Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

[JezC]

Yes, no trouble with it in the end @mrbombermillzy.

Yes, that was me, plus some of the Peer Gynt suite...

[JezC]

In the optimistic hope of getting some retro time in the near future, I've just upgraded HD Driver from v11 to v12 (mostly in view of the recent changes for various 030 upgrades like DFB1X for my Falcon when @exxos has finished with it and the ST536/TF536 boards for the ST range).

I'm also hoping that the changes for the ATW800/2 support will help (but I need to update that to the latest releas4 before I try anything else)...

I've also resurrected an oldish laptop that I hope to use for Hatari/Aranym as/when time allows - but that will need to be a topic in its own right!

[JezC]

Well, after a small diversion into fixing and upgrading a couple of A500s I managed to try a MonSTErbo in one of my STEs.

Only tried it at stock speed on the 68k so far but it seems to need the blitter turned off to avoid screen artifacts on this STE.

Might try it in a different STE to see if that is any different, if not then I might use it in the STE with the external blitter...

More at the weekend hopefully.

[JezC]

I briefly tried it in another STE with external blitter (removed for this test) & it booted to the desktop but froze when trying to open the floppy drive.

So, I guess that some other mods would be needed to the STE for it to work without the blitter...

For now, the MonSTErbo board is back in the original STE while I research what I'd need to do to sort the external blitter one to work without a blitter...

Not sure how long that will be though - I'll try to experiment with the other features of the board in parallel (and start a new blog about it).

I did find another STE with internal blitter and socketed processor which may become the target system for one of the Exxos 32MHz boosters (and fast ROM kit).

So I'm calling this a win overall

[JezC]

As usual, not had much time for retro stuff recently(well since CL4 in truth) but I now have a few more Ataris to check...

An extra couple of Mega STs from @rubber_jonnie which I collected at CL5 plus a bit of a surprise win on the bay of fleas resulted in a delivery on Monday.

So I now have a German TT030 as well (4meg ST + 16meg TT RAM)...hard drive didn't boot on a quick check but it got to the desktop ok so more to do there

I'll put details of all these in a new topic when time allows more progress.

I also need to learn about the essential upgrades/fixes for a TT and probably how to program up some UK TOS 3.06 ROMs...

@Steve has sent me a link to a PSU replacement as a starter.

[stephen_usher]

The original PSU is pretty decent. Just needs a recap. No need to replace it.

[JezC]

The original PSU is pretty decent. Just needs a recap. No need to replace it.

Ok, thanks for the info, I'll look at both options as I'm not able to do much/any soldering ATM so an easy replacement unit may be the quick fix.

[JezC]

Managed to squeeze a few minutes of retro time before bed - and this allowed me to quickly check the two Mega STs from @rubber_jonnie - both boot up & run from the internal IDE drives just fine, so many thanks!

I'll have to re-jig my desk layout to give all 4 Mega STs plus the TT room (even if that means they are acting as monitor stands for at least some of the time.

That then begs the question of whether I put the Falcon back in a Desktopper case so it too can be more available...

[rubber_jonnie]

Managed to squeeze a few minutes of retro time before bed - and this allowed me to quickly check the two Mega STs from @rubber_jonnie - both boot up & run from the internal IDE drives just fine, so many thanks!

You're welcome

I did put them through diag cart tests before I sold them to you, but glad to hear they travelled home OK. The IDE drives are a nice little upgrade.

[JezC]

Managed to squeeze a few minutes of retro time before bed - and this allowed me to quickly check the two Mega STs from @rubber_jonnie - both boot up & run from the internal IDE drives just fine, so many thanks!

You're welcome

I did put them through diag cart tests before I sold them to you, but glad to hear they travelled home OK. The IDE drives are a nice little upgrade.

Yes, lots of storage for whatever I decide to use them for!

I've still to dig out the PS/2 mouse and keyboard to try with the Eiffel...let alone find time to try and fit the memory upgrade...