exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Darklord wrote: 28 Jan 2026 19:14 Instead of briefly flashing "Alt RAM installed" it just says something like Alt RAM failed to install.

It's a message that's given like any other AUTO folder program does when run from there.

From the desktop, it just flashes, barely long enough to read then disappears (not a regular
pop-up type window).

Thanks.

From a completely cold start -- power off each time -- does it ever fail on a first boot?

My DSTB1 starts with AltRAM inactive and you have to enable it with a register write. Then you can install the AltRAM. If it's already activated, the first step might fail, but you still need to do the second step. Perhaps this is similar? if so, then it'll never fail from a cold start. Hence the test.

BW

Yes, it fails even from a dead-cold start sometimes.

Seems to be completely random though...

Thanks.

OK, so if the behaviour is the same from cold as from a normal start then the next obvious thing to do would be to capture that error message properly.

Simplest way would be to put a shell in the AUTO folder (emucon, mupfel, command etc) so you can run the Storm activation program and read what it's saying.

Boot-command-run-read-repeat until such time as you get an error to log.

BW

Er, well, it really is a simple message - pretty much it just says it fails to install.

Under FreeMINT, it's caught in the output window so I can take a picture fairly
easily.

Hang on...

Okay, here's the failure:


And here's a success - just to see what it looks like:


Thanks.

Darklord wrote: 30 Jan 2026 18:21 Er, well, it really is a simple message - pretty much it just says it fails to install.

Well that's a very different thing to failed to install -- can't be found!

OK, next, using the tool of you choice, make sure data and instruction caches are off. Then give it another crack.

I don't know how Storm identifies itself, but it if happens to be within the range TOS3 marks as cacheable, then it may be as simple as that.

BW

Badwolf wrote: 30 Jan 2026 21:42
Well that's a very different thing to failed to install -- can't be found!

OK, next, using the tool of you choice, make sure data and instruction caches are off. Then give it another crack.

I don't know how Storm identifies itself, but it if happens to be within the range TOS3 marks as cacheable, then it may be as simple as that.

BW

I'll try that next. I asked about this problem with the STorm team. They are exceedingly helpful and
stated that the STorm-ST board wasn't really designed with '020 or '030 machines. They had 68000
machines in mind, and giving them extra memory. They sent a version they tried to make '030 ready
and while it seemed to help some (more successful attempts installing on average), it never really
fixed it. They did try though.

That'll be for later though - I'm off to play some D&D with friends. :)

Okay, very happy to report that my STorm-ST board seems to working 100% now,
thanks to the efforts of Holger Zimmerman. Holger contacted me after seeing
some of my posts concerning the STorm-ST board and began working the problem.

After multiple revisions, across several e-mails, lots of testing (and probably nearly
a hundred boot-ups and reboots!), the problem seems to be resolved.

First off, thanks to the STorm team for such an excellent product (one of many they
have produced), and second, a hearty "Thank you!", to Holger for his efforts.

I tell you, it's hard to beat the Atari community. :)

Can a moderator please add (SOLVED) to the title?

I am unable to do so... Thanks. :)

Done

PhilC wrote: 11 Feb 2026 18:18Done

Thanks much. :)