exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I just scanned in the Language disk that failed to read on my USB drive using my Greaseweazle/internal floppy drive. I then saved it as an MSA using HXC and converted it onto a blank disk on the Atari and it worked. Feeling a sense of achievement.

Also that disk won't run on my usb floppy so it's the contents and not the physical disk that it takes issues with. It can go Flux itself. :lol:

stephen_usher wrote: 12 Apr 2021 09:51

rubber_jonnie wrote: 12 Apr 2021 09:27 Can I ask if your machine has had the mandatory fixes applied? You might need the bus pull-up resistor packs changing in order for the US and FDD to co-exist properly.

Actually, it won't help a great deal. The US is far stronger than the pull-ups and clamps the ACSI/DMA bus to 3V whatever sized pull-ups you use. Maybe there are some 3V zeners on the lines or something but you'll never get more than 3V with an US connected, at least the Lotharek version. I've investigated this a great deal last year.

I've just had a think. If the floppy drive works (by work I mean no corruption) with the UltraSatan plugged in and running EmuTOS, but not when running TOS 1.04 then it must be a ROM issue. I'm running EmuTOS from .PRG not ROMS so maybe that's a thing?

stephen_usher wrote: 12 Apr 2021 11:03 My old DMA chip couldn't pull the bus data lines down well enough with the US plugged in, causing issues with the floppy. Swapping the DMA chip helped as the new one was stronger.

Which DMA did you swap to @stephen_usher ?

Mine is pictured here and it appears to be socketed if I'm not mistaken?

I'll have to go up into the loft and check. The replacement one I got from the Exxos store.

One of the mandatory fixes adds a pull up resistor pack to the DMA data lines IIRC. That helped for me.

Well, apart from one of my Megas where the DMA was faulty :)

Yes, the DMA is the chip next to the WDC1772 and it does appear to be socketed.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 13 Apr 2021 23:33 One of the mandatory fixes adds a pull up resistor pack to the DMA data lines IIRC. That helped for me.

Well, apart from one of my Megas where the DMA was faulty :)

Yes, the DMA is the chip next to the WDC1772 and it does appear to be socketed.

Had this done for me a while back. It fixed my UltraStan corruption issues.

I don't get why emutos works with ultrasatan plugged in but not TOS104..

exxos wrote: 14 Apr 2021 00:08 I don't get why emutos works with ultrasatan plugged in but not TOS104..

It does. I have an SD card filled with games and demos which need TOS 1.04. The issue is if I dare format a disk on my native OS I get lots of odd problems with corruption. Most of my floppy content comes from using MSA on 1.04 or just moving from PC to SD card.

By formatting my floppies in EmuTOS things are pretty trustworthy. But no way will I use the default format. If I did use it without the UltraSatan plugged in, It would work, but since I have the UltraSatan in use all the time there's no point so EmuTOS format is best because it's reliable with this configuration.

Have you tried FCOPY3 ?

exxos wrote: 14 Apr 2021 08:52 Have you tried FCOPY3 ?

Uploading a video of that test. I don't think it's easy to explain this stuff, but when you see the video it will be so obvious! :lol:

Interesting as this lets you see the errors as they occur. If I were to format disks with the UltraSatan unplugged then the disks act weird when being used with the UltraSatan plugged in.

Good thinking with FCOPY3!