Mega STE questions

[somaboy]

Hi,

Yesterday I received a Mega STE with 4MB Ram, an internal hard drive and an external 3.5" drive. It also came with an official boxed version of Cubase 2.1
I have some issues I hope someone here can help me with:

1. when I boot the machine, it doesn't show any icon for the internal HD on the desktop, just for the two floppy drives. How can I access the disk? Or is it busted?

2. The fan is really loud! do you have any suggestions for a quiet replacement? Would it be dangerous to disconnect the fan (is it really necessary for just running cubase, or will the machine become too hot)?

Thanks for helping out!

Soma

[mal7921]

Hi and welcome to the Mega STE club, they really are a powerful system for the money.

Unfortunately the fans are quite loud, though I'm pretty sure they can be replaced. I was going to write an article on this about a year ago but sadly other things got in the way. I may well revisit though.

One thing to check regarding the hard drive is listen for it spinning up. If it is one of the original drives you will be able to hear it over the fan. If you can, the drive itself may well be fine. On the desktop, the far right menu option on the top of the screen has an option to look for additional devices, if this cant find the drive then it is not being seen by the system.

A quick side note is needed here, on bootup there is a black bar that counts down as the system looks for attached devices, if you press the space bar or any other key too soon the system will not see the hard drive. Always wait at least 10 seconds before pressing space!

There is a hard drive driver utility on the Mega STE floppy disks, if you don't have these let me know as I have an image of them somewhere. This would at least allow you to see if the drive can be seen by the operating system.

[somaboy]

Thanks for the help.

I've taken out the offending fan, as it only seems to be there to cool the psu. The 1040 also has a built-in psu, but no fan as i seem to recall. The machine seems to run fine without it, but I make sure to keep all the venting holes above the psu clear.

The HD indeed makes noise (and quite a lot I might add), but it doesn't show up anywhere in the system. Since I prefer to have a completely silent system, I've disconnected the power to the HD for now. I think I'll be looking into a zip drive or UltraSatan for mass storage.

Best,

Soma

[mal7921]

The hard drive in my TT was noisy, ended up replacing it with a 1GB SCSI drive which was a lot quieter.

There are a few users who have replaced the drives with Compact Flash based drives, the adapters are quite cheap these days and pretty easy to install. My ST Book has just had its hard drive replaced with something similar and an article will be written as soon as it arrives back from its luxury pampering.

[somaboy]

Hi,

Can you point me to some of the Compact Flash adapters you mention? Interested!

Thanks.

[yerzmyey]

1. when I boot the machine, it doesn't show any icon for the internal HD on the desktop, just for the two floppy drives. How can I access the disk? Or is it busted?

Ah. So maaaaaaany various possibilities.

Try to check out while the computer is starting, how many partitions does it have.

Now, depending of the TOS version.

- Go to OPTIONS and there - INSTALL DEVICES. If the HDD is OK, You will see all the partitions. Then - OPTION/SAVE DESKTOP (to not to repeat these steps every time when You turn-on the computer).

- With older TOS it is tricky and annoying.
Mark any disk icon (A: would be the best). Go to the OPTIONS and there - press INSTALL DISK DRIVE. Give to it C names and press INSTALL. And again SAVE DESKTOP later.
These things You have to repeat as many times as many partitions You have.

If the HDD isn't dead of course.

[yerzmyey]

Hi,
Can you point me to some of the Compact Flash adapters you mention? Interested!
Thanks.

Actually they're SD-based.

Ultrasatan internal: http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=90
plus http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=92 (adapter for Mega STE).

[somaboy]

Try to check out while the computer is starting, how many partitions does it have.

I just get a blank screen during startup, and after a while it goes straight to the desktop showing my internal and external 3.5" drives (A & B) (if there's a disk inserted, otherwise it asks to insert a disk into drive A)

Now, depending of the TOS version.

- Go to OPTIONS and there - INSTALL DEVICES. If the HDD is OK, You will see all the partitions. Then - OPTION/SAVE DESKTOP (to not to repeat these steps every time when You turn-on the computer).

- With older TOS it is tricky and annoying.
Mark any disk icon (A: would be the best). Go to the OPTIONS and there - press INSTALL DISK DRIVE. Give to it C names and press INSTALL. And again SAVE DESKTOP later.
These things You have to repeat as many times as many partitions You have.

If the HDD isn't dead of course.

Neither of these options work. How can I check what version of TOS I have?

Thanks for helping out!

Soma

[yerzmyey]

Somaboy:

> I just get a blank screen during startup, and after a while it goes straight to the desktop showing my internal and external 3.5" drives (A & B) (if there's a disk inserted,
------------
So the disk isn't formatted/prepared - or isn't even connected?
Hm. So HDDRIVER is what You need. A prog (and driver) to use harddisks on Atari 16/32 bit.


> otherwise it asks to insert a disk into drive A)
-----------
Ermmm... Are You sure it is not an Amiga?????




> Neither of these options work.
----------
So maybe You'd need to prepare the disk to work with Atari.
With the HDDRIVER util.



> How can I check what version of TOS I have?
---------------
maybe with help of this site here.
Can You check if it does the trick - http://www.atarimusic.net/Atari-Music-N ... G-8.34.zip
??

[mal7921]

Wasn't dark lord on Atari-forum.com getting an internal cable for the ultrasatan? That may well be a better option as the mega STe uses a scsi adapter board on an internal Atari hard disk interface (same board and connector as the Stacy laptop). My mega STe sometimes refuses to see the hard drive and reseating the interal interface board helps.

As for booting, do you not see the Atari logo on boot? You should see that as it is part of the boot process

[somaboy]

Apparently, my machine has TOS 2.05, so the boot sequence is normal. It is asking for a disk because the HD is disconnected.

I'm thinking about getting an ultrasatan to mount internally, but I have to make sure my STE doesn't have one of the incompatible DMA chips. Can anyone tell me where on the motherboard this chip is located?

[mal7921]

TOS 2.06 is the last released version for the ST series and is the best version to have. Of you look up Simbo2 over on http://www.atari-forum.com, he should be able to burn you a set of ROMS for a reasonable price, or you may be able to find some on eBay.

Remember though that if you get a US ROM it will expect a US keyboard to be attached, so some characters could be in the wrong place. If you have a UK keyboard, make sure you get a UK ROM.

[somaboy]

I already bought the 2.06 UK roms on Ebay last week
They should arrive anytime soom. Hope I'm not gonna have to do any soldering to install them.

[mal7921]

The faulty DMA chip was replaced by the time the Mega STe was launched, the machines that may contain these chips should be the regular desktop STe and possibly the older ST and Mega ST series.

There was a discussion on the Atart forum site that listed the faulty part numbers, though I can't offhand remember the thread title. Searching on faulty DMA chip part number should get a result.

The ROMS area not soldered in, they are in sockets, just be sure to put them in the right way around and in the right sockets. They are under the hard drive box (undo single * on front then lift top back) and as I remember, they are located at the front as you look down. If you look at the picture below, you can just make out a small indent in the chip, this is to identify which way round it needs to go, if your looking from the front of the machine (as per the photo) the indent is to the left.

http://www.atarimusic.net/Atari-Music-N ... G_1118.JPG

Hope that helps.

[somaboy]

Thanks. Installing the roms was a nobrainer.

Received my Midex+ as well today, works great!