Hi, long time, no see

[algizmo23]

Hi, Allan from Leeds here. I had Atari 1040STfm back in 1993, got into it because a friend locally impressed me with his MIDI setup and wanted to sell one of his older machines, to buy some new kit. I'm no musician, but always fascinated by computers since an open day at local university, when I played a Star-Wars type game on one of their terminals. I dived into the ST world quickly obtaining a monochrome monitor, 60MB hard-drive and modems. Started at 2400 baud, then progressed through iterations up to 14400. Loved being able to login to some BBSs and communicate globally with 'usenet'. Then one of the magazines included MiNT on a coverdisk. I was by then working at the university and downloading (ftp-mail) PD softwares from massive german archives. But MiNT held the promise of dial-up internet on ST directly. Weeks of down-time research saw me experimenting with MiNT and a TCP/IP stack whose name escapes me and much frustration with glitches until one day I was able to access via little known number the universities own dial-up number and found their webpages. I was then using a 4MB STE having by that point obtained 3 STs, one faulty and providing some spares. Great days, fondly remembered. I have lost all that kit, but recently obtained a 520 STfm (working) and 520STE (not working) preparing to recover some of that nostalgia (only back-ups exist in my head). Hugely impressed by the wealth of info and upgrades/spares available here. Tremendous work guys. Users, even if experimental always need trailblazers for guidance and inspiration to tackle ambitious projects. my aim is to restore STE to working condition and upgrade it to 4MB with modern HDD emulator and complete some paths not-taken.

[chronicthehedgehog]

There's plenty to keep you busy

[sporniket]

Welcome

[stephen_usher]

Well, in the early 90s on JANET I'd usually go to umich.edu or University of Kent for my shareware/freeware downloads.

[JezC]

Welcome to the forum!

[algizmo23]

There's plenty to keep you busy

Indeed. Tos 1.04 upgrade, memory boost to 1024Mb and SD4ST on its way...

[algizmo23]

Feeling pretty good today. First upgrade to STFM 520, a recapping of PSU completed this eve. No BOOM!, Just smooth clear graphics and 1st-time boot. So content was I, within 30 mins stripped down ailing 520 STE, which had on previous inspection proved capable of only a mess of coloured vertical streaks/smears on screen. Inserted PSU and 1st successful boot to desktop. Soo good when hopes align with capabilities (many years since last time soldering, I have relearned what a pain desoldering can be), glad I took my time and kept Exoss' fine PSU article up on laptop screen for guidance. Took the new confidence and stripped and cleaned both floppy drives. Now my choice is 'nother recap kit? Or lash out on new toroidal PSU?

[exxos]

I had some STEs back in the day which appeared to die when using 4 simms. One machine would start working again if left overnight and took 2 simms out. In the end I chucked those machines. It was before I figured out it was the PSUs causing such problems. Still regret chucking those machines all these years later. Live and learn i guess