========================================================================= (C) 1993 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 30 Fri Dec 13, 1991 C.F.JOHNSON [CodeHead] at 15:15 EST Sub: The TOS 2.06 Extension Card This topic is for discussion of CodeHead's TEC, the TOS Extension Card. This inexpensive device lets you use the very latest TOS in your existing 520ST, 1040ST, or Mega ST! 200 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 1 Fri Feb 14, 1992 C.F.JOHNSON [CodeHead] at 14:34 EST For immediate release CodeHeadQuarters Friday, February 14, 1992 ------------------------- THE LATEST NEWS FROM CODEHEAD TECHNOLOGIES ------------------------------------------ TOS EXTENSION CARD RELEASED! CodeHead Technologies is pleased to announce that the TOS Extension Card is now shipping. The TEC lets you install the very latest Atari TOS (2.06) in your 520ST, 1040ST, Mega ST, or Stacy. TOS 2.06 has many major improvements over older versions of TOS, including a totally redesigned GEM desktop with custom icons, redefinable keyboard commands, and many other new features and performance improvements. The new desktop contains most of the features of the popular "alternative desktop" programs (and a few new ones too!), but with TWO big advantages -- it doesn't gobble up large chunks of memory, and it doesn't need to load from disk. Just turn on your computer and you're ready to go! NOW INCLUDED WITH THE TEC -- ICON JUGGLER! To make it easier for you to build a library of custom icons to use with TOS 2.06, we've developed a new program called "Icon Juggler," which is included with the TEC. Icon Juggler lets you freely convert icons from ALL the current ST icon formats, including ICE, RSC, ICN, and NIC. Icon Juggler's interface is completely GEM-based; it's like a word processor for icons, with cut, copy, and paste features that make converting your icons a breeze. SPECIAL OFFER FOR USERS OF ALTERNATIVE DESKTOP PROGRAMS -- $20.00 OFF! With the release of the TEC, we're also offering a special deal for those who've been using one of the "alternative desktop" programs available on the commercial market. Take your Neodesk or DC Desktop master disk, FORMAT IT, and send it to us, and we'll give you a $20.00 discount on any model of the TEC! (Please note that you must FORMAT the disk before sending it to us.) Here are the prices for the TEC, with and without the discount: Model Retail Price Price w/ Discount ---------------- ------------ ----------------- Standard version $139.00 $119.00 BUS Bridge $155.00 $135.00 CPU Bridge $155.00 $135.00 A brief description of the different TEC models: o The standard version requires soldering, and is for owners of 520STs, 1040STs, and Stacys which do not have a socketed CPU. o The BUS Bridge version, which plugs into the processor bus of the Mega ST, and requires no soldering. o The CPU Bridge version, for computers which have socketed 68000 chips. This option plugs into the CPU socket, and requires that there be enough room above the CPU within the case. All versions of the TEC include the official Atari TOS 2.06 chips. The TEC also has an easily installed option that lets you switch between TOS 2.06 and your existing TOS, to circumvent incompatibilities with ill-behaved programs. TOS 2.06 FOR STE OWNERS CodeHead Technologies will also be offering the TOS 2.06 chips separately, as an upgrade for STE owners. When you purchase the chips from us, you will also receive our manual describing the features of the new TOS, and our disk containing the Icon Juggler and other useful utilities. The price for the chips alone is $60.00. (Note: this press release is being prepared slightly in advance of the actual shipping date; the TEC packages will begin going out the door on February 18, 1992.) For more information, or to order your TOS Extension Card, contact: CodeHead Software P.O. Box 74090 Los Angeles, CA 90004 Tel 213-386-5735 Fax 213-386-5789 ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 2 Mon Jun 01, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 07:29 EDT Just a little thing I noticed, when doing a 'Show Information' about some files, when the curser is on the last character in the file name, hit the right mouse button, it jumps to the left by one character. It then stops there no matter how many times you hit the right button. Also has anybody noticed a problem with Hotsaver, when I put the new TOS in it seems like Hotsaver is not doing its thing... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 3 Mon Jun 01, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 20:02 EDT Believe it or not.. This is an example of something VERY interesting. Dave Stagus is the author of NeoChrome and did substantial work on the VDI over the years. That phrase is in the VDI and is actually CODE! Believe it or not, Dave wrote code that produced that series of characters when compiled. Pretty weird, eh? I think we have left it in because it doesn't take up very much room and we haven't been pressed for space recently. I have been told that if we needed the space, that would be one of the things to hit the road. I have campaigned to Leonard that we put a digitized picture of the TOS Development Group in the ROMs, but he has this bizarre idea that we should put useful things in ROMs. Go figure! -- John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 4 Tue Jun 02, 1992 S.SANDERS2 [SDS] at 00:22 EDT John, Does the code actually do anything that contributed to the VDI or is it just jumped over???? Just curious :). By the way, I don't care what extra stuff they put on the chip as long as it can't talk back to me. -Scott @ SDS ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 5 Tue Jun 02, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 04:12 EDT J. Fischer7, I am not aware of "the flaky PAL chips on the Megas". If there were such a thing and I became aware of it, I'd have made sure to let you know before you ordered a TEC. Most problems of your type are solved by assuring that all connections are solid and all chips are well seated. Have you checked this? Have you thought about calling our tech support line for help? If your problem is really temperature related, maybe you should try cooling down and calling us. We're here to help. Jeff, When you have HotWire installed and press the right mouse button, it simulates the pressing of the F10 key. You'll notice that any of the function keys have the same effect (cursor jumps one character to the left). I don't know exactly what causes this, but it happens without HotWire also. HotSaver works fine under TOS 2.06. What seems to be your problem with it. Scott, The "Dave StaUgus loves Bea Hablig" code is do-nothing code that is never executed. It just happens to be code that can be compiled into that message. One of the branches even jumps to an odd address in the middle of an instruction. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 6 Tue Jun 02, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 12:28 EDT Flaky? Crashing? Mine works great, though it's a CPU bridge model in an AdSpeed modified 4 meg Mega-2. What PAL chip problem are you referring to? I haven't heard of this yet. ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 7 Tue Jun 02, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 13:38 EDT The Jim is Jim Eisenstein. Jim was the guy who handled the VDI in the early days and also had LOTS to do with the BLiTTER as well. He quit Atari about 3 years ago.. -- John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 9 Wed Jun 03, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 04:25 EDT John E., Jim F., Todd, Mr. Fischer is probably refering to a comment I made while trying to help Jim with his troubles. I told Jim that there are problems with some Mega 2's out there with a couple of borderline chips that I may have mistakenly called PALs. I ran into the information while doing a RAM upgrade in a Mega 2 and again during the PC Ditto II era. I mentioned this to Jim because the subject always comes up during discussions of modifications. As far as I know, and I _should_ know (almost all TEC tech support in the US goes through me) there have been no known problems involving the TEC and these chips. Jim's troubles sounded like nothing we had encountered so far. Knowing that the TEC is only part of a system I suggested that the modification could have resulted in a situation where the ST hardware was pushed beyond it's specifications. This was based in no way on any knowledge of a problem with the TEC. I'm searching through 3 years of text files looking for the information as I type this. I use a separate machine for GEnie just so I can run CodeHead stuff while I read the messages here at home. I'm halfway through a 1 1/2 meg pile of files. (Jim Allen, if you're reading this, I know you know what I'm talking about... HELP!) Ah, wait. Here it is. The chips I was talking about are labeled: SN74LS373N. There are two of these and I have seen mention of them in several topics involving modifications to STs. I have no idea whether they play any role in this situation. Many variables are involved. My intention was to bring up possibilities. As I recall, the recommendation was: "Send back the TEC for testing, meanwhile have your dealer run a diagnostic evaluation of the ST itself." Seems fair to me. Sheesh. ===Tomas=== ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 10 Wed Jun 03, 1992 D.LIVINGST11 [Big Earnest] at 04:35 EDT I don't think the Dave Staugas text in the ROM is code. Not unless you can bsr.s $fd0313. You can't execute instructions at odd addresses. If you slide it down a byte so it branches to even addresses, it looks even worse. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 11 Wed Jun 03, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 06:26 EDT Tomas, Those chips also give problems when a Spectre GCR is used on some Megas. Check with GBS for more detailed (probably more detail than you WANT) information. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 12 Thu Jun 04, 1992 SCHERZO [JOHN] at 01:25 EDT Tomas: I have one of those chips in my Mega, and I've had no problems at all with my TEC. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 13 Sat Jun 06, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 04:18 EDT John, My problem with Hotsaver is that it is not blanking the screen and I noticed that this started happening after I put TOS 2.06 in my machine. Nothing else has changed since then. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ P.S. I am slowely checking to see if it is a ACC I have loaded... P.P.S. After playing around with it for a few days, it seems that Hotsaver does not activate anytime after the MultiDesk buffer size is changed. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 14 Sat Jun 06, 1992 J.JOHNSON125 at 05:44 EDT Hi. Thanks for the info. How much are the chips, incl. shipping? I have a STE with the 32 pin sockets already there. As soon as I find out, I'll put a money order in the mail. Thanx. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 15 Sat Jun 06, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 07:26 EDT Just wondering if there was any way to install Desk Accessories on the desktop and be able to run them like you can with programs... Maybe in conjunction with MDD. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 16 Sat Jun 06, 1992 SM [Music<>MIDI] at 10:16 EDT Hotwire's jes' fine on my machine -- TOS 2.06 here. I've managed to somehow get it to just blank out, however, rather than having the animated icon bouncing around. Which is actually sort of fine, because the screen blanks during telecommunications/fax work. >>>>>Steve ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 17 Sat Jun 06, 1992 CODEHEAD [Charles] at 11:15 EDT Jeff, Please read pages 34 and 35 of the MultiDesk Deluxe manual. - Charles @ CodeHead Tech Saturday, June 6, 1992 8:11 am ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 18 Sat Jun 06, 1992 SM [Music<>MIDI] at 11:32 EDT That's HotSAVER, egads. It's been an insomniac week, what can I say? >>>>>>Steve ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 20 Sat Jun 06, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 14:38 EDT Jeff, What version of HotSaver are you using? I believe an earlier version might have had a problem with reinstalling after a MultiDesk "Clear All" operation (which happens when you resize the buffer). J. Johnson125 (lots of you guys, aren't there?), TOS 2.06 costs $60 plus $3 shipping and handling. Thanks for your interest. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 22 Sat Jun 06, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 19:23 EDT John, I am using HotSaver V1.6, got it off the latest upgrades that you sent me around a month ago. I will re-install it off the disks. Thanks for answering the MDD question, shows I don't always read the manuals. Thanks. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 23 Sat Jun 06, 1992 SM [Music<>MIDI] at 20:08 EDT I feel sorry for the Smiths with tags in the thousands. Kene -- getting some sleep is nice when it happens. It really is insomnia, not obsession, keeping me awake and watching the candle factory burn down. It's okay to a point, but then the mind turns to mush and films like BARBARIAN QUEEN II start looking good. >>>>>Steve ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 24 Sat Jun 06, 1992 D.FLORY [ALERTsys*Cop] at 23:03 EDT CodeHeads, just got my TEC/TOS 2.06 manual in the mail today. As I expected, you produced a nice manual. Wish Atari's were all as good. Hope Calligraphers is too. Happy bytes, Dave Flory, ALERTsys*Cop 19:40 PDT - 06/06/92 ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 25 Wed Jun 17, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 12:13 EDT Regarding the use of Icon Juggler to create a new DESKICON.RSC file. Am I correct that if I change one of the icons, let's say I remove one from the 50 that I've got in the DESKICON.RSC file, and everything changes order therefore, then I'm going to see different icons than I had planned on the desktop. In other words, I'm noticing that it is the numerical placement in the DESKICON.RSC file that tells the desktop which icon to put on the desktop when I boot up. I saw this when I tried moving one of my commonly used icon (for the hard disk partitions) to be first rather than 30 (figuring it would be easier to scroll to find it again). But when I rebooted, all the other icons had changed on the desktop. Any workaround on this? Am I understanding how Iconjuggler works in this regard? Also, I boot up using CodeRam from my M ram disk. I'm also noticing that DESKICON.RSC has to be in the C partition -- it won't be read from the M boot up ram disk. Conversely, my NEWDESK.INF file needs to be in M in order to be read; it doesn't seem to make a difference if it's in C. But I keep a copy in C anyway, because that's where TOS 2.06 seems to write to when I do a new SAVE DESKTOP command -- then I have to copy the new NEWDESK.INF file over onto M and save that as a new .CCP file. Am I understanding this process correctly too, or maybe I'm missing something and could be doing all this more efficiently? Please let me know. I'd also like to say that the directions aren't clear to me about how to assign a function key on the desktop to run a program. I'd like to assign F1 for WordPerfect, for example, but can't even get the cursor to move in the Desktop Configuration window. Would someone provide step by step directions about how to assign a function key to run a program. Believe me, this is not intuitive for me. Finally, I notice that sometimes hitting the right mouse button brings up Hotwire and sometimes not. F10 always does. But should the right mouse button be working to do this at all, or what? Thanks again. Sorry for the lengthly list of questions, but I'm uncovering this thing piece by piece! - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Wednesday, June 17, 1992 8:39 am ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 26 Wed Jun 17, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 20:05 EDT Jason, To install a program as a function key, you must highlight on the program, go to install application, where you see the 'F' enter in the function key that you want, I.e. 01 for function key 1. Hitting the right mouse button has always brought up Hotwire for me... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 27 Thu Jun 18, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 02:32 EDT Jason, Yes, inserting or deleting icons in Icon Juggler will change the rest of the assignments. This will act correctly on the full-blown Icon Juggler/Editor, if I ever get time to finish it. The trick with bringing up HotWire with the right mouse button is to tap the button for less than 1/3 second. This has been the case since v1.2. As Jeff said, funtion keys are _assigned_ from the install application box. They can only be _viewed_ from the Desktop Configuration box. Although this has confused numerous users who have called us, it _is_ documented on pages 28 & 30 of the manual. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 28 Thu Jun 18, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 02:57 EDT I learned to hit the right mouse button very quickly in order to bring up Hotwire with TOS 2.06. I was getting too heavy handed before! - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Wednesday, June 17, 1992 11:38 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 29 Thu Jun 18, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 05:42 EDT John, How about bringing some copies of Icon Juggler (TOS Utilities disk) to the BRACE show in N.C. Thanks. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 30 Sat Jun 20, 1992 K.HOUSER [Kevin MQ Def] at 03:41 EDT Could someone GEmail me some info on the N.C. show? I'm from NC but live in Atlanta now. Is it in Asheville? Please email... --Kevin ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 31 Sat Jun 20, 1992 D.A.BRUMLEVE [kidprgs] at 05:38 EDT I'll tell Kevin about Cat 11. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 32 Sat Jun 20, 1992 JEFF.W [ST Sysop] at 09:51 EDT Thank you, Dorothy. For anyone else also interested, information about the BRACE (Blue Ridge) show can be found in Category 11, Topic 7. Some press releases on it can also be found in Software Library #14. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 33 Tue Jun 23, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 00:50 EDT I had assumed that if I re-did my DESKICON.RSC file using Icon Juggler that I would be able to scroll through the icons always beginning with the icon in position 1,2,3, etc. when I use the regular desktop Icon Selector to choose a new icon for my desktop. But I find that the icon that first appears as the first selection is not the first one, but can be any one seemingly at random -- so that I then have to scroll back to the first position in order to choose the icon I want. (I hope this makes sense!). Is there any way around this or just something to live with? OK, here's something else I'm noticing about 2.06 -- when I install Wordperfect as an "install application" and give it a * when it asks me what document type, I notice that the F10 key no longer brings up Hotwire. Instead, it runs WordPerfect. This does not occur when I'm more specific about the doc type (ie: DOC). But I use a lot of weird endings on my file names in WP so that's why I like to use the * if possible. Any workaround on this (other than only using the right mouse button to call up Hotwire?) By the way, I discovered two cute ways to keep track of which of my programs is assigned to which Function key when I'm playing around on the regular desktop: I insert the function key number in the name of the icon program (ie: WordPerf F1) so it then shows up on the desktop for quick reference. Another way I'm trying is to line the program icons up from top to bottom or from right to left across the screen in the same order that the function keys are designated. - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Monday, June 22, 1992 9:24 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 34 Wed Jun 24, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 03:58 EDT Jason, When you are changing an icon that exists on the screen, TOS 2.06 starts at the current icon assignment whereever it is in the RSC file. When you are doing a new icon does it start at the beginning. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 35 Wed Jun 24, 1992 D.A.BRUMLEVE [kidprgs] at 10:33 EDT I ought to put in my two cents on the TEC board. I gave one to my husband as a late Christmas gift. I urged him to install it with a switch so that if anything crucial didn't work on it, he could always revert back to his Mega ROMs. During the installation, he grew impatient and decided not to bother with a switch. And so, for the next several days, I had to listen to him growl as he discovered those programs that didn't work any longer. :-( In most cases, a solution was found through upgrading. He is now simply thrilled with 2.06! He loves the 2.06 desktop and added features. Virtually everything he used before works (though sometimes we've upgraded to achieve this) and he's found replacements for the things that don't. The TEC went in (into his Mega2) easily, without a hitch. Thanks! ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 36 Wed Jun 24, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 12:37 EDT My TEC installation went very smoothly too. Piece of cake. And I really enjoy TOS 2.06 (except for those infernal boot-up delays!) Installing the TOS switch was another story entirely. I enlisted the aid of an (Atari using) electronics technician friend to help out. The instructions and the wiring diagram are EXTREMELY hard to follow for such a simple modification. My friend spent more time scratching his head and muttering (cursing actually) and referring to his ST schematics than he did connecting the components. We had to guess about some aspects of the reassembly, and found much safer ways of intercepting the appropriate lines and providing power than the documentation offers. To further complicate things, my Mega ST has 3 of its 6 ROM sockets mounted backwards on the motherboard which confused us for a nanosecond or two. This job is NOT for the uninitiated!! Charles and John, You'd be well advised to revamp that chapter in the TEC manual with the aid of an authorised Atari service technician. A wiring diagram (or alternatively a photo) would be better suited to the documentation than the schematic that is currently shown. My new TOS 1.04/2.06 switch and my new AdSpeed 8/16 mhz switch peeking out of the front of my computer add a whole new meaning to the term "double clicking". :-) ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 37 Wed Jun 24, 1992 D.A.BRUMLEVE [kidprgs] at 15:16 EDT Todd, I think Tim was up to the switch-installation job (he is a tech), but he could see it was going to take time, and he was very excited about seeing the finished product. I do feel it would have been time well spent. As {it is, he's *loving* 2.06 and doesn't need to switch back, but I know I'd want to use 1.2 now and then. The switch really is a good way to go for folks who own lots of older titles. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 38 Wed Jun 24, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 16:25 EDT Thanks for the report, Dorothy. Now if I can only find time to finish MIDI Spy so Tim can receive the other part of that Christmas gift.... Well, maybe it'll be ready for Christmas '92. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 39 Wed Jun 24, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 18:06 EDT Dorothy, The switching option can be installed at any time. In fact, we recommend that customers install their TEC _without_ the switching option first, to verify that it's working. After that it's a simple (?) job to add the switching option. Todd, Perhaps I'm too close to the switching instructions to see the difficulty. The original instructions in the German manual were _very_ skimpy and confusing. I took them and added many tips and step-by-step instructions. To me, the instructions are now followable. I've used them to install the switching option on two machines myself. (There was one error in the first manual printing, where the word "socket" should be "header"). It's true that by simply looking at the schematic, it's not easy to install. Some of this was intentional. We don't want every would-be installer to try the switching option unless he knows how to read a schematic diagram. Otherwise the tech support calls become a nightmare. I'm not saying you're wrong. We've had other comments from people that say the instructions are difficult (and also comments from those who thought it was a breeze). We thought about including a picture of the installation, but it varies so much from machine to machine that that might be even more confusing. If you've got any specific suggestions about exact wording or ommissions of essential instructions, I'd really like to hear about it (in E-Mail to save the readers from the techno-jargon). Anyway, I'm sorry you had trouble, but I'm glad it's working for you now. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 40 Wed Jun 24, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 19:56 EDT I held off on doing my switch to see if I would need it. The only things I have problems running are games which I really don't play anyhow (the ones that I really like run under the new TOS). So it looks like the switch will not get installed... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 41 Wed Jun 24, 1992 R.GLOVER3 [Rob] at 22:48 EDT John: I still wish you'd consider using a better diagram in the manual -- something like the one you sent me in Email. There are quite a few people out there that, while not electronically proficient, are competent with a soldering iron. (Like me) :) The switch really isn't hard to install, it just takes a little time and patience. Word of advice to all: Use the smallest guage wire you can find! I used something about the size of normal stereo speaker wire (for cars), and it was a handful! Rob ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 42 Wed Jun 24, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:46 EDT Jason, That's an excellent idea, naming the icons with the fkey assignments. Al ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 43 Thu Jun 25, 1992 M.GATES4 [Steve&Mindy] at 00:32 EDT I've been back and forth with this... I have a Stacy 1/20 that I either have to sell or upgrade. I've tried to get costs for a)4megRam, b)2.06, then (less important to me) a larger HD and acceleration. A couple of months ago, here, I saw reports that 2.06 went nicely into the stacy. Bob Brodie suggested that I speak with the Computer Network shop in L.A. for the upgrades. While the C.Net. has a great rep and good priving for the 1 to 4meg upgrade, they say 2.06 cannot be done to Stacy, and is not useful anyway. Please advise? Please reply email to M.GATES4 Many Thanks Steve Johnson ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 44 Thu Jun 25, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 13:27 EDT Steve Johnson, First of all, we must apologize for the fact that some of our literature for the TEC says that it can be installed in a Stacy. We are still looking into ways to do a Stacy installation without "hacking". There are a couple of hardware-type customers who have successfully installed the TEC in a Stacy, but they've used rather impractical methods. Artifex has just come up with a new design for the bridge versions of the TEC that make installation even easier than before (especially for the switching option :^). It's possible that one of these versions will pop directly into the Stacy (once the CPU has been socketed ). We haven't given up yet, and will keep you informed if we make any progress. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 45 Fri Jun 26, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 02:32 EDT John, I'll get together with my tech friend (I owe him dinner now) and we'll go over his changes and e-mail them to you. They are small but significant. I'll re-read the instructions and see what it was that caused me to shy away from the job (and Ken to go "what the ..?") Dorothy, I too am enjoying TOS 2.06 and the TEC board. Everyone should have one. ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 46 Fri Jun 26, 1992 LYRE at 18:51 EDT All, Well, to add my two cents, I _do_ have the TEC board and I've come to love it. It's made things faster and much easier to deal with at the desktop level. Lyre ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 47 Fri Jun 26, 1992 J.PATTERSON3 [Ted] at 22:41 EDT John or Charles, I have a standard version TEC board sitting around that I haven't installed because of the warning that came with it that it can't be used with an Adspeed. However the dealer I bought it from said it could be installed with an Adspeed. What's the straight poop? _____ /ed ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 48 Sat Jun 27, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 02:12 EDT Ted, Call us at the office and we'll make arrangements to convert your TEC to the CPU version for a nominal fee. There are no incompatibilities with the Adspeed. ===Tomas=== June 26, 1992 @ 22:27:49 pm PDT ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 49 Sat Jun 27, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 03:01 EDT Ted, I'm sorry you missed our announcement cancelling the warning. The TEC does work with the AdSpeed accelerator. Go ahead and pop it in. If by some chance you do have problems with it, try rerouting your ribbon cables away from the AdSpeed. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 50 Sat Jun 27, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 03:04 EDT Ted, I'm using an AdSpeed with a TEC board and it works GREAT! Install that sucker! ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 51 Sun Jun 28, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 02:21 EDT Caution TED, You said you have the _standard_ TEC. You need that CPU connector. ===Tomas=== June 27, 1992 @ 22:53:44 pm PDT ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 52 Sun Jun 28, 1992 J.PATTERSON3 [Ted] at 19:21 EDT Yes, it is the _standard_ TEC. That means I can't do the solder installation, but MUST use the cpu connector? _____ /ed ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 53 Mon Jun 29, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 03:46 EDT Ted, Well... No. But it's not going to be easy!! DO NOT try to attach the wires to the 68000 aboard the AdSpeed. The point is that the TEC must connect _BELOW_ the AdSpeed board. We can upgrade your card for $16.00 plus $3.00 S/H. That's less than twenty bucks for the luxury of plug-in installation. Note that CPU installation in 520/1040ST's of the type pictured on page 8 of the TEC manual (68000 parallel to the floppy drive) requires removing two floppy support posts or (wince) severe alteration of the CPU connector. ===Tomas=== June 29, 1992 @ 0:33:46 am PDT ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 54 Mon Jun 29, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 11:21 EDT Ted, It's possible to solder a standard TEC on a machine with an AdSpeed, but very difficult and impractical. You'd have to make sure to solder the wires _below_ the AdSpeed board. I have no suggestions on how to do this. My suggestion is to use the CPU bridge. That's what it's for. You can get the CPU bridge from us for the difference in price, $16. You can either send the board back and we'll clamp it on, or we'll send you the bridge and you can clamp it on. Then you'll be able to simply plug it in with no soldering. BTW, what type of machine do you have? John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 55 Wed Jul 01, 1992 J.SAFFER [JASON SAFFER] at 02:21 EDT OK, how's this for a weird question: if I've got the switch option installed on my Mega 4 (to switch between 1.2 and 2.06), what would happen if, while the computer is up and running, I just flipped that switch? (Not that I'm thinking of doing this, mind you, but the question keeps popping into my head). Would the whole computer self-destruct, or what? - Jason Saffer Hercules, California Tuesday, June 30, 1992 2:08 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 56 Wed Jul 01, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 05:59 EDT Jason, It is unlikely that any harm would come to the hardware from such an 'on the fly TOS switch', but you can bet the rent that it would be a disaster to any running software. Like bombs, BIG TIME. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 57 Wed Jul 01, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 17:17 EDT Jason, Yes, as Ron mentioned, you'd bomb out. Routines in the ROM are at different locations so return addresses will bring the execution of the processor into the middle of nowhere. The results are either lockups or bombs. For best results, one should hold in the reset button, flip the switch, and let go. The other TOS will boot up. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 58 Sat Jul 04, 1992 M.GATES4 [Steve&Mindy] at 20:20 EDT Thanks for the reply re: Stacy installations. The reference to a socketed CPU went over my head... could you explain? Steve Johnson ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 59 Sat Jul 04, 1992 J.PATTERSON3 [Ted] at 22:59 EDT Tomas & John Sorry to take so long getting back to you. You have convinced me that trying to solder in the standard TEC with an ADspeed is not the smart thing to do. Now the question is, since I have a Mega4 should I get the bridge or the bus version from you? Thanks, _____ /ed /s ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 60 Sun Jul 05, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 13:52 EDT To: J.Wisniewsk2 I Tryed HotSaver 1.6, Its A Nice Screen Saver Until You Run A BBS And Then If A User Is Uploading Or Downloading For Some Reason the Screen Go Black The Send/Rec Is Cut Down To the Point The User gets Aborted (Using Express ST). To: J.Johnson125 That $60 & 3 For S&H Thats For The 1040STE Also Or Are All The 2.06 Upgrades From CodeHead the Same? (I Have No Idea) All I Know 1.60 Sucks And Need to Do Something. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 61 Sun Jul 05, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 14:23 EDT Ted, If you have a socketed CPU, we recommend getting the CPU bridge version. This will leave your Mega Bus connector free for possible future enhancements. (We're also currently out of Bus bridges :^). Steve, Atari CPUs (the CPU is the 68000 chip) are normally soldered to the motherboard. If an accelerator card has been installed, the CPU will normally socketed so the accelerator can be plugged in. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 62 Sun Jul 05, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 14:53 EDT Mark Farmer, Perhaps you didn't read HotSaver's documentation. It has a few options which will avoid the problem you mentioned. If you turn off the animation, you'll have no overhead (for Send/Rec). This feature is tailor-made for this problem. If you're running your BBS from HotWire, you could also have HotSaver automatically disabled when you run your BBS. Any STe machine may be upgraded to TOS 2.06 by simply installing the new chips. John P.S. Why do you capitalize every word? Is this some new fad of which I'm unaware? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 63 Sun Jul 05, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 17:39 EDT To: J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] Well i do use hotwire, maxifile etc.. tested out Hotsaver and ran into that problem but at that time (a year ago i also needed to speed up the mouse) so i just used the atari screen saver and mouse program i think it was version 3. Since i have the wife in a good mood i am trying to figure out what i can do with the money i can get from her and the Tos 2.06 is the first thing i want to get rid of this 1.60. I would also like this 1040 STE (I have 2 Of Them) to Have A 1.4Meg floppy Drive. Since i got the info from you about the 2.06 Is The Current Address for CodeHead Software P.O. Box 74090, Los Angeles, Ca 90004 (Got That From My MaxiFile III Book). I also have QuickST 2.1 and I heard CODEHEAD bought that and call it Warp 9 now. I would also like to upgrade to Warp 9 at the same time if i could. How much is it to upgrade to your Warp 9. The caps, well i got yelled at by some other users so i guess i will quit that, its a habit thats all. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 64 Sun Jul 05, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 20:03 EDT Mark, See topic 31 here for information about Warp 9. Also, please re-read Doug Wheeler's message to you about capitalizing words. There's just no way that his tone could be construed as "yelling". It was an extremely polite message and I agree with him completely. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 65 Sun Jul 05, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 21:31 EDT Mark, There is an option in HotSaver that will make it look at the modem for activity. If it finds some, then it will not activate. It sounds like you have this option disabled. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 66 Sun Jul 05, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 22:34 EDT To: J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] Well about Doug Wheeler, I did not mean yelling that way only in the nicest way :) i know i have that caps problem and im trying to correct it now, its kind of like smoking i guess (i quit 10 years ago) but it is hard since i have been caping the first letter of each word for like 4 years. also thanks for the info on the Warp 9, i guess i missed what i needed i will re-read topic 31. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 67 Mon Jul 06, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 01:50 EDT Mark, You're a good guy for trying to curb your caps habit, but please don't rebound and forget to capitalize words like I. It's an all-text medium here and we need some conformity or we'll lose our marbles. It's such a fine line between genius and insanity. :-) ===Tomas=== July 05, 1992 @ 22:17:12 pm PDT ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 68 Mon Jul 06, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 02:42 EDT Mark, We'll have to see if we can be patient through your period of recovery from your mixed case affliction. Although it makes reading more difficult, it is not as irritating as someone who simply locks his caps key and leaves it there. Capitalizing every word is a major effort and it amazes me that you'd develop such a habit. I thought for sure you had processed your messages to make them appear that way. I guess anything comes naturally after you do it enough. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 69 Mon Jul 06, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 06:37 EDT >Mark, > You're a good guy for trying to curb your caps habit, but please don't >rebound and forget to capitalize words like I. It's an all-text medium here >and we need some conformity or we'll lose our marbles. It's such a fine line >between genius and insanity. :-) >---------- Some of us have already been on here too long. No marbles left, and well into insanity. But using standard rules for capitalization and conventional grammar and spelling, does make it easier to communicate, and reduce misunderstandings (of which there are MORE than enough anyway). --------- John, Major effort, indeed. Especially for me. I learned to type on a manual typewriter, and got used to the ballastic aspects of a shift key, ie, slap shift, quickly hit letter key. That doesn't work on the computer, and I STILL have to try twice to get a capital letter most of the time. Some of us old dogs sure have trouble learning new tricks.. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 70 Mon Jul 06, 1992 J.ROGOZINSK2 [Rogo] at 20:14 EDT A week or so back it was explained here how to by-pass the Auto folder in the C:\ drive and boot from the A:\ drive (Auto folder), something about timing. As it would happen I didn't save that message and a few days later I was playing with my Auto prgs and DAs and kept getting bombs when trying to boot. After hours of trying to reboot holding in different combinations and lengths of time I finally got the machine to by-pass the hard drive Auto folder. Would/could someone PLEASE repost the right method for doing this (also there was something about the light on the hard drive)? I have a Mega4, MegaFile 60 and TOS 2.06. Thanks for any help. I can't seem to remeber what I did and don't want to go though that experence again. -- Joe Rogo ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 71 Mon Jul 06, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 20:48 EDT To: MUSE [Tomas] What am in in grammar school now? besides not typing good i can not spell, please overlook it if i do not dot my I's :) Besides i just sent CodeHead money for my TOS 2.06 maybe my typing will improve, Not To: J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] Grin :) Well to put it short, since i have ran a BBS since AMIS (1983) before i went to Granada (im in the 82nd Airborne Div) i started to CAP the first letter of the words on the screens to make them stand out, also Express Pro also had a option to allow all text sent to you (the reader) all words to have the first letter Caped, it would convert all users who typed "IN ALL CAPS" to "In All Caps" what made it easy on the eyes since the Atari 8-bit would dflt to "CAPS" when booted. and i should know since i had 4-800's (the old version) 1-1200XL 5-130XE computers and a bunch of stuf from ICD (1-Meg mio for my 130megs i had on my BBS, and other junk). ok well thats the story of my CAPS problem it is harder to give up than drugs :) ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 72 Mon Jul 06, 1992 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 21:06 EDT Hi All! I purchased a TEC card for my Mega and a set of TOS 2.06 chips for my 1040STe from Codehead some time ago. I've sold my STe. I sold my TOS 2.06 to a friend who has a 1040STe. His 1040 has the 28 pin 1.06 chips in it. I called Best to get two 32 pin sockets (the holes are in the motherboard) but they don't carry them. Does anyone know where I can get two 32 pin sockets and also what trouble if any I may encounter in installing TOS 2.06 in my friend's 1040 STe? Thanks Jack ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 73 Tue Jul 07, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 01:05 EDT Rogo Try the key to bypass all Auto programs and Accessories. to boot from floppy drive. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 74 Tue Jul 07, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 02:19 EDT Joe, To bypass a hard drive: Make sure to do a cold boot. Wait until the floppy drive light come on and hold down Control/LShift/Alternate (with TOS 2.06 you can hold them down as you press a key to abort the memory check). To avoid holding Control down too long (aborting AUTO folder execution on TOS 2.06), let go of the keys right after the hard drive light flashes, before the floppy disk is checked for AUTO folder programs. Jack, You should be able to get 32-pin sockets at any electronics store, such as a Radio Shack. Besides that the jumpers in the 1040STe need to be set correctly: W102 1-2 W103 2-3 W104 1-2 These jumpers may look like resistors. If so, they are actually just zero-ohm resistors which are easier for robots to manufacture. If they need to be changed, they should just be resoldered correctly (e.g. move the end at pin 1 to pin 3). John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 75 Tue Jul 07, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 03:48 EDT I have gotten good success if I waited till the first time the floppy light comes on and after it goes off, hold the Control key down to bypass the auto folder and the 3 finger salute to boot off of floppy. Radio Shack around here usually has the 32 pin sockets. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 76 Wed Jul 08, 1992 J.ROGOZINSK2 [Rogo] at 20:25 EDT >To bypass a hard drive... John, and everyone else, Thanks for the answers/replies. Off to try them now. Thanks again. -- Joe Rogo -- ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 77 Fri Jul 10, 1992 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 23:02 EDT Me again, I checked at the 3 local Radio Shack stores (2 company owned one private) and none of them had or could get the 32 pin sockets. Go figure? Best doesn't have them either. Any other ideas? Thanks Jack ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 78 Sat Jul 11, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 02:24 EDT Jack, I would go looking for the sockets for you, but the best parts store in the L.A. area got torched during the riots. Kinda brings tears to my eyes. In a pinch, a creative hacker could cut a larger socket down to the number of pins needed to expand an existing 28 pin socket up to the the required 32. Sounds pretty messy, doesn't it? On the other hand, the numbers for Jameco Electronic Components is: 415-592-8097 (technical assistance - customer service) 7AM - 4PM PDT 800-831-4242 (24-Hour Order Hotline) 800-237-6948 (FAX) The catalog I'm looking at has sockets listed but I don't see any 32 pin sockets. It jumps from 28 to 40. Still, it's worth a try. One thing, Jameco requires a minimum purchase for mail-orders. You needed a new multimeter anyway, right? ===Tomas=== July 10, 1992 @ 22:48:59 pm PDT ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 79 Sat Jul 11, 1992 B.STOREY [Bill] at 10:30 EDT Jack, I bought some 32 pin sockets from Best Electronics in San Jose. (Or was it Digi-Key Corp.- 1-800-344-4539?) Bill ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 80 Wed Jul 15, 1992 D.OWENS at 23:24 EDT To Anyone looking for 32 Pin Sockets. Easy Update has them listed in the Catalog they sent me. Low Profile $ .28 10+ $ .23 Machine Screw $ 1.19 10+ $1.09 Phone 1-800-582-4044 Fax 1-800-582-1255 No Minimum Order $5.00 COD Charge. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 81 Tue Jul 21, 1992 P.GRIFFITH2 [PGRIF] at 08:01 EDT I just bought a TEC board(BUS model I think) for my Mega 4. Installation was easy and it appears to work correctly. My problem is that whenever I try to run Spectre GCR 3.0, it takes about 4 minutes to load the Spectre program. It seems to load in spurts, first the Spectre screen, and then finally, the menus. I have tried booting with no DAs, Auto programs, etc. and it doesn't seem to make much difference. The best results are obtained by running the Launch prg. from X-Boot and going directly to Spectre. The other weird thing is that the Mac menus are greyed out in the formatter and duplicate options if I run Spectre from the icon placed on the desktop. If I open the Spectre folder and run it from there, the Mac option is available. Any ideas, suggestions, etc.? I am posting this on the GBS RT also. Thanks. Paul ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 82 Tue Jul 21, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 20:22 EDT Paul, If you've installed applications on your desktop, make sure that you've used "Application" as the "Default Dir.", instead of "Top Window". Otherwise, the Spectre program may not be able to find its files if another window is open when you run it. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 83 Wed Jul 22, 1992 K.HOUSER [Kevin MQ Def] at 02:02 EDT John Eidsvoog, Well, after BRACE I finally fixed my mono monitor (soldered 4 200V caps together to make a 2.2microF one) by replacing C714 and all is well. Anyway, I also dropped in the TEC card, installed WARP9 and popped in a 68010 (marginal improvement in *some* software)!!! Fantastic! The improvement is blowing my hair back as I drive this STf like a RAVING LUNATIC!!!!!!!! Also, the problem with my DrumKitz ACC version running as an MDX under MDD went away when MDD was upped to 3.4a. Go figure? --Kevin PS. The TEC manual should mention removing the posts on the "Type A" 1040's when installing the CPU bridge. I looked at it at 1st and said "What the @#$% ???" But then I just ripped 'em out & said AH HA! ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 84 Wed Jul 22, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 02:06 EDT Paul, Gee, I have a TEC board in my Mega 2 (with 4 megs of ram) and Spectre.prg runs normally. Good luck in tracking this down. ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 85 Wed Jul 22, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 02:24 EDT Can 68010 really make a difference?? Perspiring minds want to know! ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 86 Fri Jul 24, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 18:55 EDT I had something interesting happen to me today. My NEWDESK.INF file was 4187 bytes long, (limit is 4196). When I booted up today, every program that I ran told me that there was not enough memory left in the system. So I decreased the size of the NEWDESK.INF file and did a warm-reset. All the memory programs that I ran told me that I was missing 400K of memory. Had to do a cold-boot to recover all my memory. Enough to scare me a little bit. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 87 Fri Jul 24, 1992 P.GRIFFITH2 [PGRIF] at 23:07 EDT Good news! Upon reinstalling my TEC board, Spectre now works perfectly,as do one or two other programs which were real picky about AUTO folder programs and DAs. I changed nothing in my hardware or software setups since Monday when I changed back to TOS 1.4. I have at times thought wondered if this computer is haunted and I still wonder. I made a list as I changed things and tried things and checked things in order to find any stupid operator errors, but found nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Perhaps the focused mental energies of the folks who responded to my messages cured it.(grin) I think I'll keep it.(TEC board) Thanks to everyone who made a suggestion or a diagnosis. Paul ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 88 Sun Jul 26, 1992 D.SHORR at 14:18 EDT Hi CodeHeads, I read in Jim Allen's Turbo topic this weekend that he had to change the address his boards used to switch speeds because TOS 2.06 also accessed that location. The former address is also the same one used to switch speeds on the ICD AdSpeed board. Have you found any problems between TOS 2.06 and ST's equipped with AdSpeeds(I've got an AdSpeed STe)? I remember reading something about the AdSpeed in this topic. I've run into a number of problems with another recent piece of Atari system software, HDX 5.0. It also uses the same address that ICD does, so some interesting side effects can take place. The driver will bump the board into 16MHz mode and will waste lots of time searching for IDE drives that aren't there. The main HDX program does not work(click on a menu item, nothing happens). It is one of the _very_ few programs that don't work on my machine. I hope Multi-TOS likes AdSpeeds. Dave ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 89 Sun Jul 26, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 14:27 EDT To: CodeHead Could you make a patch for 2.06 TOS? When selecting a Icon it would be nice to have a Scroll Bar so you can go up and down the DeskICON.RSC faster. To select the ICON you want to use. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 90 Mon Jul 27, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 20:22 EDT Mark, Yes, it would be nice to scroll through the icons a little faster. Unfortunately, that's beyond our control. I actually looked into this, though (as a possible part of Captain Hook), and found the spot in the ROMs where it pauses between icons. Here's one spot where a bit of poor programming gets exposed. This routine was originally written for the TT. The programmer wrote a loop that is not timed to a system timer. Instead it just loops through some instructions enough times to feel right on the TT. Unfortunately, this is over 4 times slower on a normal ST. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Tsk... The routine should be timed to a clock such as the 200Hz clock. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 91 Sat Aug 01, 1992 P.REISFELD at 13:06 EDT I'm not sure if this is the correct topic, but I am ugrading to TOS 2.06 in an accellerator product. What versions of Hotwire, codehead utilities, mul multidesk and auto organizer are needed for compatibility? ----Pinky ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 92 Sun Aug 02, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 14:09 EDT Pinky, HotWire 3.0 is required for TOS 2.06 (make sure to use the TT_INST.PRG program as the README file says). All versions of our other software work under TOS 2.06. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 93 Tue Aug 04, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 18:49 EDT Does anybody have any idea what the following line does, and where it came from?. > #Y 03 FF 000 *.GTP@ @ @ I know that I did not put it in my NewDesk.INF file and I have no idea what program did. Any ideas. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 94 Tue Aug 04, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 19:25 EDT To: J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff -ST'er] Well I have: #Y 03 04 000 *.GTP@ @ @ it is part of TOS 2.06 what is it well a .GTP file is "GEM Takes Parameters" allowing parameters to be passed to any desired GEM program in the same way as a TTP program. Info extracted from CodeHeads Tos Extension Card Manual you can see this on the "INSTALL APPLICATION" box. Its just part of the TOS 2.06 save setup. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 95 Tue Aug 04, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 23:12 EDT Mark, I only asked that as I have often looked/modified my NEWDESK.INF file and I have never seen this line before... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 96 Wed Aug 05, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 18:12 EDT "GEM Takes Parameters" (GTP) is a new type of runnable program available from the new desktop. It's no big deal though. HotWire has had that feature for years. It's a matter of simply selecting both "GEM Mode" and "Command Line". John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 97 Wed Aug 05, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 20:34 EDT John, My question was how it got into my NEWDESK.INF file when I did not select any programs with 'GEM Mode' and 'Command Line' both selected. Does anyone know of any programs that would put this in my NEWDESK.INF file?. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 98 Wed Aug 05, 1992 T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 23:45 EDT NEWDESK puts it in the NEWDESK.INF file alonf with all the others. -Tom McComb {11:39 pm} Wednesday, August 5, 1992 ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 99 Fri Aug 07, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 10:58 EDT The GTP type is added by TOS when you save your first NEWDESK.INF file, just as PRG, TTP, TOS, and APP are. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 100 Fri Aug 07, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 19:00 EDT To: J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] Im I correct I thought I seen a message about amonth ago or so saying that in 2.06 the flow control was not fixed in 2.06 TOS? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 101 Fri Aug 07, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 21:42 EDT Mark, Flow control works just fine in TOS 2.06. I use a Supra v32bis Faxmodem on my TOS 2.06 machine with no serial port fixers and it works perfectly at all times. ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 102 Fri Aug 07, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 23:22 EDT Mark, There seems to be some confusion about the flow control in TOS 2.06. Some say it IS fixed, others say it is still broken. I believe the correct answer is that the SOFTWARE is fixed, but the hardware still has a little problem. Namely, instead of using the RTS/CTS capability of the serial port chip, Atari uses a bit in another chip to control RTS/CTS and there is a slight delay between the modem telling the computer to suspend the data stream and the computer actually STOPPING that stream. If that lag is long enough, the modem buffer fills, causing loss of data. Ideally, that lag shouldn't cause trouble, but things are SELDOM ideal in the real world. If your port is locked at 19.2, and you are doing something that might cause interrupts, it is possible for an 8 mhz machine to have enough lag that a few too many bytes will be sent to the modem before the stream is stopped. The larger your RS232 buffer is, and the more things you try to do with the computer (like multi-tasking with MiNT or STalker), the more likely this condition is to cause trouble. I hope this is understandable, and reasonably accurate. If not, I am SURE someone will correct any deficiencies. (They usually DO Grin). ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 103 Fri Aug 07, 1992 J.GNIEWKOWSK [GE-Lamp ST] at 23:25 EDT Here's a question... Has anyone done any real diddlig with their NEWDESK.INF file. All this talk about .GTP files made me think. If you don't have any o these files, could you delete it out of your .INF file to save you the bit of room (especially if you're pushing the 4K limit)? What is the most efficient order for the .INF file, seems that when you change itor add another installed program, it will just tack it onto the end of the file, not with others of its ilk. Does this matter, or has anyone "optimized" their NEWDESK.INF file? John E. Gniewkowski GEnieLamp ST Co-Editor Friday, August 7, 1992 -- 10:53:14 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 104 Sat Aug 08, 1992 J.WISNIEWSK2 [Jeff - ST'er] at 05:41 EDT John, I tried to delete the .GTP to save room, I am currently pushing it at the limit. When you go and save the desktop again, it puts that line back in there. And yes I am playing around with the NEWDESK.INF file all the time trying to see what is the best way to have stuff in there. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 105 Sat Aug 08, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 08:38 EDT You can do like I do if you are unsure that Flow Control is fixed or not. I just keep HS FIX in the auto folder at all times. Even with 2.06. Normally it works great without it but, there have been occasions that I wonder if it is or not. I just put it back in and said the heck with it. If it is needed, fine. If it isn't, then it can't hurt anything. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 106 Sat Aug 08, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 08:59 EDT To: NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] Thanks for the info, what is your Ref for this Flow Control problem? I do have a problem with it only when uploading In Zmodem (I have port locked at 19,200), And if I use Y-Modem it works because of the lag that Y-modem has when sending the CRC check. However it gives me a 200cps rate slower than Zmodem when downloading. If this in fact still a problem why is it a continuing problem? Why is there not a good configureable fix to this problem? Like maybe a ACC to check for activity on the RS232 port if data is flowing to fast slow the data down to the configured rate? seems simple to me (from a user standpoint). Kind of like the Mouse Accelerator? Just some thoughts of mine. Anyone else have anything to Add about the flow control problem? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 107 Sat Aug 08, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 09:15 EDT To: R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] What type of modem do you have? What type of Computer do you have? (Mega STE?) What Is your RS232 port set at thru the control.acc? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 108 Sat Aug 08, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 10:27 EDT Mark, There seems to be a difference of opinion about flow control in TOS 2.06. Charles and I have had no problem with it at all. Others swear they can't get it to work. It's my contention that most problems people are having are based on the small size of the default RS-232 buffer (256 bytes). I think that this is just too small to handle high-speed data transfers; the high water mark leaves too little headroom (64 bytes). At 14400, this could easily fill up (about .045 seconds or less) before a "pause" message can be passed, received, and acted upon over phone lines. It's a simple matter to expand the buffer to 4K or more, but some people insist this shouldn't be necessary. Until someone can show me conclusively that there's still a problem, I will continue transferring in ignorant bliss. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 109 Sat Aug 08, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 10:38 EDT Mark, I have been round and round with the flow control program. I have tried just about ever fix there is, and they are, at best, only partially effective. Best advice I can offer is that if you want to do 19.2, DON'T try to do anything else, keep your RS232 buffer small (under 8 k), and hope for the best. A slightly more expensive option is to get a 16mhz or faster accelerator board as this should minimize the problem. I have had good luck with the current version of SERIAL_FX, but then I have avoided pushing my machine lately. The minimal gain is more than eaten up by just ONE retransmitted block. Current software just isn't ready for the current crop of intelligent modems. Baud rates are configured before a call, which doesn't allow for dynamic configuration to the actual baud rate of the call. Calls on one of the newer modems can range between 56kb and 2400 during the same call, depending on line quality, and the nature of the date being sent. Some radical rethinking of the modem control aspects of terminal software needs to be done, and soon. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 110 Sat Aug 08, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 13:25 EDT To: J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] Or: Who Ever Well I would think you would have less of a problem (If any) if you are using a 14,400 modem since the modem with v.42bis could push out the data as fast as it could get on a 19,200 configured RS232 port. No on the other hand a 9600 baud modem would have a problem since it will be rec data from the rs232 port at 19,200 baud but only can push out slightly higher than 9600 with v.42bis. This then would be pushing more data to the modem than the modem could handle. Thats my thought on it am I totaly messed up here? To: NTACTONE [Ron HUNTER] And how would I go about even configuring the RS232 buffer? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 111 Sat Aug 08, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 13:52 EDT Mega STE with a Supra Faxmodem 14.4K. Baud rate set at 19200. Only problem is uploading with Zmodem. With HS FIX, no problems. Without it, repositioning errors galore. No problems downloading whatsoever. Of course, at 16mhz, the computer can send data pretty fast. That is why I have HS FIX that is a path program especially designed for 16mhz computers. Sorry John and Charles, I will take this to the modem or whatever topic. Just replying to a message here. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 112 Sat Aug 08, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 14:23 EDT Ron, I think you meant the _smaller_ "your RS-232 buffer is...". It's a _small_ buffer size that doesn't allow enough headroom and is more unstable. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 113 Sat Aug 08, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 18:02 EDT To: R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] I do not feel this should be in the modem sig since we are talking about the Atari flow control in the TOS not working correctly, And that is a part of TOS. I have tryed using Zmodem with 2.06 and could not get it to work uploading with the port at 19,200 and using a Hayes 9600 Ultra (A real Hayes). and just tryed the Serial fix version 1.1 thats in the Genie file area and it fixed the problem and i now get a 1093 or so CPS rate and before it would just error out after a block or two. all of the other FIX's never seemed to work untill now. And this is with a 1040STE with 2.06 and 4 megs so it seems to me that the TOS 2.06 never fixed the The flow control to me. I wish we could get Atari to make a Remark or two about this to clear this up! ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 114 Sat Aug 08, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 18:09 EDT There are too many factors involved in flow control to say that because one is having problems, there is a bug in TOS 2.06. It's like saying that because your car won't start, there must be a problem in the carburetor. The factors involved in flow control are the computer hardware and software I/O (including the buffer), the modem and its buffer, the terminal software being used, the phone lines, and a parallel set of factors on the other end of the connection. Flow control can break down at any of these points. If your terminal software is receiving data and cannot empty the ST's RS-232 buffer fast enough, the high-water mark (3/4 full) will be reached. If RTS/CTS is enabled, the RS-232 interrupt routines will toggle the hardware line on the RS-232 port. This will tell your modem to stop sending. The sending modem must also be informed to stop sending and it must tell the computer on its end to stop sending. Meanwhile, bytes are still arriving at high-speed. If your modem's internal buffer can't handle the "slop", you will experience errors. Or maybe the modem doesn't immediately stop sending bytes into the RS-232 port. The ROM I/O routines will continue reading the port and putting the bytes into the I/O buffer. But if your buffer is only 256 bytes (the default size), it won't take long (~.045 seconds) for the buffer to fill up (the high- water mark is only 64 bytes below "full"). Once the buffer is full, the I/O routines will stop reading the RS-232 port and incoming bytes will overwrite each other at the hardware port. Atari should not be blamed for creating such a small RS-232 buffer. After all, not everyone has a modem so why should everyone be forced to waste more memory. A simple "configuration" program can be installed in your AUTO folder to expand the buffer to the size required by your setup, or your terminal program may allow the size to be configured. I'm no hardware or RS-232 expert, but this is the way I understand it. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 115 Sat Aug 08, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 18:25 EDT Mark, I'll say it again. I use TOS 2.06 and regularly download and upload using Zmodem (XYZ.TTP & Flash) with no serial port patches and get about 1750 cps. at 14,400 bps with no errors ever. I have Flash set my serial port at 19,200 and RTS/CTS is working perfectly for me. Perhaps it's a software conflict problem you've got. ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 116 Sat Aug 08, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 18:51 EDT Mark, There are programs, and many of the newer terminal programs that will allow you to set up the size of the input and output RS232 buffers. STalker sets them at 4k if they are found to be the 256 byte default, but you can use AUXINIT to set them up to 31k each. HS-FIX also allows you to patch in the sizes. John, Think about this.... If you have too small an INPUT buffer, then you might not be able to service the buffer often enough, but if the output buffer is too large, and there is a delay in the transmission (retrans a block), then you might overrun the modem buffer. It's a Catch 22 situation, but I have had better luck at smaller sizes of buffer AT 2400 BAUD. It seems like going too big either way is bad business. One thing 2400 baud users run into with a large input buffer is timeouts on the other end due to the terminal program thinking it is through and the other end still handling bytes and hasn't acknowledge the end of transmission. 31k buffers at each end, and 2400 baud with zmodem will give you trouble. Big problem is that you really don't usually KNOW what the buffer size is at the other end, and many think that if 4 k is good, 40k is better. Might be, might not... ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 117 Sat Aug 08, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 19:39 EDT Ron Hunter, Huh???? If the output buffer is too large...you might overrun the modem buffer?? How can that be? A byte will not be sent from the output buffer to the modem port until the previous byte has been read. If you're having that kind of problem, then it's due to other deficiencies. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 118 Sat Aug 08, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 20:15 EDT To: Cherry.FONTS [Todd] Do you think it maybe you have a faster modem? As i Said i have a Hayes 9600 you have a 14,400 baud modem there is a bug dif there. Also what are you using that 2.06 On? A Mega STE? that is running at 16 MHZ and my 1040STE is only 7-8 that could also be a factor. Im glad you are not having problems, you did not how ever have to say "I'll say it again". If you get a 9600 modem and try it again let me know what you come up with. I do know of Mega STE users who have no problems and some others who do. Who knows but the data that im collecting seems to point to a problem with users of 9600 baud modems and not 14,400 baud modem users. all of the TOS 2.06 users who have 14,400 seem to have no problems but the Users of 9600 baud do (using the same term program and auto boot programs). thats why it seems to me the TOS 2.06 is really not fixed. just trying to find out. To: NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] AUXINIT? if you have it upload it to genie since it is not on genie there is how ever a program called RS232BUF.LZH #20495 Im going to try making my buffer larger, using 2.06, Zmodem, freeze dried 2.20, 9600 baud Modem, 19,200 RS232 port, And see if that does anything. I was using a 1K buffer with Zmodem (Freeze dried allows you to turn on a 1K buffer). ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 119 Sat Aug 08, 1992 SFRT-ASST [Kene @ SFRT] at 20:42 EDT AUXINIT is supplied with STalker. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 120 Sat Aug 08, 1992 J.NESS [Jim] at 22:11 EDT I believe that the most recent STalker upgrade patch included the Serial Fix program, and its docs. As I recall, the docs explained why there was still a problem with TOS 206. I only quickly read it over, so I don't remember the details. Just increasing your I/O buffer will often resolve the problems in TOS. The extra space allows the necessary elbow room, when a burst of incoming data cannot be handled quickly enough. That could explain why some folks are having problems while others are not. Since I don't recall the details of what was wrong with the TOS routines, you should download the Serial Fix program for details. -JN ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 121 Sat Aug 08, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 23:22 EDT John, I think you have the 'gist' of it. It is a complex problem, and there may not BE a complete solution... That's why there are error-recovery routines in most terminal software, and transfer protocols... ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 122 Sat Aug 08, 1992 STARFALL [Alan] at 23:58 EDT I've had many reports of flow-control problems with XYZ, and I haven't been able to make any sense out of them. XYZ always expands the RS-232 input buffer to 20K. The high water mark is set at 19K, but I'm going to try reducing this to see if that helps, / / * / Alan * * ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 123 Sat Aug 08, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 23:59 EDT John, Believe me, it DOES happen. Hours spent working on the flow control problem, and watching the RTS/CTS signal on a signal monitor made it plain. If there are bytes in the buffer, they may be sent to the modem before the RTS/CTS signal can be sensed by the software, since the signal is sensed in another chip, NOT the RS232 port chip. At high speed, there can be several bytes sent before the stream is stopped. The buffers in a 2400 baud modem are SMALL. It is possible to overrun them in nothing flat if the port is locked at 19.2 and the RTS/CTS isn't sensed quickly enough. THAT'S the hardware/software connection that causes the problem. I finally settled on 4k each way for 2400 baud, and it seems to work ok on my 16mhz machine, but I don't know about an 8 mhz, and higher speeds should do ok with somewhat larger buffers, since the modem can get rid of data faster, and probably has larger buffers itself.. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 124 Sun Aug 09, 1992 K.HOUSER [Kevin MQ Def] at 05:19 EDT John, Your explanation sounds reasonable. I run into the same problem you mentioned with the Midi port and SYSEX transfers all the time. The built in 128byte MIDI buffer is just too darn small for any real transfers. I usually up it to 1, 8, or 32 Kbytes depending on the data I intend to transfer. This is why one of my APPS had trouble running as an MDX under MDD 3.3 (I'm fairly sure). --Kevin ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 125 Sun Aug 09, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 06:23 EDT Mark, Aha...you finally mentioned that you are using Freeze-Dried Terminal. It is written in GFA which is a fairly fast language. But when dealing with high- speed transfers on an 8mHz machine, it's my opinion that assembly language routines should be used to assure error-free operation. I wouldn't even trust well-written C code. This is not conclusive proof of your problem, but it may be a contributing factor. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 126 Sun Aug 09, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 09:43 EDT To: J.Ness {jim] It is true that a larger buffer helps since I tested that last night, how ever it requires alot of room. I had a 4K buffer and if I uploaded a 18,xxx file it was fine if i went over that (depending on the file, this was a lzh file) I would need a larger buffer since it would overflow the 4k buffer at that point. the file I tryed it on it overflowed the buffer 5 times. Then it takes some time for zmodem to recover. The serial Fix 1.1 (on a Atari 1040 STE with 2.06 running a 9600 modem with port locked at 19,200) will not over flow a 1K buffer. The person that programed the Serial fix 1.1 is the same guy that makes updates to ST Writer (FYI). Also I read a message of a indiv that took the 2.06 code and disasembled it and looked at the flow control. The serial fix he said was much better code and fixed the problem the older RS232 fixes only the symptoms of the problem. That is althing that has worked for me. And is the only fix that supports XBRA. To: J.EIDSVOOG1 Well Freeze Dried does use XYZ 2.01 that is in C. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 127 Sun Aug 09, 1992 STARFALL [Alan] at 14:53 EDT XYZ is 100% C, but I know what you mean, John. I'm surprised is runs as fast as it does, considering how much each byte has to be processed to allow for the various ZMODEM escape seqences, error returns, timeouts, etc. What I found, though, was that the overhead for Bconin()/Bconout() is tremendous. Part of the problem is that almost every resident program steals the BIOS trap, so (in my case, anyway) 7 different programs examine the BIOS call before it ever gets to the ROM dispatcher, which itself eats even more time. At 19.2kbps, Bconin() gets called 1920 times per second. That's only 520 microseconds per byte. I haven't timed Bconin(), but the way my system is configured, just Bconstat() takes 215us to execute, nearly half of the available time. Because of that, I don't use Bconstat() at all in XYZ -- I check the buffer pointers. I've balked at rewriting Bconin() and Bconout(), but it's tempting. / / * / Alan * * ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 128 Sun Aug 09, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 17:02 EDT Mark, Granted, I'm running TOS 2.06 at 16 mhz in an old Mega. I can try shifting down to 8mhz to see how it goes. I would have thought that since 14,400 is faster than 9600, it would put even more strain on the serial port routines and cause it to screw up even quicker than yours. My point is that -it may not be the serial port- it may be something else, such as the terminal program. Try other terminal programs. Try running a clean system. Try a friend's modem. I'm trying to help you get the thing working. It's a shame to see someone convinced they know what the problem is and therefore miss the opportunity to fix it elsewhere. On the other hand, you may be absolutely correct in blaming TOS 2.06. Who knows. I'd experiment though. Sorry if I sounded condescending. It was unintentional. ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 129 Sun Aug 09, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 18:13 EDT To: CHERRY.FONTS [TODD] TO: WHO EVER Well It should have just the Reverse problem I would think for the 14,400 modem users and the 9600 baud modem users. 9600 baud modem users who set the port rate at 19,200 would have 19,200 flowing to the modem if the modem can not talk correctly to the computer to tell it to stop then you would overflow the input buffer. This would be since the modem may not beable to send the data at 19,200 since it has dif tipes of files to deal with like .TXT, LZH, ARC, PRG ect... the modem can deal with TXT files better since it can compress the data and send it out fast it would have a problem with .LZH files since they are already compressed and could not push the data out. this would overflow the input buffer, and with a TXT file the input buffer may not over flow. 14,400 baud users should have the rev problem since the RS232 port can only deal with data moving at 19,200 baud or less if the data from both modems are moving at 14,400 baud then add the V.42bis on that you may have data trying to overflow on the downloaders input buffer since the RS232 port can't handle lets say 38,400 baud worth of data. And I have no problems downloading without the Serial fix but I do have problems uploading without the fix installed. What does that mean to me? It means that I am not rec data faster than what the RS232 port can handle with out the RS232 port flow control needing to step in (that does not work anyway). Well I did just that I tryed Flash 2.0 that a friend had. it woulded without any Serial Fixes but the Zmodem also gives a 300CPS rate lower that what I get with XYZ 2.01. Note: (Flash 2.0 sucks compaired to Freeze Dried Terminal program with XYZ.TTP 2.01). It does how ever have some good options Freeze Dried does not have (Like cost per min). What Are you using as a Term program? Now would this be a Zmodem program problem or would this be a TOS 2.06 problem? Maybe the only reason I did not overflow the buffer is because the flash II Z- Modem is so slow? And why is Flash II Zmodem so slow? Maybe even if I selected 19,200 it knew the modem only connected at 9600 and would only allow 9600 flow of data. If thats the case then flash is not a good terminal program for the newer type modems that use V.42 etc.. To me it still seems to be a TOS 2.06 problem not talking correctly to the modem (send more/stop etc..). ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 130 Sun Aug 09, 1992 J.NESS [Jim] at 20:39 EDT Alan - You are right about the slowness. In fact, Robert Birmingham wrote a simple term program in assy language, and it could not keep up with 9600 connections, using bconin and bconout for both RS232 and screen stuff. Single-byte I/O on this machine is a tad slow. For term programs, GFA provides a neat little advantage, since it has a call which grabs ALL waiting bytes, in a single swipe. As far as I can tell, it goes in and takes them directly from the input buffer, and then resets all the flags and pointers. -JN ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 131 Sun Aug 09, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 20:50 EDT John, Not if you properly TUNE that hummer. GFA can get down and dirty with the rest of them if you know the tricks which I know you do. I am in the process of converting the send and receive routines in my xfer program to assembly though. I have squeezed as much out of GFA as I can. I had a problem with a couple of the port fixers. It seems that some of them like to be last int he auto folder. Atari's version of the fix does. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 132 Sun Aug 09, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 23:22 EDT I just looked through the ROM modem output routines and they're not terribly inefficient, but they could use a little improvement. It might make sense for Warp 9 to accelerate RS-232 I/O. Not only would it eliminate some of the other "generic" inefficiency, but it would also bypass the need for a series of resident programs to each check and reject the I/O calls. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 133 Sun Aug 09, 1992 CHERRY.FONTS [Todd] at 23:49 EDT Mark, I see your point. If our serial ports could travel at 38,400 bps, I might be having the same problems. Thanks for your patience here. Except when calling GEnie, I'm using Flash v1.6 with XYZ201.ttp on function keys. (And I quite enjoy that combination.) ..Todd ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 134 Mon Aug 10, 1992 J.TRAUTSCHOL [jtrautschold] at 00:52 EDT Mark... If you haven't yet upgraded to version 2.01 of Flash II, please see me over in the Flash II topic - Cat. 8 Topic 2. Or send email. As we'd discussed, there are problems with Zmodem in the initial release. Those are now fixed in 2.01, which is now shipping. Many other improvements have been made as well. And now, back to the TOS 2.06 topic, at hand (that you John & Charles, for letting me butt in.) \I/ John R. Trautschold A A Missionware Software /D\ Serving the Atari Community ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 135 Mon Aug 10, 1992 J.NESS [Jim] at 16:52 EDT John E. - Warp 9 fixing the RS232 port sounds like an excellent idea. -JN ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 136 Mon Aug 10, 1992 WAYNED. [Wayne] at 18:51 EDT John, You've done it now!!! YES!! YES!!! YES!!!! Please add RS-232 acceleration into Warp 9!!! While you're at it you could make it "THE DEFINITIVE RTS/CTS FIX" that works on all appropriate ROM versions patching those that are actually broken and leaving alone any that aren't. BTW, I read a text file somewhere which said that the interrupt level for something in the RTS/CTS code was not appropriate and that under certain circumstances the RTS/CTS wouldn't be recognized because the interrupt would never get executed in time because too many higher priority interrupts were in the way. I don't know how accurate that text was, but to someone like myself who knows little about the whole RTS/CTS problems it sounded feasible. Wayne ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 137 Mon Aug 10, 1992 M.FARMER2 [Mark Farmer] at 19:48 EDT To: J.TRAUTSCHOL Well I do not own that copy I just had they guy over who owned it and we tested Flash 2.0 out on my setup (With tos 2.06) since he owns a older Atari ST, and only has a 2400 baud modem. I will tell him of the version 2.01 but he now uses Freeze Dried ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 138 Tue Aug 11, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 04:32 EDT John, RE: RS232 acceleration in Warp 9. GO FOR IT! Sure can't hurt, and you might just recover the 1% 'cost' of having Warp 9 in the vector chain. It seems there MUST be some ineffeciency. An 8 mhz machine shouldn't have trouble with 19.2 data flow, not with I/O chips handling the grunt-work of assembling the bytes, and a buffer... ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 139 Fri Aug 14, 1992 D.LIVINGST11 [ErnestBovine] at 02:50 EDT While you're at it, you might as well rewrite the rest of the bios, xbios, gemdos, vdi, and aes. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 140 Wed Oct 07, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 19:57 EDT For some time now we've been selling an improved version of the TEC specially designed for the Mega Bus, but we've never formally announced it. The TEC Mega lists for the same price as the TEC Bus Bridge that we formerly carried -- $155. The advantage of the TEC Mega is that it is all contained on one board. This board contains the Mega Bus connector AND has a "through" connector! This means that it will no longer tie up your bus and another board can easily be plugged into the TEC Mega's connector. The TOS chips reside right on the TEC Mega and the only other connections that need to be made are two wires which have "pins" on them and get pushed into two of the holes in the ROM socket. Installation is even easier than it was before. Simply pop out your ROM chips, plug the TEC Mega into the bus, and push the two wires into their proper locations. ------------------------------------------ | :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: | <--bus connector | --------------- ====PAL==== | | | Even Chip | | | --------------- | | --------------- ---==--- | | | Odd Chip | | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------ It's a very clean design because there are no more ribbon cables and it doesn't tie up the bus. Installing the TOS switching option is also much easier because you no longer need to piggyback a socket on top of your ROM chip. We'll have the new TEC Mega boards (as well as the standards and CPU versions) at the WAACE show this weekend. Supplies will be limited, so if you're interested, come early. If you've been waiting to get the speed, usefulness and functionality of TOS 2.06, wait no longer. It couldn't be easier. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 141 Sun Oct 25, 1992 G.BEESLEY at 14:28 EST The new Mega bus version sounds good. I've held up purchasing the new TOS 206 because I've heard that it may not be compatible with my AdSpeed 16Mhz accel. Is this true? Thanks Geoff Beesley ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 142 Mon Oct 26, 1992 MUSE [Tomas] at 01:23 EST Geoff, It's not true! ===Tomas=== October 25, 1992 @ 21:45:33 pm PST ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 143 Thu Oct 29, 1992 F.OLIVAS [Fred O.] at 22:25 EST Geoff Beesley, You'll have no problems with TOS 2.06 and your AdSpeed. I use this combination daily and love it! Fred O. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 144 Tue Nov 03, 1992 EDEDEN at 21:23 EST HELP. I bought the 2.06 roms from you for my STe and need to switch back. What were the orignal jumper setting for w102, w103 and w104. thanks ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 145 Wed Nov 04, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 04:31 EST EDEDEN, The original jumper settings vary depending on the type of ROMs you had installed. Try it with the same jumper settings. If that doesn't work, switch 102 and 104 to 2-3 (so that all three are set to 2-3). You can't hurt anything by jumping either 1-2 or 2-3. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 146 Fri Jan 01, 1993 D.TERP [DON] at 16:26 EST TO: CODEHEAD SOFTWARE FROM: D.TERP Don M. Terp I have just installed your TEC Mega card with the new TOS 2.06 ROM chips on a Mega ST4 so we can use your Calligrapher program. Installation was no problem and the system works fine up to the point when it first goes to the A drive for information, then it bombs (4 bombs). I have tried to by-pass the auto folder by holding down the CONTROL key on boot-up. When I do that, I can bring up the desktop with the A and B drive icons and the trash can on the screen. Then, when I activate the A drive icon to bring up the menu of A drive programs and accessories, it crashes to 4 bombs. As I copied the TOS Extension Card Utility Disk (on a 1040ST) to make a working disk, the system told me that there was a defect in the original disk. However, upon "Retry" it continued and finished the copy. We use this Mega ST 4 in our work as book publishers. We purchased Calligrapher to handle special assignments involving monographs and other short documents. We cannot afford to have this machine down. Your assistance is desparately needed. E Mail first please! Don Terp Read Mountain Press 5140 Appletree Drive Roanoke, VA 24019 703-977- 1058 GEnie D. Terp ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 147 Fri Jan 01, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 18:43 EST Don Terp, I'm answering you in E-Mail, but I also wanted to mention in public that there is no need to upgrade to TOS 2.06 in order to use Calligrapher. It runs under all versions of TOS. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 148 Sat Jan 02, 1993 C.WARD7 [Craig] at 16:38 EST >As I copied the TOS Extension Card Utility Disk (on a 1040ST) to make a >working disk, the system told me that there was a defect in the original >disk. However, upon "Retry" it continued and finished the copy. > I had the TOS 2.06 card installed in my 1040STf by a dealer (Mid Cities Computer, Bellflower, CA) and also had trouble with the utilities disk. Neither of my ST drives would read the disk; the dealer was able to open it and bring up a window so I took it home and tried again. Again, neither drive would read the disk. I thought it was an 'old drive' problem -- the heads slightly out of alignment so that they could only read disks formatted by themselves (not likely, I now think). I should have had the dealer copy the disk onto a new disk formatted by my own drives, but it was easier to take the Codehead disk to work and copy it using a MS-DOS 5.0 machine. The DOS machine complained about a bad spot but finished the copy. It turned out that GENERAL.CPX was bad. It caused the ST to crash when loaded. I finally sent the disk back to Codehead and they replaced it, although they said it checked-out there (probably just opened it like the dealer did). In the end, the new disk worked fine and Codehead has yet another satisfied customer. Craig p.s. I also had the dealer install a 4-meg upgrade to the ol'1040. They chose Xtra-RAM ST Deluxe from Marpet Developments. The machine was flakey so I took it back. "Bad SIMMs" was the diagnosis and the replacement memory has been fine. -- GEnie Mail: C.WARD7 Internet: c.ward7@genie.geis.com ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 149 Sat Jan 02, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 21:41 EST Craig Ward, When we get disks returned as damaged, we usually read them entirely by either copying all the files to a hard drive or reading the disk with CodeCopy (or both). The majority of the time, we have no problems. We then proceed to do the same with a couple of other drives. It's a most perplexing problem. Either every one of our drives is out of alignment by the same amount, or there are a lot of marginal drives out there in the hands of customers. I think part of the problem with the Warp 9 disk has been that it is double-sided and 10 sectors per track. We just modified it by creating a number of self-extracting archives. This reduced the size of the disk enough so we could put it on a 9 sector per track disk with some room left over (so that file aren't located on the innermost, most dense tracks). Hopefully, this will solve a lot of the problems we've had lately. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 150 Sun Jan 03, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 18:45 EST Craig, Just to add my bit to John's comments. All disks returned to CodeHead for replacement are "looked at" in MaxiFile and then test-copied to a folder on the hard drive, then I take them to another machine and run them through CodeCopy to verify that the contents are the same as the master CCP file we have for each master disk. In most cases they check out fine. I will replace the disk with a fresh one no matter how they test. If the disk was good, I try to write a note so that you'll know that it's "possible" that your floppy needs an adjustment. CodeHead sometimes uses an extended format to place more data on the floppy. It is possible that some folks try to do an "icon to icon" copy on the Desktop. This procedure will fail with extended format disks. We've had problems with floppies ever since Windows 3.1 was released. This one release caused a world-wide floppy shortage. CodeHead would like to cause a floppy shortage someday. ===Tomas who tries to fix what's broken=== January 03, 1993 @ 15:20:49 pm PST ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 151 Sun Jan 03, 1993 K.HOUSER [Kevin MQ Def] at 23:07 EST Tomas... Isn't dragging icons from the drive A window to the hard drive window from the desktop the normal way things *should* work? I've had problems with my W9 3.75 disk but I haven't sent it back because I did manage to read the files off the disk one time successfully. It even had problems reading on a brand new drive mech. I thought 10 sector twisted disks were fairly common?!? That is the format I use all the time. --Kevin ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 152 Mon Jan 04, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 07:53 EST Kevin, The Desktop doesn't support the other formats. You can make a copy by dragging the icon to a window, providing there is enough room on the receiving disk. ===Tomas=== January 04, 1993 @ 4:49:27 am PST ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 153 Mon Jan 04, 1993 K.HOUSER [Kevin MQ Def] at 13:14 EST Hmm... that is what I did. I dragged the icons onto my hard drive but got "Data may be damaged" errors quite often. No problems with any other vendors disks (Gribnif) or other CodeHead disks except the Warp9 3.74/3.75 disk. Do you mean that the desktop doesn't support dragging the disk icon to another disk icon for copying IFF the source disk is anythi anything other than 9 sectors per track? --Kevin ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 154 Mon Jan 04, 1993 T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 18:03 EST I believe the DeskTop Icon to Icon copy is a sector copy. A 9 sector 80 track copy at that. Disk <=> Window is a file(s) copy. I havn't done the Icon to Icon in years, ever since alternate formaters came out. Too dangerous. -Tom McComb {4:14 pm} Monday, January 4, 1993 ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 155 Tue Jan 05, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 00:28 EST Kevin, Yes, I meant that icon A to icon B copies won't work with extended format floppies. Dragging icon A to a hard drive icon should work fine. Your disk needs to be replaced. Sorry for the trouble. ===Tomas=== January 04, 1993 @ 21:23:54 pm PST ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 156 Tue Jan 05, 1993 K.HOUSER [Kevin MQ Def] at 01:18 EST Tomas, I'll send it in sometime soon. I did manage to get W9 and the necessary stuff backed up sucessfully (after a gazillion retries). Thanks, --Kevin ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 157 Fri Jan 08, 1993 C.ALLEN17 [Cliff] at 23:34 EST Dumb question #1 from me on this new year. Is it possible to install your TEC board, then install an Ajax chip, HighDensity 3.5, jumper E5 leading to U632 on a 1040STe to have the TOS 2.06 and HD combo as the MEGA/STE has? Cliff (Ashevillite) ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 158 Sat Jan 09, 1993 DAEDWARDS at 01:18 EST K.Houser: You can drive a disk icon to a window, or a file icon to a disk icon, but dragging one disk icon onto another disk icon is... well... The TOS software interprets this as "image copy". It will try to copy the entire disk sector by sector. EVERYTHING on the destination disk WILL be destroyed. You should ONLY do this from floppy to floppy, and ONLY with 80-track, 9- sector format on the source floppy. Also, the destination disk must already be formatted with the same number of sides as the source disk. (TOS is smart enough that A->B will work if you only have one physical floppy drive.) If you try it with a 10-sector floppy as the source, you WILL LOSE the 10th sector of each track. If you try it with a >80-track floppy as the source, you WILL LOSE the innermost tracks. (If the DESTINATION floppy has an extended format, the extra space will be utterly ignored... the boot sector will say it isn't there, so the OS won't try to read it.) If you try it to OR FROM a hard disk... I dunno what will happen, but I strongly suspect it won't be good! At a minimum, I would think it would have to be two hard disk partitions of PRECISELY the same size, and don't copy TO a boot partition. (It won't be a boot partition anymore... unless the source was.) And even then, I'd bet against it working. Any desktop copying OTHER than disk-icon-to-disk-icon, is done as a file copy. Any format source will work with any format destination, and won't destroy things unrelated to the stuff being copied. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 159 Sat Jan 09, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 11:43 EST Cliff, I don't really know the answer to your question. We've never tried it. Sorry. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 160 Sun Jan 10, 1993 J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] at 21:01 EST There is still some HW missing from the 1040STE that the MegaSTE has Cliff, so just setting the "dipswitch" (which is what the EX's are BTW) to allow the OS to use HD floppies isn't enough. There is a 8/16Mhz clock switcher to the AJAX that is missing, and must be added to make it work...sorry. I'll eventually place a file detailing the required mod in the library, as soon as I have spare time...keep watching Cat 4, Top 17 for info. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 161 Sun Jan 17, 1993 E.GORELIK at 02:05 EST Codeheads: Can you tell me current price of TEC with ROMs? I would need the standard version. My CPU is socketed. Using an early model ST, external drive, external power supply, TOS 1.0. 4 megs on m/b. 6 ROMs, socketed. ICD host adapter & Rodime h.d. Also, can you do the installation, if I shipped the computer? If so, what cost? If not, could you recommend someone? Thanx! Eugene P.S. Is that something I as a human being could do, or would I just destroy the m/b? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 162 Sun Jan 17, 1993 E.GORELIK at 02:44 EST Correction: make that "My CPU is NOT socketed." Eugene ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 163 Sun Jan 17, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 11:53 EST Eugene, The TEC is $139 for the standard version. Tomas Ensley has installed a few boards. His E-Mail address is MUSE if you'd like to contact him. There may be other technicians local to your area that could do the installation. It requires the soldering of 22 wires onto the tops of the pins of your CPU. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 164 Mon Jan 18, 1993 E.GORELIK at 01:38 EST John--I am sending a note to Tomas. As funds are very tight and I'm way over budget already ordering this, I think the best plan is for me to just buy it first so I can see for myself what is involved in the installation, and show it to a friend to see if he can do it for nothing or next to nothing, and also assess whether it's even a good idea for us to try (the friend would not be an Atari technician, and might not even be a computer tech--is that important?). If something better is needed, it's then a question of how soon I'll be able to afford Tomas. Barring no unforeseen eventualities (such as killed my plans at the last minute of buying a laser printer), I'll send you a check by next week. 'Bout time I upgraded. Is shipping still $3, and are you still at Box 74090? Thanx Eugene ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 165 Mon Jan 18, 1993 E.BETZ [Bud] at 12:38 EST Eugene, As a self installer of the TEC bridge version into a 1040 STf, I can attest that you do need some dexterity and soldering skills to install the TEC without doing damage to your machine. My machine required a CPU socket as well. I have quite a bit of experience soldering and working with digital electronics, and it's not that tough installing if you know something about what you are working with. I recommend, that if you or your friend don't have the skills or knowledge working with micro-electronic components, you seek professional (or at least someone who has) experience. Attaching the wires to the top of the CPU can be hazardous to the CPU's life for the inexperienced. My intent is not to discourage you from purchasing a TEC; it's the greatest thing to happen to the ST since TOS in ROM appeared in 1985 (whew, that long ago?). I absolutely adore mine. Best wishes on your adventure! Bud ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 166 Tue Jan 19, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 03:17 EST Bud, That's good advice. Many people ask whether they could handle this installation themselves. I try to ask these people about their machine and their experience with electronics. I will encourage some to try it if they know the finer points about soldering and safety. (Expect a quiz!) Anyone who has a dealer within a reasonable distance should consider the advantages of purchasing from a dealer and having it installed. You will go home with a 90 day warranty, a little sticker on the bottom and some peace of mind. If you do the job yourself and it doesn't work, you'll end up at the dealer anyway. For those who have no dealer and don't know that most common soldering "guns" are best suited for plumbing I can recommend a couple of places to ship your computer to have the work done. (A small amphibious creature related to the frog springs to mind.) That reminds me... ** Dealers, I often wish I had a list of dealers capable of repairs and installations. We'd be happy to refer CodeHead's customers to local dealers if we had the information. Superbase format would be nice, perhaps Cardfile... Now, where was I? Ah... Desperate individuals who have no way of getting the TEC board by any conventional, rational means, fall through to me. I don't try to solicit this kind of work and it is in no way a service of CodeHead Technolgies. I guess it's a service of MUSE. MUSE is me, a high tech handyman. I use a couple of local Atari dealers as a backup and I have the advantage of having done tech support for the TEC. I just wanted to make it clear that the CodeHeads are not in the hardware business other than to supply the TEC and TOS 2.06. MUSE, alas, will work for food. I also do custom answering machine messages... ===Tomas=== January 18, 1993 @ 11:34:48 pm PST ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 167 Wed Jan 20, 1993 E.GORELIK at 02:42 EST Bud--you have convinced me. Good post. There is no way I or any non-Atari tech will be doing this installation. I have asked Tomas to handle it. He may not work for the CodeHeads, but if he weren't topnotch there is no way they would be referring anyone to him on this thread. Thanx. Eugene ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 168 Wed Jan 20, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 15:43 EST Eugene, Just a slight correction -- Tomas does work for CodeHead. But his job here is to manage our office, including answering the phones, handling tech support, manufacturing, shipping, and just about everything else. However, CodeHead does not do installations of the TEC. Tomas sometimes installs TECs on his own time, by private arrangement, and yes, we do recommend his work. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 169 Sun Jan 31, 1993 M.SMITH63 at 07:43 EST John, thanks for your response over in 14/8 to my query on seek rates under Tos 2.06. I have read through this topic, and did not see any info on the TEC manual. Could you tell me, is it just on installation, or does it also contain information of TOS 2.06. Thanks - Matthew Smith ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 170 Sun Jan 31, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 13:42 EST Matthew, Thank you for your interest. Our TEC Manual is in two sections. The first half (18 pages) is for installation of the TEC. The second half documents the features and use of TOS 2.06. The information in this section compares very favorably with Atari's owners' manual for the STe/TT and our manual even has some information which is _not_ included in Atari's manual. We sell the TEC manual and TEC Utilities disk as a separate package for $10. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 171 Sun Feb 07, 1993 F.OLIVAS [Fred O.] at 23:12 EST I recently installed a second TEC board into my second Mega4 and was surprised that you changed design! My original TEC board had a ribbon cable which was placed into the internal slot in the Mega4. The new design has the circut board design that requires the board itself to be placed into this slot. The problem I've encountered is that if I move my Mega4, the board slips out and I have to reinsert it. This I don't like doing! Guess I'll have to not move my Mega4. Fred O. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 172 Mon Feb 08, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 13:20 EST Fred, It sounds like you must have transported your Mega upside down. Otherwise, there's no reason that the board would have worked its way out. I'd suggest that you apply some sort of foam between the TEC and the shielding so that it will not work its way loose in the future. I've had a similar problem with my Stacy and the power supply board. I'm sorry that you had this problem. It's the first one that's been reported like that. Overall, we've had good feedback about the new design, which is more efficient and easier to install. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 173 Fri Feb 12, 1993 R.SATTLER [Mr.X] at 03:37 EST Hello. I recently purchased 2.06 for my Mega ST4. I would like to be able to use the switcher to also use 1.02. The instructions say to contact you for further info on installing the switcher. I sure could use some help here. Thanks. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 174 Fri Feb 12, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 19:23 EST Mr. X, I'll send you E-Mail describing the procedure. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 175 Sun Mar 21, 1993 S.NOAH [Stu] at 16:23 EST I just installed TOS 2.06 in my 4meg STe and it is working just fine except for a problem that I am having with the Icon Juggler. I am unable to read *.rsc files that I save or use them from the desktop. If I read in an *.icn file and then save it as a rsc it wont read back in, and about half the times I try to do an append I bomb out with two bombs. Thank you for any help, Stu ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 176 Sun Mar 21, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 17:54 EST Stu, Where did you get the original RSC file?. What version of Icon Juggler are you using?. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sunday, March 21, 1993 - 5:49:22 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 177 Sun Mar 21, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 22:40 EST Stu, I haven't heard of that problem before. Are you using some sort of alternate DOS or some other program that might be affecting disk operations? (like PowerDOS, etc.) Perhaps your copy of the program is corrupted. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 178 Mon Mar 22, 1993 S.NOAH [Stu] at 02:10 EST Jeff, I'm using Icon Juggler v 1.2, and the RSC file originaly came with the Juggler disk. Stu P.S. I just tried booting up without most of my autorun PRGs and ACCs and I was able to save a clean RSC file. At this point I am not which program might have been in conflict though... ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 179 Mon Mar 22, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 16:59 EST Stu, Are you using PowerDos, Data Diet, TurboDOS, or any other program with the name DOS in it? John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 180 Tue Mar 23, 1993 S.NOAH [Stu] at 01:17 EST John, I'm not using any of the programs that you just mentioned, however I just noticed a problem that occurs when running Aladdin from an icon installed on the desktop while Thunder is loaded. I'll try to take some time this week to find the offending combination; I'll let you know the results. Stu ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 181 Tue Mar 23, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 07:28 EST Stu, Give us a listing of your AUTO folder and Desk Accessories and we might be able to tell you. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Monday, March 22, 1993 - 9:32:36 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 182 Tue Mar 23, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 13:10 EST Stu, When Thunder's active in the background, anything's likely to happen. Trying disabling it. If you need real-time spell-checking, I recommend Spelling Sentry. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 183 Tue Mar 23, 1993 WAYNED. [Wayne] at 20:02 EST Stu, As John said, Spelling Sentry is the way to go for real-time spell checking. It can also spell check Ascii files. Plus it does abbreviation expansion! Truly a great utility. I had a friend with Thunder, but over the years he had so many conflicts with it that I never thought it reliable enough to get. Spelling Sentry hasn't caused me a lick of trouble yet with my dozens of Auto programs, Da's, and MDX's! Wayne ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 184 Wed Mar 24, 1993 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 06:09 EST I also use, and enjoy Spelling Sentry. It works fine with my whole collection of CodeHead software, and miscellaneous .ACCS and AUTO stuff (total of over 2 meg). AND it doesn't slow the system down like Thunder did.. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 185 Wed Mar 24, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 10:15 EST So there you have it, folks: prove positive that it's possible for others to write software (Spelling Sentry) that coexists nicely with all other well- behaved software. It sounds like Phil knows what he's doing, or has read our Eleven Commandments, or both! John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 186 Thu Mar 25, 1993 S.NOAH [Stu] at 01:12 EST I guess that I am going to have to look into Spelling Sentry... This is just one of the things that I have really come to hate about my ST; I love the machine but I have 3 orphaned Word Processors, 3 orphaned business applications, and any number of utilities and games that are never going to be upgraded. Does anybody want to buy a slightly used version of Microsoft Write for the ST ?? Hey, I mean Atari sold the darn thing, how was I to know ? Or how about Word-Up ? I tell ya, if orphaned software were green stamps (showing my age?) I would be elidgible for a free piece of software by now... But I have digressed, thank you all for the help and for listening to me rant and rave. Stu ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 189 Thu Mar 25, 1993 WAYNED. [Wayne] at 19:55 EST Stu, Believe me I understand totally your "orphan" syndrome. I too have a whole bookcase filled with orphans. :( ------- Al, Definitely check out Spelling Sentry. It's tops!! Gee do they have some kind of demo for it? I'll pop over to the support area here and ask Phil. Wayne ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 190 Fri Mar 26, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 07:22 EST Stu, I don't think you have to worry about orphaned software with the CodeHeads or WinterTree Software. They both seem stable, selling stuff (thou not as much as they would like to), and doing consistent upgrades. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Thursday, March 25, 1993 - 9:28:44 am ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 191 Mon May 31, 1993 MYECK.WATERS [myeck] at 22:40 EDT Help! Last October, I bought the TOS 2.06 ROMs from you guys at WAACE, for my wife's STe. STE's being so fun to open up, I thought I'd wait until I had some other reason to do so before I installed the things, until a recent post from Tomas in another CAT spurred me to finally do it. (I got your e-mail, Tomas - thanks, I appreciate it). Anyway, I moved the jumpers per instructions, and installed the chips, and I am getting the weirdest results (all of these are from a powered-down-for-a while condition): If I boot with no disk at all, it is fine, and I can insert a floppy after the desktop appears and read a DESKTOP.INF or NEWDESK.INF file no problem. If I boot from a floppy, it is fine as long as a program autoloads. If I autorun the TERA-Desk alternative desktop, it is fine, and I can quit and use the normal desktop. If I boot using POWERNET to connect it to my MegaST's hard disk, it is fine as long as TERA-Desk is auto-run (haven't tried with other auto loaded programs). But if I quit TERA-Desk, I get bombs and the system freezes. If I try to boot from floppy OR with POWERNET to the regular desktop, regardless of the presence or absence or .INF files, I get bombs and the system freezes. Once the system has becomed bombed and frozen, the only way it will boot is with no floppy. You guys seen this one before? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 192 Tue Jun 01, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 02:31 EDT Myeck, The transition to TOS 2.06 can be unnerving. It sounds like you've discovered some software incompatibilities. Not being familiar with TERA-Desk and only slightly familiar with PowerNet, I can't say for sure. Have you tried rebuilding your bootup configuration from scratch? It'll get better. I recommend an extra infusion of CodeHead software. It's the cure for... well, you know. ===Tomas=== May 31, 1993 @ 11:20:10 pm PDT ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 193 Tue Jun 01, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:30 EDT Myeck, You may want to try LittleNet to network your computers. It should work fine and is available here. Al ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 194 Tue Jun 01, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 22:34 EDT Myeck, It sounds to me like a problem with your INF file. The Newdesk desktop has a slight compatibility problem with old DESKTOP.INF files. Try deleting (or renaming) your DESKTOP.INF file (and any NEWDESK.INF file that may have been created since you started using TOS 2.06). Then boot up. I think you'll have no problem. You can then "Save Desktop" and your NEWDESK.INF file should be fine. Let me know if this solves the problem. John ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 195 Wed Jun 02, 1993 T.ZENTHOEFE1 [Tom Z.] at 03:19 EDT Myeck, have you checked to make sure that your floppy disks are not infected with a Virus? Also make sure that you don't have an executable bootsector detector from Virus Killer installed. ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 196 Thu Jun 03, 1993 MYECK.WATERS [myeck] at 20:58 EDT Thanks for the suggestions folx. I'm still plugging away here. I did figure out the incompatibility with the old DESKTOP.INF files, and since the problem was happening with or without POWERNET, I've been testing without it. The current situation is: From power-off, I can boot to any of the four or so disks I've been fiddling with, as long as they don't contain anything which does anything resembling a re-boot (CODERAM bombs, for instance). However, after that I can't do a cold or warm boot with any disk in - it always bombs before getting to the desktop (the AUTO folder programs print their text on screen). In cases where there was a program set to auto-run (like TeraDesk), the floppy drive will periodically be accessed again, but nothing else happens (when that happened under POWERNET, I could access the floppy drives from the other computer though). I gotten down to a freshly formatted floppy with only a plain-vanilla NEWDESK.INF file - no difference. Oh yeah - none of my disks have executable boot sectors. Tomas; With all the time you guys spend on my problems as it is, you suggest that I buy MORE CodeHead software??? Talk about a glutton for punishment!!! BTW - as our use of the network has ramped up (well, until I performed this latest "upgrade" anyway), we have occasionally been using CodeHead products on both machines. Mostly Maxifile so far, but the others can't be far behind. What is you guys's position on that? ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 197 Sun Jun 06, 1993 G.KICHOK [Gerry K] at 01:19 EDT Al, regarding this message: > Message 193 Tue Jun 01, 1993 > A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:30 EDT > > Myeck, > > You may want to try LittleNet to network your computers. It should > work fine and is available here. > > Al I thought this might be a nice addition to my library, but I couldn't find it. Any more clues? Last Edited on 06/June/93 at 00:17 hrs Gerry Kichok Hamilton-Burlington-Oakville Atari User Group Librarian ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 198 Mon Jun 07, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:24 EDT Gerry, Try LITTLNET. I'm prretty sure I got my copy from GEnie some time ago, although I might have found it on the 'net. At any rate, if you don't see it, I'll post it, along with English docs and a little Secrets of LittleNet. Al ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 199 Tue Jun 08, 1993 J.ROGOZINSK2 [Rogo] at 18:08 EDT >Try LITTLNET. I'm prretty sure I got my copy from GEnie some time ago, >although I might have found it on the 'net. At any rate, if you don't >see it, I'll post it, along with English docs and a little Secrets of >LittleNet. > Al, I looked through my old library files lists (though incomplete) and couldn't find LITTLNET. {If anyone else finds it please post the file number and name.} If no one finds it though would you upload it. Thanks. === Joe Rogo === Tuesday, June 8, 1993 5:57 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 30 Message 200 Wed Jun 09, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:13 EDT Joe, I'll send up a copy of LittleNet with updated docs. Al ------------