** Q&A pages / 1890 words ** Sick as a parrot! You made me sick! I am sorry, but instead of the usual boot licking, you rightfully deserve, I must say your article on the last number from Dr Steve's house of upgrade horrors made me puke! I knew about the STe's problems with the DMA chip and SCSI connections, but, Dr Steve, you made me open my machine again and cry like a PC user when I saw the bloody CO25613-38 chip stuck on my motherboard. Where did you find another chip - one that works that is? I now have a new baby - a Falcon, at last, a Falcon, and now I am crying again, sniff, sniff! ** Italics on ** Ricardo Madeira, Loures, Portugal **Italics off ** ** A ** The only acceptable DMA chip number is C398739-001A. These are usually soldered in place underneath the floppy disk. Unless you know what you're doing this isn't a DIY repair. The solder quality on ST's is good and using inferior tools and excessive heat will trash the motherboard. We (FDC) retail the IC at £35.00 plus £5.00 for a socket and a £15.00 charge to fit it. Courier delivery from Portugal isn't a practical proposition so unless Ricardo fancies a holiday in the UK I he'd be better off to get it fitted locally. ** Italics on ** Scott Forshaw, FDC ** Italics off ** ** BC on ** FDC, Computer & Electronics Engineers 99 Cottam Street, Oldham, Lancashire, OL1 2NT Tel/Fax: +44(0)161 620 4490 Email: fdc@cix.co.uk URL: http://www.cix.co.uk/~fdc/html/atari.htm ** BC off ** --- File copying ** Q ** I copied a 331Kb file from drive A: to a SyQuest EZ135 using the TOS 1.62 desktop via Drag&Drop, the copy dialog appeared and the file was copied with no error messages (or sense errors from the ICD driver) but the destination file was only 1024 bytes long! I perform this operation all the time and have never encountered this before, a second try produced the same result. Are the filecopy routines broken? ** Italics on ** John Stean, via CIX ataricomputing conference ** Italics off ** ** A ** TOS versions prior to TOS 2.06/3.06 do not always correctly recognise floppy disk changes. This could result in TOS using the file allocation table (FAT) of the previously loaded disk to copy a file onto the current disk - which almost certainly corrupts the current disk. I'm not sure if this is an unrelated problem but I'd imagine it could affect all removable media. ** Italics on ** Jeremy Hughes, via CIX ** Italics off ** --- Epson Stylus <> That's Write 3 ** TW3.GIF here ** ** Q ** I recently bought an Epson Stylus Color 400 printer, which I was told was compatible with an STe running NVDI 4 and That's Write 3. However, even though there is a TW3 printer driver called Epson Stylus it just doesn't work! System Solutions told me to use the NVDI 4 driver but I can't get at that from the print instruction in TW3. Am I missing something obvious? I saw in an old magazine COMPO were offering a disk which solved this problem but since they are no longer in business I don't suppose there's any way to get hold of this? The other advice I have been given is to buy Papyrus but I really have no confidence in buying another software item which may end up giving me other problems. This disappointment is the nearest I have got to scrapping all my Atari kit and visiting my local PC World! An over-reaction maybe but unless someone at Atari Computing can help me out of this deep depression... ** Italics on ** D.G. Gilberg, Enfield ** Italics off ** --- Give me the Fax ** STFAX.GIF here ** ** Q ** Can anyone tell me if STraight Fax is any good, does it have any shortcomings, need all sorts of extras to work, is it still supported and is it worth the money? James, via CIX ** A ** STraight Fax works fine an my elderly 4Mb Mega ST/Supra Fax modem combination. I have been using it to send out press releases and the software deals efficiently with managing lists of recipients. Faxes can be sent immediately or scheduled for later. There are a couple of minor irritations. First, it's not possible to mix normal/fine resolution faxes in the same transmission and second the cover page allows an image at the top of the page but not at the bottom - which would be useful for signatures. On the plus side there's a useful facility to embed image filenames in ASCII text so you can do this yourself, something like this: ** NP on ** #INCLUDE=D:\FAX\INTRO.J01 Body text goes here Blah, blah blah... Regards #INCLUDE=D:\FAX\SIG.J01 ** NP off ** The J?? file extender is STFax's proprietary image format. I use GemView rather than the built-n routines to do this. ** Italics on ** Roger Derry, via CIX ** Italics off ** ** A ** I think STraight Fax is expensive but it is reliable and easy to use, so I would recommend a second-hand purchase. ** Italics on ** David Stevenson, via CIX ** Italics off ** ** A ** Straight Fax works completely problem free for me and it does get updated. What more can you say? It's not cheap, but I think you get what you pay for. ** Italics on ** Roy Ardent, via CIX ** Italics off ** ** A ** A few people have reported problems using STraight FAX driver with Papyrus. I use it regularly without problems however you must enter 0 in the margin settings in the driver setup within Papyrus. ** Italics on ** Rob Perry, via CIX ** Italics off ** --- Classic gaming ** MISCOM.GIF here ** ** Q ** Can anyone at Atari Computing help me track down Atari ST versions of these classic original Atari games: Space Invaders, Arcadians and Defender (AKA Guardian). Any help gratefully received... ** Italics on ** Mark Rush, Dumfries ** Italics off ** ** A ** These were actually Classic 2600 cartridge games (and still are) Phwow... invisible invaders! However there are original style versions including a Space Invaders by Sinister Developments, and Taito's Super Space Invaders. I can remember Arcadians on the 5200/7800 but not on the ST... ** Italics on ** Colin Monro, CIX ataricomputing conference ** Italics off ** If you're looking for classic Atari arcade action the original versions of Missle Command, Tempest, Centipede, Asteroids and BattleZone are all available from Microsoft - as part of an Arcade action series available for the Mac and PC platforms. It's not often you'll see Microsoft and Atari in the same dialog box! ** Italics on ** Joe Connor ** Italics off ** --- ** Q ** Papyrus colour output I can't seem to get professional quality colour output out of Papyrus and the dithering isn't nearly as good as Imagecopy. I've never managed to get the NVDI Stylus driver to work in colour, and Papyrus v4's image file output is monochrome only. ** Italics on ** Ollie Broadway, via CIX ** Italics off ** ** A ** You can print successfully from papyrus using NVDI. Not only can you get 720dpi in colour (1440dpi in NVDI v5 - coming soon), but the output is calibrated and error-diffused dithered to give output almost as good as Imagecopy. The rules to follow when printing via NVDI v4 are: ** BL ** * Make sure NVDI.INF has the SPOOLPATH set to a partition with up to 60Mb of free space. The actual space required depends on the page you output but 60Mb is about right for 720dpi on DIN A4. * Select TrueColor in the NVDI DRIVERS.CPX. * Make sure Papyrus compatibility is set to MEMORY.SYS. ** end list ** ** Italics on ** Rob Perry ** Italics off ** --- SCSI Masterclass ** EGALECHK.GIF here ** ** R ** When using Tree Check from Kobold to ensure all files have copied properly from one partition to another, make sure you select the original partition as the destination path - not the source path. The protocol log does not show files which are present in the source but not in the copy, only the other way round. I prefer to use the equivalent facility in égale, because this notes separately any files present on one partition but not the other. I also find it more reliable - the Kobold utility shows some files as different even though comparison in égale shows the files are identical. ** Italics on ** Peter West, via email ** Italics off ** --- LAN networking ** Q ** I have two Lantech systems LT101 cartridges for my Atari STe and Falcon. From the documentation it seems they are 10Mb/sec LAN cartridges. I want to know if they are NE2000 compatible and if anyone is aware of any software for then as they are useless to me at present. The cartridges each have BNC connectors - like thin ethernet cables. Any help would be greatly appreciated... ** Italics on ** Richard Mckeown, New Zealand, via email ** Italics off ** ** A ** Our commercial Universal NETwork software supports the LANtech system LT101 cartridges with a transparent multitasking software networking system. The software has been continually supported and updated since 1991. The Lantech cartridges can throughput a file at around 26K per second which is reasonably fast. Our software also allows individual file copy tasking in the background while you continue working in the foreground. You can make your own cable with RU59 cable and a BNC connector on each end to connect two computers. The software costs $69 per node - obviously you need at least 2 nodes. The software works well and has been successful in more than 350 installations around the world, networking more than 1000 Atari computers! ** Italics on ** Rod MacDonald, A&D Software ** Italics off ** ** BC on ** A&D Software, 909 NW Starlite Place, Grants Pass, OR 97526, USA Telephone/Fax: +1(541)476 0071 Email: stinformer@chatlink.com URL: www.chatlink.com/~stinformer ** BC off ** --- ** boxout - use this ** AC#5 glitches There were some factual errors in AC#5 we'd like to clarify: ** BL ** * In Mark Wherry's System extensions article on p18 we stated BubbleGEM was MagiC only. Thanks to several people for pointing out it works just fine under all multitasking operating systems, MagiC, Geneva, MultiTOS, and N.AES. BubbleGEM also works under single TOS - so long as it's renamed and installed as a desktop accessory! * In the Crown of Creation review we stated in the product boxout the on-screen text was German - yet you can clearly read English text in the screenshots - whoops! * Martyn Tidd's AtariPhile Multitasking article on p50 states there are three multitasking systems to choose between - there are four including N.AES. ** End BL ** ** end boxout ** --- ** boxout ** Hmmn, CD-ROM hassle? I had a problem trying to access my CD-ROM using NeoDesk v3.3, every time I tried to access it NeoDesk gave me a "Data may be damaged" message, after selecting the "Hmn" button a window would open showing the contents of the CD and the same thing happened every time I tried to access a new folder on the CD. I finally traced the problem to NeoDesk, it appears if you leave the "Check for executable bootsector" option in the Set preferences menu on it gives rise to the problem I've described, turn it off and no more hassle. ** Italics on ** Dave Hollis ** Italics off ** ** end boxout ** --- ** boxout ** Hold your tongue! Atari enthusiasts never say: ** BL on ** * Let me help your with those AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. * After working all day on an Atari I can't wait to get home and play on my PC. * It only took me two days to install my operating system! * I miss the good old command line, this desktop is far too tricky to use. * Instead of going on holiday we put the money towards upgrading our system. ** BL off ** ** end boxout **