TGB1718 Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Following on from my Track 0 Sensor repair posted earlier, I have a strange issue with a 1050 Happy Drive. When I power it on it does the usual power-up sequence, boots fine when it does this, however sometimes if I power off and then back on (usually if the disk I have used is bad (going through lots of old disks to see whats working)) which requires the drive to be re-booted, it doesn't do the power-up sequence, lights come on, but no activity and it also won't respond to the 130XE to boot. I have scoped the 'N Reset' signal at U4 Pin3 also checked on Pin 34 of U9 (6507 chip) also at U11 and the reset signal appears fine. Momentarily shorting pin 4 of U4 to 0v also produces the reset signal, but no response from the drive. Now the strange bit, If I power the drive off and leave it for several minutes and try again, the drive powers up normally, shorting Pin 4 of U4 momentarily also causes the drive to power-on cycle. Sometimes I can power the drive on/off many time and it works, other time a single on/off causes the issue. I have checked PSU voltages when off to make sure there is no residual power available, also for discharged capacitors on U4 and found nothing, basically electrically it looks fine. Nothing is overheating as it can do this from cold, just wondering if anyone else has seen this on a 1050 and resolved it. Could it be the Happy board. Any help would be appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 (edited) after the usual clean and re seat and making sure your chip sockets are still in shape, you are then left with looking for solder joints to touch up, and marginal capacitors. The hint is the random nature and 'minutes' needed to cycle power... this indicates intermittent mechanical connections or marginal component issues affected by temperature. please also try upside down aero duster... 'freeze' spray... this can help show marginal components, happy memory can be persistent when code is uploaded to it, during power down it doesn't always clear completely appearing to lock up, at that point you have to wait it out. Edited February 8, 2019 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandit Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Normal for 1050 happy board, if you want to double check, remove happy board and drive will be normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 I have only noticed this issue on 1 happy 1050 of mine, and it's an atarimax clone. I found in a pinch popping out the happy board from the socket and reinserting seemed to help, so I figured it was just bad contact and will eventually replace the socket to see. You can try the 555 timer reset method, I've found it works well for the happy as well, but I haven't tried it in the same drive as the above issue, so can't say if it helps for that. I posted pictures of my install here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/197540-1050-reset-mod/?p=3890752 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 So, will this 555 timer mod put the happy 1050 back into Happy mode from unHappy mode (selected in the menu of Happy 7.1 master disk) without power-cycling too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 So, will this 555 timer mod put the happy 1050 back into Happy mode from unHappy mode (selected in the menu of Happy 7.1 master disk) without power-cycling too? Yes! And also gets it back to default happy mode if it had been previously programmed with other custom uploaded code, like the USDoubler, Archiver CHIP, or stock 1050 code, without power cycling. Some previous posts with links to some of these tools: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/277382-atari-1050-in-kinda-rough-shape/?p=4009643 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/257578-happy-810-resources/?p=4127516 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted February 8, 2019 Author Share Posted February 8, 2019 Thanks for all the replies and advice, I would have swapped the original chips in if I had them, but I bought this drive after it had been upgraded and I didn't get the chips. I have also lifted and re-seated all of the socketed chips. Stargunner, I was going to do just that mod myself, then I found it didn't always work once the drive had become unresponsive. Interesting that some of you say it only happens on Happy's , that was my feeling too, I will continue to investigate to see if I can get to the bottom of this. btw. Since I got the drive working I have formatted and copied Happy V7 from an ATR image and booted the drive from it. I then ran the Happy Diagnostics and it says everything is OK (apart from the drive speed which is a little high, but nothing to worry about) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 I was going to do just that mod myself, then I found it didn't always work once the drive had become unresponsive.Did you try? I'd like to know if it actually works or not to recover from that state or not. You can try by literally (carefully) briefly shorting pin 2 to pin 8, ie with needle nose plyers. Just curious if that was your own experience, or read from someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 checking a drive using a disk created by the drive is not exactly the test, the test is to use a disk created by a know good and properly aligned drive and see how it completes the tests on the suspect drive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted February 11, 2019 Author Share Posted February 11, 2019 Stargunner: Not shorted Pin 2 to 8 as there was no residual voltage on pin 2 when the unit is off, also shorting pin 4 to 0v does trigger the reset pulse every time. _The Doctor_: Appreciate what your saying about the disk, but I did alighn the head using a disk formatted from a known working drive first and ran the Atari Diag's on this first before runnung the Happy Diag's. Still not found the cause, but will keep on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Following on from my Track 0 Sensor repair posted earlier, I have a strange issue with a 1050 Happy Drive. When I power it on it does the usual power-up sequence, boots fine when it does this, however sometimes if I power off and then back on (usually if the disk I have used is bad (going through lots of old disks to see whats working)) which requires the drive to be re-booted, it doesn't do the power-up sequence, lights come on, but no activity and it also won't respond to the 130XE to boot. This is absolutely common on Happy drives. It happened in most original 1050 happy enhanced drives I've seen. Don't know why it happens and never investigated. But I guess it must have been a known issue for Happy Computers. Interesting Nezgar's comment that he experienced the problem on an Atarimax reproduction. This suggests it is a more a firmware than a hardware issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Don't know why it happens and never investigated. But I guess it must have been a known issue for Happy Computers. Interesting Nezgar's comment that he experienced the problem on an Atarimax reproduction. This suggests it is a more a firmware than a hardware issue. Maybe an SRAM/persistence issue. Kind of like I've heard about machines upgraded with Antonia and 600XLs upgraded to 64K that take longer for the RAM to 'zero' when switched off. I do need to replace the corroded sockets on the PCB of that drive though. The clone happy board I had in it before swapping in the atarimax one recently was dead after sitting in storage for 15 years. I revived it by replacing it's 8K SRAM chip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Maybe an SRAM/persistence issue. Kind of like I've heard about machines upgraded with Antonia and 600XLs upgraded to 64K that take longer for the RAM to 'zero' when switched off. I can't say I'm 100% sure because I didn't turn on my happy drives for ages. But IIRC, no, it also happens when the drive was off for a long time. I'm also not sure that RAM not completely cleared could be an issue here. For the computer it could be a problem because it distinguishes between warm and cold reset. It then checks for certain RAM values at reset and if the ram wasn't completely cleared, it could be mislead in thinking it is a warm start. But I don't think the Happy firmware has anything similar ... ... The Happy firmware does check at reset for something that seems to be a custom debug module. But doesn't look like it could be the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 Thanks for the info, not looked at it for a few days as I was concentrating on building a Centronics Printer interface for my WW 72000 SIO to Centronics cable. Got that working now, so hopfully I'll have another look tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) I'm pretty sure from memory that my Lazer drive (Happy Clone) did the same thing on the odd occasion.. Its no help but confirms that its a known glitch across the 1050 Happy and Clone range.. Edited February 16, 2019 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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