Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!xanth!nic.MR.NET!shamash!nis!sialis!orbit!pnet51!steve
From: steve@pnet51.cts.com (Steve Yelvington)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Infinite reboots
Message-ID: <478@orbit.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 89 17:06:26 GMT
Sender: root@orbit.UUCP
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.
Lines: 30


 

I received helpful notes from a number of people about my problem with the
self-rebooting ST, generally falling into two categories:
  * Hardware: Loose chips including the MMU, 68K and ROMs.
  * Software: Bugs in the DA startup code I was writing.
 Some tests including shutting the machine off for several hours and booting
from a blank floppy led me to the conclusion that the problem was hardware,
apparently exacerbated by heat from the internal power supply -- it didn't
crash until it had been on for 15 minutes or so. An Atari rep got quite
apoplectic when I suggested I could reseat the chips myself, so I had to send
the whole unit back to Sunnyvale. Atari's exchange-replacement program seems
quite fair, almost generous, but when things go awry all this shipping gets to
be a pain in the neck and wallet.
 Now, on the software issue: The DA startup module, written after I received
some very helpful tips from several folks including kbad@atari, seems to work
just fine; my hurriedly written skeleton desk accessory loaded and registered
in the menu OK. When I get my replacement ST, I'll add some bindings to
gemdos(), bios() and xbios() so that it will work with Sozobon and dLibs, and
release it along with a module that will make Sozobon work with Don Farmer's
GEMQ bindings.

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  stag!thelake!steve@pwcs.StPaul.GOV
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