Badwolf's STE536 investigation

[exxos]

@Badwolf STE536 turned up So thought I would start a new thread on it as not to confuse other goings on.

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So initially it booted up with the "buggy" 206 build.

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So I used my ST IDE card and booted GB6..

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VDI text effects is running slow which I don't recall ever seeing before. Basically running slower than a stock STE with blitter , but only on that test it seems.
EDIT: My own STE536 shows 73% on that test.. so not sure why that is, but I am classing it as "normal" for the moment..

So I turned blitter off, and loaded a STFM test file..

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So nothing obvious looking wrong there...


Currently I am letting it run YAARTTT to see what happens...

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[exxos]

YAARTTT passed fine one full loop.

I flashed the new ROM.

This is my benchmark taken from my main thread the other day.

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This is BW's..

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Likely within the margin of error for the tests at a glance.. But not sure I trust the lower end scores even just being a few % out..

TL;DR

So far I cannot see anything amiss ..yet...

[exxos]

DOTT running from IDE with my current firmware and TOS206.

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So I can't see anything wrong with the tests I have done so far.

I can only suggest @Badwolf send me his STE to do more tests on.

[exxos]

Been running GB6 for the past few hours and no problems at all yet..

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It will have to come off my desk now anyway. Got lots of FPUs to finish testing

[Badwolf]

Well, thanks for checking.

I think that's probably what we expected.

Perhaps if you're coming along to Cyberlegends I'll bring the STE (hoping to make it this year!).

BW

[exxos]

Perhaps if you're coming along to Cyberlegends I'll bring the STE (hoping to make it this year!).

Its likely I won't be going

Though i'd be reluctant to produce anymore STE536 until your problem is sorted out in case there is a problem with the firmware or something which only shows up on your machine..

[exxos]

So @Badwolf STE is back on my desk.. Just trying the ST536 EXP3 firmware for the hell of it.. and it seems happy.. I ran my own STE536 on @Badwolf's STE overnight and was fine.

Just loaded GB6 and YAARTTT rom IDE and seems fine.. I somehow seem to have lost my ID card so cannot try DOTT currently (hope to find it later) .. I'm not trying DMA port I don't want that headache right now !

I think all this is just a case of very minor hardware tolerances causing stuff to glitch on the PLD logic. After all the hardware combinations I have tried over the past few months, over the end is sort of insight..

While there are "minor" hardware issues on the 536 itself, I'm classing them as mostly non-critical but will be fixed in future revisions. Majority of problems I think can be fixed in firmware at this point.. So I probably don't need to hang onto your STE much longer now @Badwolf ..

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[Badwolf]

While there are "minor" hardware issues on the 536 itself, I'm classing them as mostly non-critical but will be fixed in future revisions. Majority of problems I think can be fixed in firmware at this point.. So I probably don't need to hang onto your STE much longer now @Badwolf ..

Well done! I am immensely proud that my STE is proving such a PITA.

I imagine in years to come you'll wake up in the middle of the night panicking that you've failed to revise for the BW STE test.

BW

[exxos]

Well done! I am immensely proud that my STE is proving such a PITA.

I imagine in years to come you'll wake up in the middle of the night panicking that you've failed to revise for the BW STE test.

Well it seems to have one last puzzle currently...

DOTT is running, but while chip music and sound effects are working, the talking isn't

EDIT:

Copied DOTT from my PC zip back onto the CF card and now all sound working again! *phew*

Now whats the key to turn off chip music again ??

EDIT2:

OK F5 !