exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 19:52 It wasn't but it is now and unfortunately, on the Mega, its made things worse. I'll try the H5 shortly. I now get a can't load RSC file when trying to load Gembench and everything else I get busy bee, new window, then returned to Tos screen.

I can't get 8Mhz stable on the STE now.. I don't get it. Theres something wrong with STram access but no idea what.

The problems seem to get worse the higher the 5V rail is. At 5.30V its failing STram test.

exxos wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:01

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 19:52 It wasn't but it is now and unfortunately, on the Mega, its made things worse. I'll try the H5 shortly. I now get a can't load RSC file when trying to load Gembench and everything else I get busy bee, new window, then returned to Tos screen.

I can't get 8Mhz stable on the STE now.. I don't get it. Theres something wrong with STram access but no idea what.

I did try Yaart but it seems to take forever just to do test 1 & 2. Prgflags doesn't work either in Emutos and neither does Frontier. You gone broke it :P

p.s. see my edited last post for H5 details.

exxos wrote: 27 Nov 2025 18:06

Badwolf wrote: 27 Nov 2025 17:10 It's not something silly like a cracked floppy cable wire or something?

The IDE was acting up as well though..

Oh, I thought this was a DMA problem.

Are the motherboard data lines isolated during IDE access? If so, then the problem, if it's the same thing, must span both regimes.

CPU (ie. software) being the obvious one. I've seen HDDriver get so messed up that it stomps over floppy access, which it should have no hand in beyond providing the GEMDOS RW despatcher.

BW

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:03 I did try Yaart but it seems to take forever just to do test 1 & 2. Prgflags doesn't work either in Emutos and neither does Frontier. You gone broke it :P

p.s. see my edited last post for H5 details.

YAARTTT will go really slow when its not running from TTram..

Yeah, works fine on my H4 on the ST536 now, but I dunno.. I think think this project is cursed :)

exxos wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:07

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:03 I did try Yaart but it seems to take forever just to do test 1 & 2. Prgflags doesn't work either in Emutos and neither does Frontier. You gone broke it :P

p.s. see my edited last post for H5 details.

YAARTTT will go really slow when its not running from TTram..

Yeah, works fine on my H4 on the ST536 now, but I dunno.. I think think this project is cursed :)

I'm sure I saw an ST536 on Curse of Skinwalker Ranch the other day :lol:

Badwolf wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:06 Are the motherboard data lines isolated during IDE access?

Yes.

CPU (ie. software) being the obvious one. I've seen HDDriver get so messed up that it stomps over floppy access, which it should have no hand in beyond providing the GEMDOS RW despatcher.

On later boards I isolated IDE databus fully, it had that RW "trick" originally.. but if the IDE was FUBAR it stopped the ST from booting up.

I will try a later STE536 and see if it has the same problem..

Currently not even 8MHz is stable... I mean its pretty hard to screw that up.. but here we are :P

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:09 I'm sure I saw an ST536 on Curse of Skinwalker Ranch the other day :lol:

I am pretty sure this project could have its own show by now !

I just fiddled with the bus grant logic and it passed STram test then locked up.. I'm running 8MHz and hardwired TTram disabled in code and the SDRAM controller..

exxos wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:29

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:09 I'm sure I saw an ST536 on Curse of Skinwalker Ranch the other day :lol:

I am pretty sure this project could have its own show by now !

I just fiddled with the bus grant logic and it passed STram test then locked up.. I'm running 8MHz and hardwired TTram disabled in code and the SDRAM controller..

Ok, I'll leave you to have your "fun." PM me when you've got something you'd like me to test and i'll; do it in the morning.

PhilC wrote: 27 Nov 2025 20:34 Ok, I'll leave you to have your "fun." PM me when you've got something you'd like me to test and i'll; do it in the morning.

The plot thickens...

I hardwired the CPU CLK in the firmware to the master clock and it booted to desktop..ran GB6 fine (blitter crashes)

Will PM you this firmware, its "bare bones" so no TTram IDE etc, but it may give some clues..

EDIT:
Blitter now back up and working fine in GB6..

Bringing IDE back up..
IDE is found, but now its causing similar issues with the floppy not working....

Currently IDE is acting really weird..

It will auto boot and get a desktop just fine.. But if I try and load GB6, fails to load saying file not found as a GB6 error.. Then it goes back to desktop and if I press ESC C: drive comes back with the corruption problem again and floppy not working :shrug:

Its like IDE access is conflicting with DMA.. but IDE access is isolated from the ST bus anyway..

EDIT:

Put my own CF card in, now GB6 loads and runs fine :WTF: I had @Badwolf CF card in , maybe its simply got corrupted at some point :roll: But I dont know how a corrupt CF can lead to the floppy drive not working..

EDIT2:

The card works on a later STE536 version (not tried mods and firmware yet) so its not the card.. I think its due to the isolation buffers on the IDE which I changed last revision.