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

[exxos]

@JezC You need the MAPROM / NVDI tools https://exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/DFB1X/

[JezC]

Thanks @exxos @Badwolf, will try those later this evening.

Literally all I've done so far is to remove that one link on the expansion connector and fit the DFB1x...

[Badwolf]

Thanks @exxos @Badwolf, will try those later this evening.

Literally all I've done so far is to remove that one link on the expansion connector and fit the DFB1x...

If you have an onboard FPU, remove that too.

BW

[exxos]

If you have an onboard FPU, remove that too.

Made me chuckle for some reason

[JezC]

If you have an onboard FPU, remove that too.

Made me chuckle for some reason

I bought one recently (probably just before the announcement about the DFB1x being "available soon" - will have to check if I ever fitted it...

[JezC]

Ok, so installed some of the files from that image (and after several attempts/reboots, successfully re-ordered the files in auto to be as required...

Some of the NVDI support files (fonts etc) didn't copy over...looks like the floppy disc I used has developed some problems

Anyway, enough is working that I can see it has booted but the icons aren't displaying (presumably the missing files is the cause here)...

Just running GB on it & I can see another LED (blue/white)has come on...and Sysinfo is reporting the FPU

Compared to a standard Falcon the integer test is showing 249%, so that is looking positive!

Thanks all.

I'll find a better floppy (and maybe copy the files as a zip over to the Falcon & unzip them on that instead) to try and sort out the lack of icons, but pretty sure that is nothing to do with the hardware...

[JezC]

So, I realised today that I'd thought about transferring files from PC to Flacon already...and so have a dual IDE connection - one for an SD card & the other for a CF card.

I mis-remembered which card was formatted for PC compatibility though, thinking that the SD card would be easier to use in modern PCs, I thought that would be the one...but no it's actually the CF card (probably as the SD adapter can't be set for a slave while my CF card adapter can be...)

Anyway, so once I'd realised that & used an old Win 7 box to copy files from a pen drive onto the the CF card, I was ready for the next step.

I'd thought to put STZip on there as well (and uncompressed 'cos otherwise I'd be back to using a floppy wouldn't I? )...so I then unzipped the MAPRON & other DFB1x files from the CF card onto the SD (boot) partition.

A quick check on the order of the files in the auto folder - all ok, so a reboot...and then a hang when NVDI loads.
Hmm...that was the same as yesterday.

Disable the DFB1x & still get the same effect, so it's not that.

Rename NVDI.PRG to .PRX & reboot & all appears fine (well, there's a warning about WDIALOG but at it boots to the desktop).

So, something isn't happy with NVDI at the moment.

When I next have time, I might delete all the support files off the C drive & try re-extracting the files from c.zip just to be sure the files are not corrupt.

More on that when I get my next a few minutes of retro time...hopefully!

In the meantime, if anybody has any other ideas of what to try, I'm open to suggestions!

[exxos]

Very odd I know the IDE can be sulky on the Falcon so you might be fighting that, but if other stuff is running fine then it seems unlikely.

I can only suggest you run a ST-RAM test on the Falcon as I really can't think why NVDI would fail. Never heard of that before.

I half recall having hangs and blaming NVDI, but I think it was the HDD driver loading which caused the hang. What are you using ? and is it up to date ?

[JezC]

Very odd I know the IDE can be sulky on the Falcon so you might be fighting that, but if other stuff is running fine then it seems unlikely.

I can only suggest you run a ST-RAM test on the Falcon as I really can't think why NVDI would fail. Never heard of that before.

I half recall having hangs and blaming NVDI, but I think it was the HDD driver loading which caused the hang. What are you using ? and is it up to date ?

Well, booting with everything else but NVDI & it boots OK to the desktop (with/without DFB1X enabled via the jumper).

I'm using HD Driver v11.14...not the very latest but it's been working fine on the Falcon before I tried NVDI.

I do have my own NVDI discs somewhere so if I can find them then I can try with those as well.

I should add that with the DFB1x running, using STzip to unzip the archives was quite usable, so the performance of the system seems greatly improved.

As soon as I sort out the NVDI issues, I plan to try some of the MIDI s/w with it...but should it be Cubase 3 (or Cubase Audio) or Logic that I try first...

[JezC]

Ok, so I decided to squeeze a little bit of retro time in amidst the other chores...

Deleted all the files from the C drive, unzipped the c.zip from the DFB1x page & copied them to C drive, re-ordered the AUTO folder & now it's booting with NVDI fine on both stock & accelerated modes!

Very happy with that as progress for now, so I'd better go & get on with the chores before my absence is noted.

Thanks @exxos for the guides & support etc. can't imagine it being much easier (other than avoiding the corrupted floppy!)

Next step (maybe this evening) will be to try it with a sequencer...