1200XL in good condition
• Enhancements Include
  • APE Warp+ 32-in-1 OS Upgrade Pre-Installed!
    • APE Warp+ OS
    • Atari 1200XL OS
    • Atari 130XE OS w/ Reverse Basic
    • Atari 800 Compatible OS
    • Hold SELECT at Power ON for On-Screen OS Selection Menu!
  • SuperVideo 2.1 Upgrade (very sharp chroma/luma or composite video)
  • Keyboard All Keys 100% Tested and Working (Keyboard hand refurbished to original responsiveness if required)
  • APE/ProSystem Interface Internal SIO Power Modificaition (Restores compatibility with all SIO powered devices)
  • APE/ProSystem Universal Interface w/ Serial Cable (DB9)
  • 256k 800XL RAMBO Compatible RAM Upgrade (All 130XE Compatible except 'ANTIC Banking' demos)
• Original 1200XL Power Supply

[Koji77]

In addition I am using a disk with a few games on it... works fine in the Happy1050

[Tillek]

Guys I have a modded 1200XL from Steve at Atarimax and a Happy 1050. I recently purchased "working" 1050's from a warranted ebay seller. When I plug them in they both say boot error. I contacted the seller and he sent me another unit so I could send this one back... same issue... says boot error.

 

Any ideas? my Happy 1050 obviously works... using the same sio cable and power supply... even swapped power supplies ...same issue. Is there something proprietary with Steve's Modded 1200XL?

 

Thanks in advance.

I bought one of those off him too with the exact same mods. Haven't had any problems with my stock XF551's or Indus GT's. When I first set it up, I was running 2 Indus GT's and 2 XF551's and all of them worked great.

[joe58]

^{I too have one of Steve's 1200XL's and though there have been a few bumps with it (Red Screen, Compatibility issues with his MYIDE II carts, and loose monitor port, all of which he fixed to perfection), I never had any 1050 issues with either my stock nor Happy drives.}

[+kheller2]

Set the new drive to unit #2. Boot off the happy with a Dos 2.5 disk and try formatting and writing out the dos on unit 2.

 

You are setting each unit to a different drive number and not trying to boot a DD disk correct ?

Edited September 9, 2016 by kheller2

[Goochman]

Are you using "Happy" disks? Ones where protection was removed by the Happy software? Those disks wont boot on a non-happy drive.

 

Other than that it makes no sense what you are seeing.

[Guest]

okay try this:

 

 

1] boot with ONLY Happy drive connected, using a DOS disk.

2] format a new disk (in the Happy drive) - make sure you choose single density

3] write system files to disk

4] disconnect Happy drive, connect up stock 1050

5] insert your disk created at 2] & 3] above

6] power on stock 1050, insert disk

7] boot 1200XL with OPTION key

 

any luck?

 

one thing worth remembering, remember to leave 1200XL powered off for a while in between, sometimes the ram upgraded XLs don't completely "flush" everything on a normal 5-8 second power-cycle, give it 20-30 seconds to be sure.

[Koji77]

I tried all mentioned... no dice. APE connected to my PC and Happy 1050 works fine. Using these other 1050's ... not working. Direct connect these other 1050's to the 1200XL... not working. All in all I have to say that there is something wrong with the "new" 1050's and what ever it is, is common between the both.

[1050]

I had an issue with one 1200XL once where resistor R63 100 ohms was paralleled with another for an overall

reduction in ohms before it would work with my 1050 drives. Borderline condition as is sometimes needs

this 'fix' on the 1200XL? Other XLs use an inductor for the READY line on the SIO, certainly less than

100 ohms of resistance there. Some factory mods on 800XL use a direct jumper to +5 buss on this line

which I consider to be insane, if there ever were a problem, the fine wires used in the typical SIO cable

would be subject to internal melting.

 

Piggyback style of resistor addition was used in my case so I would notice that it

had been modified, plus it's quick to do.