exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

So I pulled my Mega ST4 that runs DarkForce (my bbs) offline so I could do some upgrades.

I installed the STorm ST board with Cloudy and the real time clock.

It's a straight forward installation and everything went pretty smooth until I went to install
my AdSpeed accelerator board into the STorm/Cloudy setup. Very difficult, very tight fit.

As in I had to use all my strength and put my weight on it to get it to go in. Don't think i've
had that happen with any of these sockets before.

So first test run. Booted right up to a beautiful TOS v2.06 screen. For about 3 minutes, then
it locked up. Rebooted, went to a very garbled/scrambled colors screen and no further. At
once I suspected the stacked boards so I pressed on them again and rebooted. Booted right
up, lasted about twice as long as the first time before locking up again. So I took the Mega's
MB out and put it on a hard (but cushioned) surface and worked around the AdSpeed with
my fingers and weight, pressing, pressing, pressing. I did this every 5 minutes for about an
hour.

Finally tried it again. Seemed to work fine. I let it run for 3-4 hrs with no lockups so I put
everything back together and restarted the BBS.

Working at the moment, but I'm really paranoid now. :)

2 other things. The status button in the General CPX in the Control Panel does not report the
8 megs of ALT-RAM that this board is supposed to give. I ran Gembench 6 and it did find and
test it (if it doesn't find any it just tells you). So I don't know what's up with that.

I also installed the real time clock that came with this kit. I know, the Mega ST already has a
battery backed up clock but I wanted to see if it made a difference it now BBS Express! ST
shows the date. It didn't. So my conclusion is it's Express that is not Y2k compliant.

Has anyone else installed the STorm ST/Cloudy combo and used an accelerator board with it,
and if you did, did you have a hard time getting it to fit?

Thanks all.

No software is required when using EmuTOS. Alt-RAM and RTC (if connected) are detected and used automatically. You can verify this by looking at the boot screen.

For TOS 2.06 and MagiC driver programs are needed that should preferably be placed in your AUTO folder:

• ALTRAMON.PRG adds the alternate RAM to TOS memory management. From then on, this memory is automatically used by TOS and (most) applications.
• RTC_TIME.PRG synchronizes the computer’s clock with the RTC and makes TOS 2.06 Y2K-compatible.
  Note: Under EmuTOS or after running RTC_TIME.PRG under Atari TOS, you can set the RTC using any program that changes date and time, such as the control panel. However, RTC_SET.PRG is also provided as a separate program to set the RTC.

Tools and drivers.

More here about STorm on ST.

Darklord wrote: 19 May 2021 08:43 The status button in the General CPX in the Control Panel does not report the
8 megs of ALT-RAM that this board is supposed to give.

That is normal. General CPX only report Fastram above the 16MB 68000 limit. Use SI.CPX ...

DoG wrote: 19 May 2021 14:55 No software is required when using EmuTOS. Alt-RAM and RTC (if connected) are detected and used automatically. You can verify this by looking at the boot screen.

For TOS 2.06 and MagiC driver programs are needed that should preferably be placed in your AUTO folder:

• ALTRAMON.PRG adds the alternate RAM to TOS memory management. From then on, this memory is automatically used by TOS and (most) applications.
• RTC_TIME.PRG synchronizes the computer’s clock with the RTC and makes TOS 2.06 Y2K-compatible.
  Note: Under EmuTOS or after running RTC_TIME.PRG under Atari TOS, you can set the RTC using any program that changes date and time, such as the control panel. However, RTC_SET.PRG is also provided as a separate program to set the RTC.

Tools and drivers.

More here about STorm on ST.

Okay, thanks for all that info.

The card has EmuTOS and TOS v2.06 both flashed on it. I'm using TOS v2.06 at the moment.

I do have both those programs in my auto folder, as well as all the tools. I received a floppy
disk with everything on it when I purchased it.

frank.lukas wrote: 19 May 2021 16:37 That is normal. General CPX only report Fastram above the 16MB 68000 limit. Use SI.CPX ...

Oh, okay. I'll grab that CPX next chance I get.

Thanks Frank! :)

SI.CPX worked. It correctly shows almost 4 megs of ST RAM and
8 megs of TT RAM.

Thanks again Frank.

/me happy. :)

Okay, I've run into a rather odd problem but I don't
want to go into great detail just yet...

Is anyone out there using the STorm ST board with
an accelerator like the AdSpeed?

Also, anyone using it with Xcontrol?

Thanks.

Darklord wrote: 28 Jun 2021 04:15 Is anyone out there using the STorm ST board with
an accelerator like the AdSpeed?

Also, anyone using it with Xcontrol?

My Stacy has a Storm and a TF536, although I haven't had much chance to actually use it, since I barely got the hardware work done before being away from home for an extended period. Seemed to work fine though.

I haven't installed Xcontrol on that machine.

derkom wrote: 28 Jun 2021 09:53
My Stacy has a Storm and a TF536, although I haven't had much chance to actually use it, since I barely got the hardware work done before being away from home for an extended period. Seemed to work fine though.

I haven't installed Xcontrol on that machine.

Okay, if you don't mind, install Xcontrol (CPX's don't matter, I've been testing mine with all disabled)

After that's setup, do file copies. Start small then gradually go larger, at least 200k or so...

Let me know if you encounter any problems and after each file copy please check the ACC slot
(drop down menu) where Xcontrol resides.

When you get the time, that is. :)

Thanks!

PS Are you using the RTC with the STorm ST?

Darklord wrote: 28 Jun 2021 16:30 Okay, if you don't mind, install Xcontrol (CPX's don't matter, I've been testing mine with all disabled)

After that's setup, do file copies. Start small then gradually go larger, at least 200k or so...

I can do that, but I'm still away from home for another week.

PS Are you using the RTC with the STorm ST?

No, since the Stacy has one already.