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

[PhilC]

I spam the forum all the time, I think people mostly just skip over it all.

@exxos If it's your own forum, are you really spamming it?

Hes not wrong, I think I just did.

[JezC]

Think I've found the second donor system while testing another STFM last night...not booting to the desktop but showing a black centre with white borders.

I'm hoping that points to a ram fault but that's probably not an issue for one of my H4s.

I also managed to win the bidding on a Falcon ram board last night, so that will be useful for the second H4 (when the ram arrives)... almost makes up for missing out on the Mega 1

Of course this just means that I am running out of excuses for not finishing the first H4

[rubber_jonnie]

Think I've found the second donor system while testing another STFM last night...not booting to the desktop but showing a black centre with white borders.

I'm hoping that points to a ram fault but that's probably not an issue for one of my H4s.

I also managed to win the bidding on a Falcon ram board last night, so that will be useful for the second H4 (when the ram arrives)... almost makes up for missing out on the Mega 1

Of course this just means that I am running out of excuses for not finishing the first H4

@JezC Yeah, sounds like a RAM problem, just got to ID the offending chip. Or chips!

As for the H4, well you better get rolling, even mine is running now

[JezC]

Well, I do have the DiagROM EPROMS programmed and both donor boards are 2 chip TOS so that could be a plan.

I guess I need to prove that I have a working serial cable with a working ST first & then see what faults there are on each board!

I feel no pressure to rush the H4s as I have already set my target to be done by Christmas

[exxos]

@JezC Yeah, sounds like a RAM problem, just got to ID the offending chip. Or chips!

As for the H4, well you better get rolling, even mine is running now

Indeed, we all can now start picking on @JezC to get finished now

[rubber_jonnie]

Yeah @JezC get moving!

[JezC]

That's what I love about this forum...all the wonderful non-judgemental forum members


Seriously though, I will be making slow progress on the first as I don't have a soldering iron at home ATM so it will all be done in fits and starts after work


So be nice & play fair please!

[exxos]

Seriously though, I will be making slow progress on the first as I don't have a soldering iron at home

[Tomswork]

I'm going to take my h4 to work to use the fancy heat gun on them it has a vacum and temp laser probe on. I will be by myself in a hugs lab because everyone is taking time off for spring break and the covid scare



Tom

[JezC]

Managed to squeeze in a few minutes of retro-activity between DIY chores this afternoon...


So I now know my 2x 27C512 EPROMs programmed up with my split & chopped Diag ROM image are working OK in a different 520 STFM.

Next task (hopefully this evening) is to find a suitable null modem cable to connect it to a PC so I can try to diagnose the ram fault on one of the donor boards (and possibly also what is stopping the other donor board even booting to show any activity on the display if time allows).

Will probably try GhostLink to prove the cable operation between PC and working ST & then with DiagROM in the donor(s)...