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************ Topic 16 Sat May 07, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) Sub: Head Rattle Problem HELP!!!! I just bought a copy of Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic by Electronic Arts and it rattles my head too often. I would tolerate it except it does quite offten while playing the game! Does anybody have any sugestions? I like the game but I 14 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 1 Sat May 07, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) Will not sacrifice my head alignment to play it. I was wondering, would putting it in ramlink work? Thanks in advanc. Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 2 Sat May 07, 1994 N.PHI [Toto] (Forwarded) I have also had experience with "Sentinel Worlds I" by Electronic Arts. I borrowed a new copy from a friend, and because it knocked my drive to near- death, I immediately exchanged it for another new set of disks, since EA games very rarely cause head-banging. But NO! the new set banged the drive the SAME WAY! Another bad company policy... Electronic Arts is notorious for making slow-load games in 64 format. Some games have benign ("Maverick Type A") protection, most have icky ("Maverick Type C") protection, and all of them seem to be real snails in I/O speed.... <frown>. Of all the EA games I have EVER tried, only "Racing Destruction Set" works from RAMLink, and then only conditionally. Each disk side must be data-copied into a separate 1541-style partition. During the course of the game, one switches "sides" by interrupting with a Super Snapshot cartridge and sending the "CP" command. Also, the game boot can be "captured" at the first menu. Believe me, RL makes a real difference here, and I only wish more games were like this or the RPG's from SSI. (SORRY, I don't think SW 1 will work with RL.....) P.S. You must use either the original disk or the captured boot to start the game. Toto ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 3 Sun May 08, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] (Forwarded) Category 4, Topic 42 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] at 20:14 EDT Will not sacrifice my head alignment to play it. I was wondering, would putting it in ramlink work? Thanks in advanc. Dan.. Just a thought... if you have Jiffy-Dos then you should be able to give the command @B . This turns of the head bump for everything except disk formatting. Bob ....Commodore on board! IBM in trunk. ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 4 Tue May 10, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) No, I do not have Jiffy Dos. But I do have Super Snapshot v5. Does Any one have any idea how to get the drive rattle useing this cartridge? Or know of a program that would kill the drive rattle before I booted the program and would last through out the game? Thanks for all the replies. :) Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 5 Wed May 11, 1994 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) How about this file: 5278 &C X S.PROCTOR1 871216 1260 47 20 Desc: Disables head bang on 1541 ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 6 Sun May 15, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) I got that but could not seem to get it to work. :( Do you just load and run it or is there something special that has to be done that I am neglecting? Is there a command that can be sent from a super snapshot v5, JBEE? Thanks in advance. Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 7 Tue Jun 07, 1994 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) > J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] at 13:31 EDT > I got that but could not seem to get it to work. :( Do you just load > and run > # 5278 &C X S.PROCTOR1 871216 1260 47 20 > Desc: Disables head bang on 1541 This program is meant to be executed in the 1541's memory. I doubt this program will work in my MSDs so I will not bother trying but this should work for you. Put the program on a disk in your 1541 and then type this: open18,8,15:print#15,"&C":close 15 This should work, but I have no way to test it. Let us know if it does :) ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 8 Sun Jun 19, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) JB: I tried the way you sugested. But it did not work. :( All I got was an error from the disk drive (the red light flashed) and then when I loaded the program it still rattled. By the way I changed the line you gave me to OPEN 15,8,15 because if I tried the exact way you sugested I got an open error. I beleve that it was a typo. If you have any more ugestions, I would greatly appreacate them. Thanks in advance (as well as thank to the previous help). :) Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 9 Mon Jun 20, 1994 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) Yes, it was a typo, 18 instead of 8. ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 10 Sat Jun 25, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) Do you have any other sugestions? Ex. an other program to try? Thanks in advance. ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 11 Wed Aug 31, 1994 R.HARRIS1 [Randy Harris] at 21:59 EDT Get JiffyDOS from CMD. It lets you disable the head rattle. If your program will not run without rattling the head, JiffyDOS at least REDUCES the severity of the head rattle. ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 12 Wed Aug 31, 1994 C128.JBEE at 23:23 EDT Dan, Did you download the file as a USR file? Per the file instructions, that is a must. ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 13 Mon Sep 05, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] at 22:03 EDT Yes JBEE I did, and I could not get it to work, or at least to stop the head froq rm rattling. Do you have any other sugestions? By the way, I did get jiffydos and it does help, but it does not stop the head rattle. Thanks for all the help. Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 16 Message 14 Mon Oct 24, 1994 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] at 22:39 EDT I just got a 1571 disk drive and ran this program, and it works! No head bang! Does anyone have any ideas as to why? By the way When I said it works, I ment it works without the head banging. It always worked on my 1541 just banged the head a lot. Thanks in advance. :) Dan ------------ ************ Topic 17 Sun Jan 29, 1995 MC.PHOTO (Forwarded) Sub: 128 in 64 mode problems 128/64 major failure. 10 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 1 Sun Jan 29, 1995 MC.PHOTO (Forwarded) a bare wire touched the char ROM on the left side of the chip in my 128D. now no char set change (shift/c=). Have replaced: char ROM: 40 col video : all RAM chips: title screen says "192 bytes free".also, ruined a 2 meg REU. bare wire had 250 Mv (AC). NEXT STEP: PLA replacement? if you have a suggestion, leave mail at: 1. MC.PHOTO 2. R.DAY *s ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 2 Sun Jan 29, 1995 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) I would try the 6526 first if the C= SHIFT does not work. Can you print a character set change with ?chr$(14) ? If you can then I would look at the 6526 and CPU first. ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 3 Wed Feb 01, 1995 R.DAY (Forwarded) I have Max's 128D now. I got 3 new MMU chips, only $2 each. I put them in his 128D and just a black screen came up. Not even the 64 screen saying only 192 bytes free. The MMU chips are good because I tyed them on this flat 128. Next I will try the PLA chip. I have to unsolder it. Max has a 110 volt little fan in this 128D. Duck tape was taped on the wires with the 110 volts The tape slid down the wire and the - part of the wire was around the chr. rom chip. When I seen that I said at lest you should of used a 5 or 12 volt fan. He said he need a fan because some times he has his 128D on a week at a time. But this is something that his bad MMU will at lest make a screen come up, but with a good MMU the screen will not come up. Any one else know what else could be wrong if the PLA is not it? ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 4 Thu Feb 02, 1995 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) After checking the power supply to make sure it was not damaged I would replace the 6526 chips, check the z80, check the 8502, check the VDC. If any of those chips are completely nuked, you will not be able to start the computer. The 6526 chips are difficult to replace in a C-128D because they are not socketed and they most likely have been damaged anyways if the ROM was blown. So, if you have the power supply and motherboard removed from the case, you might as well replace them instead of being haunted by buglets from weak or damaged 6526 chips. ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 5 Thu Feb 02, 1995 R.DAY (Forwarded) It is fixed. It was the VIC and MMU. I did replace the PLA, that did not help so next I replaced the VIC and it worked :). I had the chips all ready too. They were only like $2 each from Jameco. Thank you for all the help Jbee! Max will not have a fan in this 128D now. ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 6 Thu Feb 02, 1995 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) You're welcome :) Nothing wrong with a nice 12 volt fan, though the C-128D I am using now has been left on almost 24 hours a day for several years with no problems. ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 7 Thu Feb 02, 1995 E.BOURDON1 [C128-Eddie] (Forwarded) I have just had a failure of my 128, so maybe someone will know what needs to be replaced. Here are the symptoms: It works fine in 64 mode...everything works great. In 128 mode, I cannot get it to list a directory or load off any drive, but occasionally it will load part of a file. I'll list the file, it seems OK. If I try to run the program, it gives an syntax error. If I list it again, all it shows is garbage for lines..and I have tried this with severeral different programs to no avail. I replaced the JiffyDOS ROM I had with the stock one, and the same problems persisted. Also, when attemping to autoboot a disk, it either doesn't load it, load part of it , or the drive light stays on. The drive I have with it is a JiffyDOS 1581 drive,but like I said,it wors great in 64 mode, but won't access ANY drive (I tried an extra 1581) in 128 mode,40 or 80 col. The video appears fine, as it shows a normal boot up screen I am going through 128 withdrawl, so any help/tips are welcome. -Eddie (formerly C128-Eddie :( ) ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 8 Fri Feb 03, 1995 R.DAY (Forwarded) It sounds like the other 64k ram in your 128 is bad. In 128 mode you have 2 banks of 64k. The bank being used in 64 modem must be ok. But the other bank in 128 mode must be bad. It my be just one ram chip. A lot of times with ram chips you can just piggy back a good one on a bad one for it to fix it. It does not work all the time like this but a lot. I would say go in the 128's moniter and put a or fill ram with $ff's just a page of ram. read it back. If it's all $ff's that ram is ok. Then fill it with $00's read it back. Look at how the bits are comeing back. Each chip uses 1 big for a byte. If it's the 3rd big not working then it's the 2rd ram chip that is bad. ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 9 Sun Feb 12, 1995 L.VICTORY [LURCH] (Forwarded) I have a somewhat similar problem but vice-versa. 128D in 128 mode wont work on an 80 column monitor. Just get a light grey screen- raster I think its called. The computer works fine in 654 mode. I have JiffyDos in it, also. I am using the monitor right now with a flat 128, no problems. What chips and where are they located in the computer, do I need to replace? This is the same computer, the 128d that I have the problem with when using my RamLink with it. After a little while I would get garbage on the screen and the computer would lock up with the RAMLink attached. That is with the timing jumper attached. Just interested in the 80 column problem. Lurch ------------ Category 4, Topic 17 Message 10 Wed Feb 15, 1995 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) After talking with Lurch in the RTC we double checked his fuses and those are okay. So, I am going to upload a little test program into Lib#9 this week for checking the VDCs and its DRAM. ------------ 4 | ************ Topic 19 Mon Aug 22, 1994 W.MAALOULI (Forwarded) Sub: Weird C128D behavior When kept turned on for a few hours at a time, my C128D starts corrupting the program I would be working on at the time, like adding stray characters to my program lines.Any ideas? 7 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 1 Tue Aug 23, 1994 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) The bad news is you have a hardware problem, the good news is your computer still works so it will be easier to find the problem. I usually recommend testing the power supplies first, but since that could be dangerous on a C-128D unless you know what you are doing, I would suggest trying to cool off the suspected chips and see if that makes a difference. If it does, you know what chip to replace. What you can try is putting a heat sink on the 8502 CPu chip. It sounds like a chip goes south once it gets heated up. If the computer works fine once it gets hot, then you know to replace the 8502. If the computer still freezes up, try moving the heat sink to other chips that feel hot. This is assuming you have unplugged the power cord to your computer before opening the case. What is your skill level btw on hardware repairs? Just asking since most chips in the C-128D are soldered to the board and can not be easily replaced. ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 2 Fri Aug 26, 1994 W.MAALOULI (Forwarded) Jbee, my C128D does not freeze up, it just starts to give error messages to commands that are perfectly valid, and also adds stray characters to my commands, therefore crashing the entire program... Your suggestion of putting a heat sink on the chip sounds like a good idea, and I will give it a try. As for my level of technical skills, I should be able to handle almost anything. (Heck! If I can insert catheters in the veins of my 500 Gms premature patients, I think I can handle a little electronic job...:)) I'll let you know what happens.THANKS!! ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 3 Thu Sep 15, 1994 W.MAALOULI at 22:39 EDT II seem to have isolated the problem to my 1571 drive. Somehow, whenever Ifunction of the computer itself remains unchanged. So when I load back whatever I had saved to disk, it does not run properly for the simple reason that the program is altered on disk already... I have no problem reading from the drive. Would cleaning the drive head help or is there a deeper problem there? By the way, I have no problem when I use my 1581 drive. I would deeply apreciate any help I might get. Thanks! ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 4 Thu Dec 22, 1994 B.PEREZ1 [BUTCH] at 23:52 EST Hello all, I am new here and need some help. I have a 128D and the 80 col mode does not seem to work. I can get the thing to work in 40 col mode under both 128 and 64 but there seems to be no signal at all sent when I switch to 128 80col mode. Is there any way to check the output or the cable. I know the thing used to work but it seems to have quit :( Thanks ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 5 Fri Dec 23, 1994 C128.JBEE at 14:37 EST Are you switching BOTH the monitor and C-128 to 80 column mode. Have you checked all the cables? When you press the reset key when the C-128 is set to 80 columns do you get anything? ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 6 Fri Dec 23, 1994 R.DAY at 19:49 EST I had this happin to a friends flat 128. Just the 80 column scrrenwould mess up. It would be ok in 64 mode. We would get little dots in 128 Geos. I put a new Vid80 column video chip in for him and put 64k of video ram in but that did not help. I found out it was the power switch. It was not makeing a good connection. I unsolderd it and toke it aports andart and cleandaned the connections by scraping it with a little screwdriver and that fixed it good. Then just try to tern it off or on as fast as you can if you have to. I bet this will fix your 128. ------------ Category 4, Topic 19 Message 7 Sat Dec 24, 1994 C128.JBEE at 12:55 EST Yes, come to think of it that might be a problem though I never had one that effected the 80 columns (only). A good many were defective and replaced though I still keep a new spare just in case. ------------ 4 | ************ Topic 21 Thu Aug 25, 1994 A.PLATT3 [Arthur] (Forwarded) Sub: MIDI: What IS it?? Hmmm....What exactly IS MIDI?? 7 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 1 Thu Aug 25, 1994 A.PLATT3 [Arthur] (Forwarded) I've seen the MIDI stuff selling thu CMD, and am wondering exactly what is midi. How does it work?? How does it work with electronic sound stuff?? (More pertinently, exactly HOW and WHAT does it do?) Thanks! Art Platt ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 2 Thu Sep 01, 1994 J.HAMBY5 [Jake] (Forwarded) I haven't done anything w/ MIDI so I'm certainly not an expert, but here's a quick answer. MIDI is simply a special kind of serial port which uses DIN connectors similar to the kind used to connect a Commodore disk drive or printer. Almost any kind of keyboard, sequencer, drum machine, synthesizer, or other electronic music equipment now has MIDI ports on the back, which allows you to daisy-chain all of your music equipment together. If you have the right software and a MIDI interface, your Commodore, Mac, Amiga, IBM, Atari ST, or whatever can control all of your keyboards and act as a music sequencer (record tracks, save them to disk and play them back later). MIDI has 16 different channels so you can program each piece of equipment to respond to different channels. Finally, on the IBM (and others) you often see .MID songs on BBS's which are a lot like SIDs in that they are only a few K, except that they can have 16 or more voices and sound better the more expensive of a sound card you have! ---Jake ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 3 Thu Sep 08, 1994 A.PLATT3 [Arthur] (Forwarded) So, MIDI IS cool. :) Now, so you're saying 16 voices?? Hmmm... can you explain...I mean, can each voice have a different definiton?? I notice on SidPlayer that it has an option of MIDI output: how does that work?? Does it actually send to the MIDI thing-I-mi-jig the characteristics of SID sound and send it to the MIDI keyboard? Or is it just the notes, but no diff. is sounds??? ::confused:: ??? Art ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 4 Fri Sep 09, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] (Forwarded) Basically, the Sidplayer program takes the 6 voice or 3 voice SID music and converts it into code that a MIDI keyboard can read. That way you can take all that music, and play it back. But, I don't think that SIDPlayer can do anything fancy. If the SID's are using filters or different effects they won't come through on the keyboard. Doc. ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 5 Mon Oct 24, 1994 C128.JBEE at 03:51 EDT > A.PLATT3 [Arthur] > I've seen the MIDI stuff selling thu CMD, and am wondering exactly what is > midi. How does it work?? How does it work with electronic sound stuff?? > (More pertinently, exactly HOW and WHAT does it do?) Think of MIDI as a better SIDPLAYER where you send instructions to tell the chip how to play music vs. digitized files where you send the sound chip a stream of zeroes and ones to reproduce sound. MIDI/SIDPLAYER is like sending someone sheet music. .WAV/.RAW files are like sending someone a CD-ROM. ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 6 Mon Dec 19, 1994 A.PLATT3 [Arthur] at 00:08 EST Well, another question...someone said above that maybe a sound card....well, I would like to take advantage of some of the sound CARDS aavailable, but, are they in any way MIDI compatible?? I mean, for instance, I can understand a keybaoard. But, are there external sounds cards that you can use with midi? If you take the route if a sound card, you would have to compose all of the music inside of the computer (constructing notes onto music on the screen) instead of just playing the keys on a keyboard and then having the keystrokes repeated. The sound card..humm...well, after thinking, could this be possible? What would be the most feasible would to be to edit the sound properties and send those to the sound card, but taking input from the keyboard (by daisy chaining the instruments). Are any of the above possible? ------------ Category 4, Topic 21 Message 7 Mon Dec 19, 1994 C128.JBEE at 01:31 EST To answer one part of your question, I do not think any MIDI package on the C64/128 allowed you to type on the music keyboard and have the sounds transformed into notes, if that is what you mean. Though the Advanced Music System from Rainbord does allow you to play with sounds on the C-64, transfer them to notes, and even allows you to print them out. ------------ ************ Topic 22 Fri Aug 26, 1994 A.PEROTTI (Forwarded) Sub: Skyles Cart port expanders How do you use your expander? 4 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 4, Topic 22 Message 1 Fri Aug 26, 1994 A.PEROTTI (Forwarded) HELP!!! I recently got a used Skyles Electric Works 2+1 cartridge port expander. I did not, however, get any instructions with it. I have my Super 1750 Clone and Swiftlink pluged into it and it is working fine. I would like to try other carts in the open slot. What are the switches for and how do I use them??? Thanks in advance, Tony Perotti ------------ Category 4, Topic 22 Message 2 Fri Aug 26, 1994 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] (Forwarded) Tony: If that cart port expander is anything like my Aprotek, the switches allow you to 'switch off' the cartridge in that slot, in other words, effectively disconnect. I don't know that that is what yours does but I suspect it is a decent guess. ------------ Category 4, Topic 22 Message 3 Mon Aug 29, 1994 R.HARRIS1 [Randy Harris] (Forwarded) I too have the same question! I was given a 2+1 and no manual. I NEED the info on how to set the DIPs!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!!! Randy Harris R.HARRIS1 ------------ Category 4, Topic 22 Message 4 Sun Sep 18, 1994 R.HARRIS1 [Randy Harris] at 23:43 EDT Here is what I learned from a friend: and from trial and error! The switches tilted forward towards computer is the ON position. From left to right they control the: +5 VOLTS (power), GAME, EXROM, & LROM lines. From what I was told, the GAME line is for autostarting game cartridges. EXROM is for other autostarting cartridges like SuperSnapShot. LROM is for other cartridges that are not autostarting, but can be called up by the user(VIZASTAR is a perfect example of this one). From experience, REU's simply need the +5 line on for power. Following this method, I've been able to get it to work for me. Hope this helps others! Randy Harris :) ------------ ************ Topic 23 Sun Feb 05, 1995 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) Sub: Hardware question I have a general harware question: 3 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 4, Topic 23 Message 1 Sun Feb 05, 1995 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) I was wondering, can used euipment when hook it up to my computer (a diskdrive, cartage or other pharaperal) can it damage my computer? Or wouldit just not work? Or is this impossable because of fuses or other safty precautions? Thanks in advance. :) Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 23 Message 2 Mon Feb 06, 1995 C128.JBEE (Forwarded) If you mean attaching a used 1541/71/81, n, you will not damage your computer. It is possible to damage it with a "used" REU or printer interface that uses the cassette port if that equipment itself is damaged. I have never damaged my systems with all the used equipment I have attached to it. About the only time I have damaged it was doing experiments or hardware upgrades that carried a certain amount of risk ;) ------------ Category 4, Topic 23 Message 3 Mon Feb 20, 1995 J.BARBER9 [Dan Barber] (Forwarded) Thanks. I feel better buying equpment now. :) Dan ------------ 4 |