Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!xanth!ames!amdcad!sun!imagen!atari!portal!portal!cup.portal.com!dbell
From: dbell@cup.portal.com (David J Bell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Flaky 1040st
Message-ID: <27799@cup.portal.com>
Date: 11 Mar 90 18:17:30 GMT
References: <9003072218.AA03079@vuse.vanderbilt.edu>
  <193@raider.MFEE.TN.US>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 31

Jeff Cantwell writes:
>> Help!  My 3 year old 1040ST seems to be getting a bit flaky lately.  I
>> get frequent bombs when trying to run software that used to be fine.
>> Mostly I get three bombs (address error), or two bombs (bus error),
>> and an occasional TOS error #35. I am also getting messages that the
>> disks are unreadable or may be damaged, but after several tries, or
>> rebooting they work fine. I am using commercial and public domain

Dana Holt replies:

>	It sounds like (to me) that it's a disk problem. I'd get a 3.5 in.
>drive head cleaner and give that a try TOS #35 error code is (*I THINK*)
>'a corrupted (unexecutable) program'. Hope this helps..
>				dlh@raider.MFEE.TN.US


Another possibility is one that's been driveing me to distraction, almost
to the point of scrapping my 520-ST entirely: loose/flaky contacts to the
VLSI and DRAM chips.  Early on I noticed that a solid (I hate to admit to
this) SLAM!! of the keyboard unit on the desk top would make it behave for
a while, at least sometimes.  :{)   I talked with a friend who's a tech at
a local Atari shop, and he told me that early units were shipped before
Atari started using hold-down clips on the PLCC sockets (the large square
leadles chip carriers...).  Mine turned out to have the clips, but pulling
and reseating the ICs helped a lot, for a while.  Now its back to the same
old tricks, and I'm getting *really* tired of it!

Good luck!!


Dave           dbell@cup.portal.com