Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt
From: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Questions on Mega4/HD/Laser setup (+ Dave & Bea)
Message-ID: <3011@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 29 Jun 90 17:23:48 GMT
Reply-To: grahamt@syma.UUCP (Graham Thomas)
Organization: SPRU, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Lines: 59

I have a couple of questions about strange behaviour on our two DTP
setups.  But first: I was looking through the ROM address space of TOS
1.4 and was delighted to find (at address $FD0294 AND $FD3206) that Dave
Staugas still (after 2 ROM revisions) loves Bea Hablig.  Not only that,
but (at $FD124E) that Jim (Eisenstein?) loves Jeneane.  Are there any
more little messages lurking around that I've missed? There must be lots
of room for this in the TT TOS!

Now the questions.  We have 2 systems consisting of Mega 4, SH205 and
SLM804 laser printer, which are used mainly for word processing & DTP
work.  Both exhibit (different) strange behaviour, and I'd be grateful
for any info, clues, hunches, etc. about what's going on.

For a start, they use the DMA channel differently.  System A (the older
one, bought mid-87 I think) connects using the route Mega->Laser->Hard
disk.  System B (bought Spring 88) connects Mega->Hard disk->Laser.  I
think system A is the way the manual says it should be done, but neither
system will work the other way round.  (I've seen a magazine review
where the reviewer - Richard Seel who used to do DTP reviews for the UK
ST World mag - had the same problem and had to connect his system the
'wrong' way.)

System B sometimes has problems booting up - it boots from floppy unless
we switch on the Mega first (after the printer of course), then switch
on the hard disk, then do a warm reset.  System B also sometimes comes
up with 'Data may be damaged on drive D:' messages when we exit from
First Word Plus (v3.14 UK).  (Both hard drives are configured with
Atari's software, the version released before HDX 3.01 - no, not 3.00, I
know that was buggy.  The version before that even.  The 4 partitions
C: - F: range from 2 to 10 mb.) As far as we know, the disk isn't really
damaged.  A reset 'cures' the problem. 

System A has a different foible.  Sometimes after exiting one program
the machine won't run another (which could be the same prog again, or
could be a different one).  After double-clicking on prog no.2, the prog
is highlighted, the mouse pointer changes to the busy bee, then nothing
else happens.  Generally, this takes a cold boot to clear.  A warm boot
doesn't do it (and a warm boot with the machine in this condition
bypasses George Woodside's virus guard bootsector on my bootup floppy).

Both these systems get used by several people, so there could be odd
things lurking around on the disk.  But I've run checks with DLII and
cleared out whatever lost clusters and zero-length files were there.  I
don't have any really exotic auto progs & accessories in there, just
things like foldr100, pinhead (1.4 currently), G+Plus, Little Green
Selector.  Both machines are running TOS 1.2.

Thanks for staying with this rambling monologue.  Does anyone have any
suggestions?  I'd be happy to answer any questions you think might be
relevant.  These problems are not fatal, but they're annoying, and
anything to alleviate them would be very welcome.

Graham

-- 
Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK
 JANET: grahamt@uk.ac.sussex.syma   BITNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@UKACRL
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