========================================================================= (C) 1995 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection wait for the U#= prompt and type JOINGENIE in uppercase. Answer the ensuing prompts for screen width and country. When asked for the KEY/OFFER CODE, please enter MXC524. You must also supply a valid credit card number. ========================================================================= ************ Topic 3 Tue Dec 22, 1992 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] (Forwarded) Sub: FALCON 030 - Help and Questions Ask here if you need help or have a technical question to ask about the FALCON 030 computer. This topic is designed to inform users about the FALCON and discuss it CURRENT details and characteristics. 202 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 1 Wed Mar 08, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 00:21 PST Rich, >..are you saying you recommend it [Neo4] for the Falcon? Sure, it is definitely a superior desktop, especially when used with Geneva, but because I have the same memory problems you have, I am forced to unload it at times also. Whenever I want to run a large program, I use my boot- manager(MouseBoot) to strip the system down(unload any unnecessary Auto programs and ACC's). I was hoping Outside would help in my situation also, as I can't afford the 14 meg upgrade (I get the feeling that the people who make computer RAM chips have a strangle-hold on the market, as RAM prices have not dropped over the years like other computer accessories, yet they should have). I spoke with Chris at Computer Direct about your problems with Outside VMM and he said that if it bombed for *everything* you tried to run with it, you may have it configured wrong, or may not have the latest version. He said it should run with most GEM compliant programs, although there may always be the odd program that doesn't like it, in which case it would have to be run without Outside. He also suggested that you might want to talk to Yat Siu of Lexicor(you can reach them by e-mail on GEnie, or check the "graphics" area as they are also available there). What other programs have you tried under Outside that gave problems? I should be getting my copy within the next few weeks so I'll let you know how it goes at this end when it arrives... *************** Pete, >...DOOM is a fast paced, first person perspective game in which you >run around in a realistic 3D environment killing everything in >your path.... Sounds like rush-hour traffic... :) Frank Z. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 2 Wed Mar 08, 1995 T.HEBEL [Spud Boy] at 19:20 CST Does anyone know anything about RATSoft BBS software? I am using version 2.0g (or was it j?). I have heard a few references to people using it recently and I am trying to find out if they are still around. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 3 Wed Mar 08, 1995 B.DEWITT [Perfesser] at 18:59 MST Can anyone tell me whether the Falcon (or any Atari computer) can access the World Wide Web, and if so, how? I read somewhere (I think) that there was an Atari page on WWW. Th'Perfesser ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 4 Thu Mar 09, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 01:53 EST Perf, There are quite a few Atari pages, and anyone can access the Web ... but to browse the Web graphically, a proper Web browser is needed; otherwise you'll get odd HTML-formatted text (readable, but looking like a WordPerfect document with the codes showing....). A Web browser for the Atari running MiNTnet was posted on the Net last week, but that's all I know. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 5 Thu Mar 09, 1995 S.LYSTER [Stu Lyster] at 07:28 PST Perfesser - there are *MANY* Atari pages. The most complete one is the MERIT site at the University of Michigan. Any telecomm program set to ANSI or VT100 will let you communicate with the WWW. You do not get the fancy graphics of a proper IBM front end, but you do get around just as easily. I am on the WWW and the MERIT gopher FTP site almost every day. I use Flash 2.21 on my Falcon. Stuart ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 6 Fri Mar 10, 1995 R.THUROW [Rich] at 03:56 CST Perf, As Al said and let me add that you can surf the WWW using lynx and any terminal program that supports VT100 emulation. No graphics, but all the text is there. Most internet providers offer lynx these days. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 7 Fri Mar 10, 1995 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 19:56 PST Spud Boy, RATSoft support BBS is at (909)481-1927, the author (Steve Hughey) is running the support board again and doing the sales from what I gather for now on. To many people probley getting their hands in the green... probley more so than the author. He's running the support BBS on the Falcon now. Version 2.1b is soon to be released. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 8 Mon Mar 13, 1995 W.DUDAN [Simplissius] at 07:59 EST Falcon owners will be interested in a new hard drive series from Sea- gate. The drives are small: 5" x 4" wide x 0.75" high. This fits right into the area where the 2.5" drive was. I've got an IDE 854mb and a 524mb SCSI is listed as well. Seagate may very well come up with a SCSI in 854 size (hope so). Please post this in hard drive topic. Symp ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 9 Mon Mar 13, 1995 AEO.1 [Albert Dayes] at 12:24 EST Were any prices given on the 854 meg IDE drive? -- Albert @ AEO ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 10 Mon Mar 13, 1995 D.ASHTON1 [Stargazer ] at 19:06 EST Simplissius, Any idea on the cost of these new Segate HDs? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 11 Mon Mar 13, 1995 E.MATHESON at 21:33 MST Hi Falcon Folks! I only recently bought a used Falcon so I'm not up to speed on what sort of messages have been posted here (I notice there are more than a couple dozen archives of Falcon discussions in the Library). But hoping someone will be kind and save me the trouble of downloading all those, I have two main questions/concerns. Hard disk reads and writes, especially to my Syquest are terribly slow in comparison to my Adspeeded Mega ST (TOS 1.04). The Falcon reminds me of my old 520 ST with TOS 1.0 which was also dreadfully slow reading, writing or deleting files on the hard drive until I came across a couple of programs designed to remedy that (i.e. FATSPEED and PINHEAD). Also converting to TOS 1.04 cleared up the problem on the ST. Running those on the Falcon has no effect. So what, if anything, can be done about this on the Falcon?. The internal HD is faster than the Syquest, but also like molasses compared to the Megafile or Syquest on my Mega. Second question. One of my favorite utilities, DC Shower, doesn't work on the Falcon and using the SHOW command built into the Falcon is also slow as molasses and terribly inflexible for reading files. Is there a good Falcon utility for quickly looking at text files? My Falcon is a 4/65 megabyte unit with TOS 4.01. Is this slowness, the fault of TOS 4.01? What would I gain from a later TOS like 4.04? Also, HOTWIRE seems to run, but not from the AUTO folder. Is this fixable? Universal Item Selector is OK in ST resolutions, but not so for other modes. Is this fixable? Thanks for any information volunteered. Is NVDI similar in purpose to Warp 9? Eric M. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 12 Mon Mar 13, 1995 MUSE [Tomas] at 23:40 PST Eric, The fix for HotWire (v3.0) is to run TT_INST.PRG which is on the HotWire master disk. There is a Falcon patch by CFJ called TOS4_FIX that allows DeskManager and MaxiFile III and others to work normally on the Falcon. It's in the libraries. DC Shower is a tough thing to loose, but HotWire's global block feature can help you install readers, viewers, editors, players, etc. for any file type you may find while in MaxiFile. You can do the same thing at the Desktop level as well. Personally, I think the Atari hard disk drivers are slow. ICD can help you with that. You didn't mention the versions of your software, that would be helpful. re: Warp 9 and NVDI similar in purpose? Uh, yes and no. Lot's of differences and many things in common. ===Tomas=== ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 13 Tue Mar 14, 1995 I.POSSEHL1 at 19:29 CST Eric - I find TitEd by Raymond Hill to be a nice text editor/viewer. To my knowledge it works on all ST series computers including the Falcon. I believe there is a demo or shareware version here in the Library. Another text editor I have always liked in the one in STorm (I wish it were seperate from the terminal program). Iver ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 14 Tue Mar 14, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 22:02 EST Eric, I use and love the Revenge Document Displayer, or RDD. It is a non-GEM viewer. You view text by moving the mouse or using the arrow keys. If you hold shift while moving mouse or pressing arrow keys, it scrolls a page. You can link up utilities with it and also a text editor. RDD passes the file you are viewing as a parameter to the editor. (there is one problem with this, but it is easily fixed by changing the NEWDESK.INF file or by using NeoDesk). I can send you the good version if you decide to use RDD (and of course, if you don't feel like fixing it yourself.) The text scrolls very fast, even in hi-color res (it works in all res's except true-colour). I think it is here in the lib, but I got it from a friend who used to be on Compuserve. Hope I helped... The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 15 Wed Mar 15, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 00:09 EST Tomas, So, are you saying that ICD utilities would make my drive (stock 84 MB that came installed in the falc) read and write faster? Where can I get them and how much should I expect to pay? Are there any other features? Thanks. The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 16 Tue Mar 14, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 22:31 PST Anybody have any problems with running Calamus SL under Multi-TOS on a Falcon? Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 17 Tue Mar 14, 1995 MUSE [Tomas] at 22:45 PST Hamlet, That's my belief, yes. You will need the ICD Pro Utilities and they can be had at all your good Atari dealers, m'friend. Or you could send Email to ICDINC. ===Tomas=== ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 18 Wed Mar 15, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 01:34 PST Eric, I have a Falcon 4/85 with TOS 4.04, and have both my internal IDE and the external SCSI formatted with the Atari Hard Drive Utils, but I certainly wouldn't call them "slow as molasses". In fact they seem fairly quick. However, since we can't compare them very well on-line, you may want to try the ICD utils. One of the advantages with these is that they have configurable read/write caches which will speed up hard-drive access considerably(at the expense of RAM). There are a number of utilities in the works to replace DC Shower, but until they are released, one of the best all-purpose viewers is called 1stGuide(or it's earlier release, 1stView). It is available in the libraries here, and will allow you to view GEM,IMG,IFF,XIMG, JPG picture files, ASCII and 1st Word text files, RSC files, SAM, SND & AVR sound files, and MPG movie animations. It puts these in a scrollable resizable window, so it's pretty handy. The earlier version, 1stView, does all of the above except the sound files and MPG/JPG's. Takes up less memory. These can be run as program or accessory, or set up as installed applications. NVDI is similar to Warp9 in that they both accelerate screen display. Some of the differences are - Warp 9 includes mouse acceleration & control, screensavers, and desktop picture/pattern/ font; NVDI has a rudimentary mouse accelerator, font replacement, but none of the others. However it has SpeedoGDOS built in and handles TrueType and Speedo fonts as well as the regular GDOS bitmaps. NVDI's screen acceleration also works in the Falcon's color resolutions whereas Warp9's doesn't do much for 16 colors and up. NVDI3's implementation of SpeedoGDOS is very solid and fast. It comes with drivers for most printers and the ability to print to IMG graphic file. It has a number of CPX's to adjust it's settings which are very handy. If you're not imovably fixed on HotWire, you may want to consider getting FlexMenu from Trace Technologies. It provides quite a few of HotWire's features but runs in a small GEM-Window, thus allowing you free access to the normal desktop. ******************* Dan, >Anybody have any problems with running Calamus SL under Multi-TOS >on a Falcon? Ehh? Multi-Sloth? I have problems running *anything* under Multi-TOS! In fact, programs don't really *run* under Multi-TOS, they get carried on a stretcher!! :) Don't you have Geneva yet? Dan @ Gribnif is working on making Geneva & MiNT work together, so that looks to be like the *real* replacement for MultiTOS, ie. what MultiTOS should have been. Frank Z. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 19 Wed Mar 15, 1995 S.WINICK at 06:07 EST Hamlet, >> ... would make my drive (stock 84 MB that came installed in >> the falc) read and write faster? Many of the early production Falcons had the drive grounding plat incorrectly mounted on the wrong side of the hard drive, which resulted in the drive spinning down, slow reads and writes, and overall poor performance. The symptoms you're describing could very well be caused by that incorrect mounting. The grounding plate should be mounted on the side of the drive furthest away from the internal Falcon power supply. Have that checked by a qualified service technician or Atari service center. Sheldon (Computer STudio - Asheville, NC) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 20 Wed Mar 15, 1995 TQUINN [Terry~Sysop] at 23:03 EST Since this topic has exceeded 200 messages, they have been archived and are available in Library 13 as File # 35514 (FALCON36.ARC). This archive covers the period between December 6, 1994 and March 15, 1995. Terry Quinn ST RT Sysop, BBS Janitor and sometime Topic Cop. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 21 Wed Mar 15, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 21:35 PST Frank, i run Geneva at work, but I want to get prioritized multi-tasking, and MiNT- Net, and Linux, and, and... Geneva is pretty good, but Gribnif pisses me off because that won't let me use Newdesk, I've gotta have a RAM-hog alternate desktop, which I don't want. Plus, their item selector is nice, but it needs to be sizeable like UIS (which Geneva ignores, double-grrr). I have found that Boxkite handles Geneva fine, though. Dan BTW, I've had great results with Multi-TOS (which is faster than Geneva) on all of my programs except Cal SL. No matter what I do, I get no keyboard in Calamus when MTOS is present, even with no AUTOs, ACCs, etc. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 22 Thu Mar 16, 1995 B.SEMAAN [Binary Sound] at 02:11 CST Eric, Although not as versatile as DC Shower, I've found GUCK to be the best user transparent replacement for the Desktop's built-in text viewer. I'm not sure, but I believe Keith Gerdes said he was working on a multipurpose viewer for the Falcon. I don't know the status of it though. As for the hard disk being slower on the Falcon than ST's, that's a definite fact of life. The ICD driver is faster than HDX, but still runs slower on the Falcon than on an ST. I know that at least part of the problem has to do with the Falcon having higher res video with more colors. My own experience shows about 25-30% difference between the Falcon in 16 color VGA and a 1040ST with TOS 1.4 in medium rez (using same SCSI drive and driver). You're speed will take much less of a hit if you use ST medium or Hi, but who wants to do that with a Falcon? Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 23 Thu Mar 16, 1995 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 05:18 EST Dan, What version of MultiSloth do you have? The one I have takes ~35% of my CPU speed away. It's turns my MSTE 16mhz/cache system into an 8mhz system as far as speed. Geneva only takes 1 - 2% of the CPU speed away and GEM stuff only looses 1% in speed compared to NewDesk (built in GEM stuff) with the exception of Gem Windows (which is faster than MT). Geneva - Graphics = 104% CPU = 98% MT - " " 86% " " 63% In other words, I cannot tell a difference in speed between programs running with Geneva and them running without Geneva. I cannot say that about MultiTOS. My programs come to a crawl. Also, I can run 100% of my programs under Geneva. With MultiTOS, I give it about 60%. Warp 9 works as normal under Geneva but not with MultiTOS. If it doesn't work with Warp 9, it doesn't get run on my system. Since I can run Warp 9 under Geneva, it is even faster. One MAJOR thing, Geneva IS SUPPORTED and UPDATED. BTW, just some friendly chatter and comparisons. No attack meant. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 24 Thu Mar 16, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 19:09 PST Wayne, Download the latest version of MTOS, I believe it's 1.12. _MUCH_ better than 1.0-1.08. Also, remember that MTOS prioritizes, which Geneva doesn't. You _really_ multi-task, so if you have multiple programs in memory, it'll slow down depending on the config. The original commercial version should never have been sold, IMHO, it was a kludge. Since Atari have disowned it and their computers, support has been unpredictable, though present. It can now be worked on by anyone, so improvements pop up every once in a while, usually first on the Internet. BTW, the promised update to Geneva hasn't shown yet, so hold the statement about support. What was the last date on an update, anyhow? I think my MTOS was updated last October or November. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! 8^) Dan BTW, I have nothing against Gribnif or Geneva, just clearing the air. Like I said, I use it at work. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 25 Thu Mar 16, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 22:16 EST I need to have some work done on my Falc obviously... I should have the hard drive checked, really (or in fact a whole new larger one installed), And I really would like to get a line-level output built into it, I've heard a rumour that Toad is working on it. Sometimes I think Atari screws themselves with some of the things they plan out badly. For instance, Why can't I hook a SVGA monitor into the Falc and get 640 x 400 x TC or even higher res? Why does it only work in 320 x 200? Did I miss something? Yes, I know ScreenBlaster fixes this but why didn't Atari Do it in the first place? Oh, well. I also NEED a FPU REALLY SOON. I'll have to call Chip Merchants. Thanks for the input. The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 26 Fri Mar 17, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 00:11 EST ICD Pro HD Utilities I just purchased ICD's HD Utilities for $47 from TOAD Computers along with a Syquest 270 removable drive. I hooked the Syquest to the SCSI chain as SCSI 0 along with a CD Rom drive running under ExtendDos as SCSI 5. First you must run ICD Boot before any of the other utilites will work. I used ICD's format prg to format a 270 meg Syquest Cartridge and then installed the ICD boot program. However ICD boot would not recognize the IDE internal drive and kept going to the Syquest. I finally had to reinstall Atari's system boot program to get the system running again. My internal IDE 84 meg drive is making some wierd "clunking sounds" I checked the drive with both Atari's markbad HDX program and ICD's Clean up. No bad sectors show up but when I try to use TuneUp to defrag and optimize the drive, TuneUp stops with an error message before completing the bubbling of files to one end of the partition to optimize for reading or writing. No files have been lost yet but that clunking,clicking sound has made me nervous enough to back up all files to the Syquest. By the way Frank, have you tried OUTSIDE yet? I still can't get satifactory results with that program. A new Falcon owner! (Used) RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 27 Thu Mar 16, 1995 E.MATHESON at 22:44 MST Thanks everyone for your guidance on my Falcon's slow hard drive operations. I sent away for ICD Pro Utilities today. I look forward to the comparison. I also ordered NVDI. I'm going to give some of these other file viewers/editors a shot. I sure do like my DC Shower on my Mega. Heck it even works when showing a file from Universal Item Selector. S.WINICK, I'm intrigued by your comment about some plate being on the wrong side of the hard drive on early Falcons. When UPS delivered the computer from some well known Atari developers, I had no choice but to open it and look inside. The former owners had obviously experimented with it as it had only 2 screws holding the case together and NO SCREWS holding the power supply or hard drive in place! They were just rattling around loose inside. Subsequently, I have replaced the screws and the thing is solid enough now. But I don't remember seeing any plate on either side of the hard drive. I might have to open it up again and have a looksee. By the way, do other people's Falcon's make as much whirring noise as mine does (coming mainly from the hard drive)? My Mega's a lot quieter. Thanks again all. Eric M. P.S. By the way, the former owners of my Falcon did not send the owners manual. Mostly, I don't think I would need to refer to it. But I do have another question that it might answer. Based on my fooling around with my external Syquest and getting it to run on the Falcon, it seems to me that the Falcon insists on having an external SCSI device set to number 0 (zero). Is this right? Can I do something about this? If I set it to number one, the Falcon doesn't recognize it. I would like to keep it on number one so I can also transport it to my Mac which has its internal HD set as SCSI zero. I have two Syquests and the only way it will recognize SCSI 1 is if the other Syquest is also set to SCSI 0. Bummer if it has to be that way. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 28 Fri Mar 17, 1995 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 05:06 EST No, MiNT is at version 1.12, not MultiTOS. There is a difference. It's not MiNT that slows the system down to a crawl, it's the AES portion of MultiTOS. MiNT may have had some updates (the latest I have) but, MultiTOS hasn't been updated in a long time and has NO support. While the AES portion of MT needs MiNT, they are still 2 seperate entities. While Geneva's update is a little slow in coming, it trust that it WILL come. I doubt a new AES portion of MultiTOS will ever come out. The latest update of Geneva was later than the last update of MT (NOT MiNT). You are right though in that the commercial release of MT was a joke and should have never been sold. It is a kludge that doesn't work with a lot of software. I would smoke it but, Atari took away the pipe when they dropped support of MT, AW, their computers, etc. and went off to play games. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 29 Fri Mar 17, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 04:32 PST Dan, >I've had great results with Multi-TOS (which is faster than >Geneva)... Sacrilege! Blasphemy! Off with his head!! :) Seriously, though, I have a hard time believing that! If you had said that MiNT was faster, I might have believed you, especially if you were running command line/networking stuff...but..Multi-TOS?? What programs do you run with it? I've tried it two or three times and usually couldn't get more than about 10-20 minutes out of it without crashing and lock-up(not to mention the dreadful slow-downs on the system). I've never heard anyone call Multi-TOS fast...until now, that is. (..it's not April Fool's day, is it...?...) Frank Z. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 30 Fri Mar 17, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 05:00 PST Rich, I'm still waiting for my version of Outside. It was on back order. It may be a few weeks yet. I'll definitely let you know about it when it arrives. Eric, Although I've heard it said that the Atari Hard Drive Utilities expect the external drives to be in order(ie 0, then 1, then 2) as far as ID #'s go, my experience has been contrary. I have an external SCSI hooked up to my Falcon which was originally set to ID #6, or something like that, and it worked fine. I have it set to ID #1 now. One thing you have to make sure is that the Boot Driver is polling the ID #'s. When the computer boots up do you see it scanning the different numbers to check for other drives? If it isn't, you can change that using the "HD Patch" program Atari released. It allows you to set which drive ID #'s to scan for. Frank Z. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 31 Fri Mar 17, 1995 D.ATKINSON3 [Damon] at 07:04 CST Eric M., > the Falcon, it seems to me that the Falcon insists on having an > external SCSI device set to number 0 (zero). Is this right? Can > I do something about this? When you get the ICD pro utilities it will recognize the other device numbers. Don't worry, be happy. Damon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 32 Fri Mar 17, 1995 ICDINC [Tom] at 08:41 EST Rich, Our software should recognize the internal IDE drive. YOu might try giving Howard here a call. He is at 815-968-2228 ext 235 on M,W,F from 10 to 2pm CST. - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 33 Fri Mar 17, 1995 K.GERDES [TraceTech] at 18:06 CST Bob S., >I'm not sure, but I believe Keith Gerdes said he was working on a >multipurpose viewer for the Falcon. I don't know the status of it >though. Not just for the Falcon necessarily... Missouri's Text & Hex viewer modules work in all graphics resolutions. However, the Picture viewer (ShowPics) is restricted to "ST compatible" resolutions and supports a comparatively limited number of graphic file formats. The package is essentially complete -- the software is 95+% done, but the docs are only at 10%. ;) Therefore it's been sitting idle for various "lack of ...." type reasons. So unfortunately this product is still vaporware -- something I try to avoid! There are _way too many_ companies that should 'put up or shut up' in our market, so that's what I did....I shut up about it. - Keith ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 34 Fri Mar 17, 1995 DMJ [dmj] at 18:31 CST Dan Phillips, - Geneva is pretty good, but Gribnif pisses me off because that - won't let me use Newdesk... This is not Gribnif's fault--Newdesk is too firmly integrated into the AES. Geneva replaces the AES, so Newdesk gets "replaced" as well. Geneva can be run without a desktop, and there are other alternatives besides NeoDesk. - ...their item selector is nice, but it needs to be sizeable - like UIS (which Geneva ignores, double-grrr). I believe if you run UIS after Geneva in the AUTO folder, it will replace Geneva's item selector. Programs which _specifically_ call Geneva's file selector, though, don't use the same system call that UIS is intercepting, so UIS never gets a chance to run. This would only be in Geneva-specific programs. - I've had great results with Multi-TOS (which is faster than - Geneva)... Now THAT'S a claim I've never seen anyone make! I'm very curious how you got MultiTOS to be faster than Geneva, if you're using the released version everyone has (not the "beta" versions that have been floating around). ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 35 Fri Mar 17, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 19:18 PST Let me start with a possible solution to the IDE drive problem. Didn't I read somewhere that the internal drive needed to be formatted with ICD's software to run it? Of course, it might have been that it needed to be formatted with AHDI. Then again, I may not have a clue. I do know that I don't like the Atari utilities (and what's the point of using software that is no longer supported?). Okay, MultiTOS and Geneva. Let me start by saying that I use both in the "quick-and-dirty" mode, i.e. load it up and _go_. I have found both programs to be rather crash-prone (esp. when running SL, DynaCADD TT, and LDW Power 2). So sue me for expecting too much... I haven't got a clue about this MTOS/ MiNT semantic conflict. I run only MINTNP.PRG. I believe it is v.1.12b. Since this software is free, it's _always_ Beta, technically speaking. (Like I implied above, I don't buy unsupported software, which MTOS sort of is and Geneva isn't (not supported, that is ;^) Keep up here! So I don't count the original MTOS) Now, I run MINTNP and I get an AES 4.1 or some such message, so I don't know what I'm really running, MiNT or MiNT integrated with MTOS. Anyhow, I run either multi-tasker (being semantically liberal), and my screen saver at work (on my 4/16/240 TT), the PD one with the spinning Fuji logo, and the Fuji goes like mad w/ MTOS/MiNT. It goes about the same with Geneva as without. GemBench also returns slightly higher numbers with MTOS/MiNT. My programmer friends greatly prefer MiNT. The problem with MiNT is lack of good docs. We are working things out, trying to get a good GEM.CNF together to post for all to play with. It is slow going, though. BTW, I've put UIS 3.3 just about everywhere in my AUTO folder and Geneva just runs right over it. I think it's because it loads with TASKMAN.ACC, which obviously loads later. I really hate the fact that I have to give up the built- in desktop, I've been very happy w/ TOS 2.06 on up. I use Teradesk at work, but I find Newdesk much faster and it "memorizes" key presses so that you can go faster than the computer for input. Now, if I can just get around this MiNT/MTOS/Cal SL debaucle... Dan BTW, I posted Speed Res Card and Skunk card specs in topic 12, check it out! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 36 Fri Mar 17, 1995 DMJ [dmj] at 23:02 CST Dan, I am sure Gribnif will release the new Geneva when it is ready, and not before. They _do_ believe in quality control. I'd put it in my pipe and smoke it, but I don't smoke. ;-) Hamlet, - Why can't I hook a SVGA monitor into the Falc and get 640 x 400 x - TC or even higher res? It has to do with bus bandwidth. You _can_ do 320x480x65K, which the new Photo Show Pro I'm working on will switch into automatically (if you like). - Yes, I know ScreenBlaster fixes this but why didn't Atari Do it - in the first place? Pick whichever reason you like, because nobody will ever know the real one... ;-) Eric M., - ...it seems to me that the Falcon insists on having an external - SCSI device set to number 0. This may be Atari's hard drive software; try changing the ID when you install the ICD software and see if it makes a difference. ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 37 Sat Mar 18, 1995 I.POSSEHL1 at 00:40 CST Eric - Actually, I believe the internal HD in the Falcon is rather quiet. Seems to me that the whirring is from the internal fan? Iver ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 38 Sat Mar 18, 1995 J.BATES15 [JAB] at 02:12 EST Eric, Good choice going for the ICD Pro Utilities. That should allow you to set any SCSI number on your external drives. I believe that AHDI checks ID #0 and if there is nothing there it stops looking, while the ICD stuff can be configured to check all the SCSI ID#s. Later, JAB ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 39 Sat Mar 18, 1995 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 05:19 EST Dan, Just running MiNT alone will not give you a new desktop look (3D, etc). running with MT (new AES) will. MT is the new AES portion. MiNT is like an addition to TOS. MiNT is a totally seperate animal. You can however add Atari's new AES (4.x) to MiNT. With Geneva, I can boot up as I normally do with ALL my auto folder & desk accessories. Geneva is definately faster where it counts. While there may be a few items that it's 1 - 2% slower at (not noticable normmaly). it is a LOT faster at Dialog Boxes & Windows and doesn't take 35% (VERY noticable under MT) of my CPU speed away. Since I can use Warp 9 under Geneva, it really blows MT away. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 40 Sat Mar 18, 1995 D.SMITH200 [Dave] at 13:27 EST T-Man, I've got Outside running solid on my TT. What problems are you having? Perhaps I can be of some help. Dave ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 41 Sat Mar 18, 1995 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 13:36 EST I use MultiTOS and like it. I recommend using PS-Control to give less CPU time to the AES and more to the applications. Use MINT 1.12 with NVDI for greatly increased performance. AES 4.1 is quite faster than AES 4.0, but I think it's still in beta. Rename MINT.PRG to MINTNP.PRG. One of the advantages of MTOS is that it is more universal, and that new european software take advantage of it, or are at least compatible. The old software is mostly compatible. Also the desktop looks the same; you can use the same newdesk.inf and icons with or without MultiTOS. And last but not the least, it is free with the purchase of the Falcon. I found that when I got the Falcon, I had to find substitutes for some programs that I was using on the ST; mainly because they would not be compatible with the Falcon itself. It ended up that the substitutes were much better than the older programs! Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 42 Sat Mar 18, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 11:49 PST Apparently my copy of MINTNP has AES 4.1 in it, because I'm not running a separate PRG for the AES. I also use NVDI and the TT and the Falcon scream with MTOS. I really appreciate Tintin's comment re: PSCONTROL. Will get. If you have any other suggestions for greater usability with little hard-core configuration, i.e. Linux, MintNet, I'd be very interested in hearing them. (I guess I should just get into the MTOS topic, huh?) Damian, Never meant to imply that Gribnif aren't a great company, they do a very thorough job, which is appreciated. Besides, they have the only install programs I've ever gotten to work, on any platform. :^) Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 43 Sat Mar 18, 1995 J.BATTEY1 [Dal.I-Dotter] at 14:53 CST >Programs which _specifically_ call Geneva's file selector, though, >don't use the same system call that UIS is intercepting, so UIS never >gets a chance to run. This is true of NewDesk also. None of the desktop functions -- such as "Read .INF file" -- trigger UIS. John L. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 44 Sat Mar 18, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 17:18 EST Just wanted to comment on the File-selector thing... I noticed that alternate file-selectors won't be called up under Newdesk also. That's a real pain, because I use Selectric and also Superboot, so all my Newdesk files are in a folder in my AUTO folder. It would be real nice if every time I wanted to read the .INF file I could just have good old Selectric go right to the path for me. Oh, well, I use NeoDesk now. I also have the problem with Geneva's file selector replacing Selectric. I know why this is, though. I have an SC1224 monitor and there is a bug in the current version of Geneva that it will not load up in any interlaced res's if you run Geneva from the AUTO folder. So I have Superboot install Geneva as the GEM Auto program. This makes Geneva run even after the ACC's are installed, running right over ANY alternate file selectors I have installed. I figured out that if I run Geneva in the AUTo folder and Selectric after it, Selectric will install as the file selector, but then it won't boot in hi- colour res, like I normally do. I reeeeally am anxious for the new version of Geneva, so I can have all these problems fixed... :^} The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 45 Sat Mar 18, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 21:54 EST Dave One of the biggest problems I was having with Outside involved my internal Connor drive. As of today (Thanks to S.Winick) I have moved the grounding plate to the oposite side of the bracket from internal power supply . What a difference that made in the drive's responsiveness. The clunking,clicking noises are gone!! It's like I had a new internal drive installed!! It is hard to believe that a grounding plate on the hard drive bracket could be that important but IT IS. I set up a blank partition on the internal drive of 16 megs. Configured OutSide for maximum memory on partition D. I then watched ImgCopy 3.5 crash again. With the internal drive removed as the problem I finally discovered that OutSide and ExtenDos Pro do not get along. I move a partition of GIF graphics off the CD Rom disk onto my Syquest 270 and tried OutSide again. ImgCopy 3.5 worked fine ( a little slower but no crash) when accessing the Syquest. My conclusion now is that I will need the ram upgrade if I want maximum speed with access to my CD ROM. RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 46 Sun Mar 19, 1995 W.DUDAN [Simplissius] at 09:54 EST E.Matheson: Re: TOS 4.01 Falcons I had the same problem with mine. Rf noise from the power supply got into hard drive and was creating read/write errors big time. My RateH.D. was about 500ms (yes, five hundred!). Removing that piece of phosphor-bronze from the side of the Conner 2.5" did the trick. What Sheldon said - except I left it out completely. RateHD went up to 20ms or so and the Falcon was no longer Bomb City! Be sure there is a ferrite bead over the leads coming out of the p.s. (Better yet, remove the power supply from the Falcon altogether) :) Symp ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 47 Sun Mar 19, 1995 DMJ [dmj] at 12:26 CST Tintin, - One of the advantages of MTOS is that it is more universal, - and that new european software take advantage of it, or are - at least compatible. Actually, a lot of European software that supports multitasking most likely does so to be compatible with MagiC. That, in turn, makes it very friendly to MultiTOS and Geneva as well. The Falcon also seems to be doing better in Europe than it is here, hence more software in Europe is compatible with it. Dan, - Apparently my copy of MINTNP has AES 4.1 in it, because I'm not - running a separate PRG for the AES. No, I believe the MINT.CNF file contains a line like "GEM=C:\MINT\GEM.SYS" which instructs MiNT to load GEM.SYS as the AES. - Damian, "Damien"--wouldn't want to get me confused with anyone else ;-) - Never meant to imply that Gribnif aren't a great company, they - do a very thorough job, which is appreciated. They appreciate it too, because I'm sure it cuts down on the amount of tech support they have to do. - Besides, they have the only install programs I've ever gotten - to work, on any platform. :^) Yeah, install programs generally leave me with a bad feeling. Usually you have no idea which system files they're tinkering with... Hamlet, - I reeeeally am anxious for the new version of Geneva, so I can - have all these problems fixed... I bet he's got most of 'em licked already. ;-) ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 48 Sun Mar 19, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 12:14 PST Can anyone tell me where to find the latest version of the modifications to be made to the Falcon's audio circuit. Got a couple of friends with Cubase Audio and they need the tweaks. Thanks,\ Dan Question mark omitted to add to the confusion. :^) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 49 Sun Mar 19, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 12:22 PST Almost forgot. There is a program in the library that patches Cal SL to prevent the keyboard absence problem I mentioned earlier. I believe it's under keyword MINT and Calamus. Seems to work fine, though now I need to fix the really slow single mouse click acknowledgement. This only seems to occur in Cal SL. DamiEn :^), Er, acyou're right. Told you I was learning this thing. I hadn't noticed that CNF yet. I've been playing with GEM.CNF. Man! Now I gotta fiddle with _2_ files. Sheesh! At least it prioritizes, though. Should come in handy during Postscript export from SL! Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 50 Sun Mar 19, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 21:41 EST I'm sure all of you Falcon owners have quit playing with "SAM" but l've just started. How come when I assign a sound to a system event the volume sounds normal but when it is played back during the system event, it is waay too loud. The particular sound I'm most perplexed with is the female voice "Welcome to Atari Falcon 030" That just about blows my speakers out. RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 51 Mon Mar 20, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 01:19 EST Eric, 1stview is my choice of a viewer. It's superb, and shows RSC files, IMG files, 1stWord documents in formatted form and many other file types in addition to texts. Look in the libs here -- and run it as a PRG and not an ACC! Install it in the desktop as the viewer, too. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 52 Mon Mar 20, 1995 J.BATES15 [JAB] at 01:29 EST Rich, The Falcon initializes the sound system to full volume at bootup. The only way around it is to turn off the speaker which kinda defeats the purpose of having SAM running. Or don't assign a sound to the system startup. When the control panel loads, the volume settings saved there become active and then everything is ok. Sorry there isn't a better option, it is just the way the Falcon is built. Later, JAB ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 53 Mon Mar 20, 1995 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 04:11 EST Al, Could you elaborate on why you always recommend to run 1stview as a program and not an accessory? I have it run automaticaly from HOTWIRE when I click on a DOC, IMG, or JPG file and it works great. What would be negative about having it intalled as an ACC. ??? John B. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 54 Mon Mar 20, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 01:51 PST Dan, I don't know if this is the latest version of the Falcon mods, but it's the only one I've got. Your friends with Cubase Audio may have most of this though as it's in their manuals... ******************************************************************* From: Sven Bornemark (Sven Bornemark) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech Subject: Falcon Audio Modifications Date: Wed, 01 Mar 95 10:40:00 +0100 Sender: news@ct.se Reply-To: sven.bornemark@p56.dada.ct.se Organization: Sven Bornemark Musik Lines: 57 A while ago I described the modifications made to my Falcon. Since it now sounds so good, I would like to share the complete modification procedure, so that fellow falconeers can enjoy the same *high quality sound* from their F030s. *Warning!* This sort of work should definitely be carried out by a qualified technician, since it includes replacing of teeny- weeny components. Besides, it could affect the warranty as well. *FALCON HARDWARE MODIFICATIONS* *as described on p. App 1-24 in the Cubase Audio Falcon manual* (Quote) *To remove the bass boost on the output: ? Change C58 and C59 from 100PF to 1000PF. ? Change R123 anr R130 from 10K to 15K. ? Change R59 and R68 from 100K to 4.7K. ? Change C95 and C90 from 0.033yF to 1K Resistor. *To reduce the speaker amplifier gain: ? Add a 100K resistor between pin 2 of U21 (@R119) and AGND (@R111). *To reduce the Input Gain by 6dB: ? Remove R56, R57, R90, R92, C21 and C81. ? Change R66 and R87 from 100K to 47K. (+) See note below! ? Add a 470pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R67. ? Add a 470pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R88. ? Add a 100pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R66. ? Add a 100pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R87. (End of quote) (+) [This is where Sven Bornemarks mod differs: this line should read: *Change R66 and R87 from 100K to 1.8K.* By doing so you end up with a sensivity of approx. -10dB, same as most domestic HiFi gear] I've also had the Clock Buffer Modification carried out on my computer, but I'm unable to say for sure if this mod has had any significant effect. All works fine, however. *Thanks* to all Falcon owners out there who showed interest in learning more about these sonic improvements on our beloved Falcons! Yours sincerely -Sven- *Sven Bornemark Musik* Lergodsv 79, S-238 40 OXIE, Sweden. +46-40 54 54 54 sven@dada.ct.se | 2:200/136.56 | 90:1102/116.56 *Hot software from the cold north* ******************************************************************* Rich, If you are using one particular sound at boot-up, before the control panel has a chance to load and drop the sound level, you may want to try loading that sample into a sample editor that will allow you to change the volume of the sample(can't remember if SAM will allow this or not). Frank Z. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 55 Mon Mar 20, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 20:38 PST ....Aaarrgh!!...Alladin formatting!! Let's try that again: ************************************************************** From: Sven Bornemark (Sven Bornemark) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech Subject: Falcon Audio Modifications Date: Wed, 01 Mar 95 10:40:00 +0100 Sender: news@ct.se Reply-To: sven.bornemark@p56.dada.ct.se Organization: Sven Bornemark Musik Lines: 57 A while ago I described the modifications made to my Falcon. Since it now sounds so good, I would like to share the complete modification procedure, so that fellow falconeers can enjoy the same *high quality sound* from their F030s. *Warning!* This sort of work should definitely be carried out by a qualified technician, since it includes replacing of teeny- weeny components. Besides, it could affect the warranty as well. *FALCON HARDWARE MODIFICATIONS* *as described on p. App 1-24 in the Cubase Audio Falcon manual* (Quote) *To remove the bass boost on the output: Change C58 and C59 from 100PF to 1000PF. Change R123 anr R130 from 10K to 15K. Change R59 and R68 from 100K to 4.7K. Change C95 and C90 from 0.033yF to 1K Resistor. *To reduce the speaker amplifier gain: Add a 100K resistor between pin 2 of U21 (@R119) and AGND (@R111). *To reduce the Input Gain by 6dB: Remove R56, R57, R90, R92, C21 and C81. Change R66 and R87 from 100K to 47K. (+) See note below! Add a 470pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R67. Add a 470pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R88. Add a 100pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R66. Add a 100pF NPO +/- 5% in parallel with R87. (End of quote) (+) [This is where Sven Bornemarks mod differs: this line should read: *Change R66 and R87 from 100K to 1.8K.* By doing so you end up with a sensivity of approx. -10dB, same as most domestic HiFi gear] I've also had the Clock Buffer Modification carried out on my computer, but I'm unable to say for sure if this mod has had any significant effect. All works fine, however. *Thanks* to all Falcon owners out there who showed interest in learning more about these sonic improvements on our beloved Falcons! Yours sincerely -Sven- *Sven Bornemark Musik* Lergodsv 79, S-238 40 OXIE, Sweden. +46-40 54 54 54 sven@dada.ct.se | 2:200/136.56 | 90:1102/116.56 *Hot software from the cold north* ****************************************************************** ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 56 Mon Mar 20, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:49 EST Flat, Without getting too technical, the difference between the way an ACC handles memory and the way an app does it is the main reason, although this can be negated via a NeoDesk accessory (STeno, EditPlus and so on) or a DA that uses the Gemini protocol. When you have enough RAM, as you do, there is little reason to choose the ACC version over the PRG. I know you are a Geneva owner who does not use Geneva, so I am also assuming that you are unable to run more than one instance of 1stView at a time, which would be frustrating to many other users. Running it as a PRG and installing it as the default viewer in NeoDesk means that literally any number of 1stViews can be open at once (OK, up to 256 )... Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 57 Mon Mar 20, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 23:59 EST Thanks for the replies guys. I see what you mean about a start up sound. Either edit the sound sample to reduce the level or forget about a start up sound bite. Another question?? I have changed the desktop color with the CPX color editor, saved the colors, then saved the NewDesk.inf. The next time I boot up the color is back to a solid blue vice the blue green color I had just changed. Must be something I'm forgetting! RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 58 Mon Mar 20, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 21:54 PST Frank, Many thanks! That seems to be the one I got off the 'net a few weeks ago, and promptly lost. I went back to find it recently and couldn't. Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 59 Mon Mar 20, 1995 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 22:43 PST JAB, There are two utilities for the Falcon to turn the internal speaker off. One writes a boot sector to a floppy and turns the internal speaker off prior to the memory test. Another you install in the AUTO folder of your boot drive and when it executes, it turns the internal speaker off. I am sure they are located here. If not, I can upload them to those that are interest. Of course, using XCONTROL and the General.CPX, you can turn off the internal speaker that way also. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 60 Tue Mar 21, 1995 J.BATES15 [JAB] at 06:06 EST Rodney, I have Speakoff.prg, never used it. The only time that I turn the internal speaker off is late at night when my roommate finally wants to sleep. Does Speakoff just turn off the speaker during booting and Xcontrol turn it back on? Later, JAB ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 61 Tue Mar 21, 1995 D.ATKINSON3 [Damon] at 07:29 CST John B., > HOTWIRE when I click on a DOC, IMG, or JPG file and it works great. > What would be negative about having it intalled as an ACC. ??? If it is run as an ACC, then everytime you click on a Doc, it will load another copy of 1stview. T-MAN, >I'm sure all of you Falcon owners have quit playing with "SAM" but l've just >started. Some of us Falcon owners have never seen "SAM". :-( > The particular sound I'm most perplexed with is the female voice >"Welcome to Atari Falcon 030" That just about blows my speakers out. If SAM won't do it, there are some sample editors in the Libraries here that will let you edit the volume of the sample. Damon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 62 Tue Mar 21, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 17:51 EST Another great way is to just rip that stupid speaker out! I had my Falcon maybe three days before the damn thing was removed. I had never heard such poor quality sound in my life. Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 63 Tue Mar 21, 1995 D.ENGEL [Thunderbird] at 18:48 EST P.FLETCHER4 [STumped]: >I had my Falcon maybe three days before the damn thing was removed. >I had never heard such poor quality sound in my life. I guess you've never used a PC clone... __________________ \hunderbird ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 64 Tue Mar 21, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 20:00 PST You'd think the F030 speaker was great if you tried using the replace- ment speaker that comes with the RAM Gizmo. They'd really be better off saying: "Tough, you want RAM, no speaker". Now I hafta go back in and yank the speaker (I think I blew it out!) Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 65 Tue Mar 21, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 23:50 EST T-bird, I use PC'S all day. I wouldnt even consider the PC speaker a sound system... ack! Dan, My Ram Gizmo didnt come with a speaker. However, I wouldnt have used it anyway. Like I said, the normal 030 speaker s*cked. Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 66 Thu Mar 23, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 02:35 EST T-Man, Don't know if you're willing to rip your computer apart, but I added a simple SPST switch to the back of the Falc to turn the internal speaker on and off at will. I have a set of self-amplified external speakers that people usually have for PC's. It's great to be able to ajust the volume without that stupid sound CPX. That means you can't adjust the volume, say, during bootup, or when running a TOS program, etc. It's neat to have an automated volume control, but I like to have control over the volume ALL THE TIME. I usually get on Genie at all hours anyway, so if there was a bomb error for some reason and I had to re-boot, BOOM- everybody in the house would be awake. I like the external speakers. For what it's worth... Frank Z., That thing you posted about modifying hardware --- That thing about reducing the amplifier output by adding a resistor -- Would that reduce the headphone- level output to line-level output so I can wire my Falc into a tape-deck for recording without the stupid BUZZZZZZZZZ I get from the internal amplification? Would it cut some of the interference I get to my CD-ROM maybe? Thanx The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 67 Thu Mar 23, 1995 J.BLOCKUS [JACKIE] at 18:11 PST T-Man & Hamlet, >but I added a simple SPST switch to the back of the Falc to turn the >internal speaker on and off at will. You don't even have to do that. Use the Atari Control Panel, go to General Setup, click "off" Speaker, then Save the configuration, click OK, close the Control Panel window then save to your NewDesk .INF file or NeoDesk Save Configuration. Then when you reboot your system, the internal speaker will not be used. You may hear it during boot up until the Control Panel ACC loads up and turns off the speaker but that's just a minor irritation for a short time. This is my setup and I too don't like the internal speaker. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 68 Thu Mar 23, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 22:26 EST Yup I was inside last weekend to change the ground plate on the hard drive (that corrected all the noises the drive was making and speeded things up right nice)@ That little speaker is such a tinny piece of junk that I just may remove it next time I'm in there. Regards RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 69 Thu Mar 23, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 23:06 EST Jackie, You're right, this is a possible option, but some of us who use SAM's boot-up sound option have sounds play before XControl or any other ACC's are loaded in. So the speaker still blasts. I'll probably end up ripping it out eventually, because I ALWAYS have that little switch turned off. Rich and friends, I never noticed any noises from the hard drive, but I would like to check that ground plate if I can. What should I look for and how should I go about fixing it, if, in fact, it is screwed? The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 70 Thu Mar 23, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:16 EST Jackie, You don't need the Control Panel to keep the setting you saved. The NEWDESK.INF contains the setting, once you have turned it off and saved it. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 71 Fri Mar 24, 1995 B.WOOD18 at 01:07 EST That's not so.. 've treid is and it need the Control panal loaded in order ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 72 Fri Mar 24, 1995 REALM [Joey] at 01:11 EST You could probably stick a small volume knob right on the speaker wire and mount it in the case. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 73 Thu Mar 23, 1995 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 22:28 PST JAB, Hmmm, I just tryed it... yeap, speakoff.prg turns the speaker off, once loaded, and if you have XControl.acc enabled with the General.Cpx and have it defaulted w/speaker ON, it comes back on. I have speakoff.prg on my boot drive (C), but rarely use it, I instead have a floppy disk with a boot sector written to it to turn the internal speaker off prior to booting as it is defaulted I do believe to max volume and touching a keyboard, makes it scream at ya. :-) I am wondering if there is a NVRAM setting for the internal speaker, so as that you may save the defaults to it to turn the bloody thing down or off completely. It's just a small headache, nothing serious though. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 74 Fri Mar 24, 1995 E.MATHESON at 07:54 MST My Falcon has been struck by a cosmic ray or something and doesn't work properly any more. It boots up fine from the hard drive when connected to the SM124 mono monitor. But it won't boot up from the HD in color. What's maybe wrong? I've tried it now using a VGA monitor, SC1224, and a TV with the same result: The memory check is fine and you can watch that progress on any of the monitors. But as soon as that finishes and you would normally expect to see it display information about the hard disk driver, it bombs and locks up. The screen shows a distorted image of two of the Atari Fuji symbols (both of these are half the size of the one seen during the memory check and they are halfway across the screen from each other, with green and red images of them slightly shifted from each other), a couple of bombs (directly side by side), and some other distortion. Most of the screen is white. The screen display leads me to believe that for some reason, it's trying to boot up in mono res (640x400) instead of medium (640 x 200). I've installed a med res NEWDESK.INF file on the HD which it seems to ignore. It is possible to boot up in color in low res using a floppy disk and then to gain access to the hard drive using ICDBOOT.PRG on the floppy. But for some reason, this technique ignores the floppy's AUTO folder and NEWDESK.INF file and boots up in low res. After booting, it is then possible to change color res modes. I thought maybe something on the hard drive was bad, so I eventually reformatted it entirely and installed a new hard disk driver on it, but the problem persists. I really got the Falcon to be able to boot up in color. This is not good. Eric Matheson ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 75 Fri Mar 24, 1995 ICDINC [Tom] at 10:47 EST Eric, THere is a setting in our HDUTIL program that allows you to force the boot up resolution. Perhaps you have set this to something that your color monitor is not capable of? - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 76 Fri Mar 24, 1995 B.WOOD18 at 11:47 EST Have you set the right option in ICD config. I had the same problemonce. You have to tell ICD what rez to boot in.. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 77 Fri Mar 24, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 22:24 EST The ground that I am talking about is a thin piece of bronze sheet that is attached to the hard drive bracket and makes contact with the top shield if in place. The shield that has the internal speaker mounted in it. The ground should be on the right side of the HD bracket not the side closest to the power supply. It made an unbelievable difference in my hard drive performance. Regards RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 78 Fri Mar 24, 1995 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 20:59 PST Hamlet, Like I said previously, I just leave a boot floppy disk in drive A, and the boot sector on this floppy turns the internal speaker off prior to initializing the built in TOS memory test automatically and it states off. I have not bookshelves speakers hooked up, but rather a 220 WATT Kenwood PowerAmp with 2 ADVENT tower speakers... when I want noise... boy do I get noise, but damn crisp, full of highs and massive bass stereo noise. :-) Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 79 Sat Mar 25, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 00:56 EST Rod, Gee, thanx for the low-down on all your hi-tech equip. I wish I had the $$ for that. So are you happy with that? I was thinking about buying the Technics series of amp, deck, and CD. I have a really old Technics amp but it's really old. The newer amps sound really good and have tons of features. Do you have a graphic equilizer? Do you do any HD recording with your Falc and what recording equip do you use? Thanx for the info. The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 80 Sat Mar 25, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 12:00 PST This is technically off-topic, but I've got a 14 Meg RAM upgrade for the Falocn for sale at $500, including shipping, if anyone's interested. Dan Phillips (619)583-5144 If you are local, I'll take off the $10 shipping and install for free. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 82 Sat Mar 25, 1995 E.MATHESON at 13:41 MST Yes, my the HDUTIL config was the culprit in preventing my Falcon from booting in color off the hard drive. Although using all the default choices or using the automatic INSTALLER program set it up to work fine on my SM124, it did not like booting in color. Since I only used my SM124 for a few days after installing my ICD Pro Utilities and everything worked fine, it took me awhile to realize it was bombing was related to the new HD driver. It turns out the ICD driver was configured to boot in ST medium resolution (I did check this during my trouble shooting but didn't think it was the problem since I wanted to boot up in ST medium resolution with my SC1224 monitor. When I changed the config to boot in Falcon 4-color, 80 column, no interlace mode, it worked fine! Perhaps the READ ME file could be revised to clarify this. I consumed a number of hours troubleshooting this. RICH [T-MAN] and S.WINICK, Turns out my brass or copper plate was on the left (power supply) side of my hard drive. So following your advice, I moved it to the side by the floppy drive. The computer still works, so I guess it didn't hurt. So far though, I haven't observed an obvious performance difference, but on the other hand, I haven't conducted any rigorous tests. Maybe the speaker creates HD interference on the right side. Thanks for everbody's suggestions. Eric M. BTW, I would like to say that the ICD Pro Utilities are great. Copying and deleting files on my system are often over 4 times faster than using the Atari HDX driver. A nuissance about the ST medium boot rez, though. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 83 Sat Mar 25, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 16:42 EST Dan, Great price on the RAM! Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 84 Sat Mar 25, 1995 J.BATES15 [JAB] at 20:05 EST Eric, Run the ICD HDUTIL.PRG from your mono setup, select configure, select the ICDBOOT.SYS on your boot drive and where it says boot res., choose skip. Then save this new configuration. This should fix your problem. If it doesn't, you may have a messed up NVRAM and need something like the Falcon Toolkit by Keith Gerdes or the NVRAM.CPX by R. Kurtz that is in the Library here to reset the NVRAM. I use the NVRAM.CPX to set my boot resolution to 640x480 16 color, VGA. It's just a thought. Later, JAB ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 85 Sat Mar 25, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 21:04 EST Hmm... Gonna have to check that HD plate... Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 86 Sat Mar 25, 1995 E.MATHESON at 20:04 MST Turns out changing that hard drive grounding plate over to the right side might actually have made a difference. I noticed while I was partitioning my internal hard drive with the ICD formatter that during the part where it's checking for bad sectors, it would speed up and slow down at different times. After I changed the plate over to the floppy drive side, running the partitioner seemed to move pretty fast through all the sectors. Hmmm.... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 87 Sun Mar 26, 1995 K.GERDES [TraceTech] at 17:23 CST Rodney, >I am wondering if there is a NVRAM setting for the internal speaker Nope. - Keith ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 88 Sun Mar 26, 1995 F.ZIMMERMAN3 [Frank Z.] at 19:12 PST Rich, If you are saving the desktop, but the changes don't appear after rebooting are you - a) using a boot manager program like XBoot, MouseBoot, SuperBoot? This could be overwriting it. b) make sure that the colors.cpx (and the XControl.Acc for that matter), are loaded(you can run XControl as a program if you don't want it to occupy and ACC slot). Frank Z. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 89 Sun Mar 26, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 20:45 PST Another Calamus SL/Multi-TOS question: Has anyone had difficulties with SL setting a weird system color pallette when you execute? It looks fine while I'm in SL, but when I go to run another program, everything's goofy colors. _Really_ annoying! And when I reload my default palette, SL gets screwed up. Is there any way to change the settings in SL? Actually, now that I think about it, this probably isn't a F030 problem (prob. SL or MTOS), but I've never seen the problem on a TT or on my Mega ST w/ ISAC. Al, Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good price, too, though it's not going as fast as I had hoped. I need the money to get my Speed Res Card. Watch out, my F030'll be faster than even a CaTTamaran TT (which is _way_ fast, if you can keep the thing from crashing!) Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 90 Mon Mar 27, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 20:47 EST Dan, Yep, the Catt is 'way fast ... for 10 minutes on my TT. I sure do want to get it working right. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 91 Mon Mar 27, 1995 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 20:41 PST Hamlet, The stereo equipment that I have hooked up to the Falcon, use to be the primary equipment for the living room. (it's almost 10 years old, but still cranks... ;-]) The stereo system that I bought to replace it was a complete Technics component system. It's the SDS4400 system with Dolby Pro-Logic Surround Sound and it came with the DSP SHGS91 instead of the graphic equalizer, which of course is much better in controling the exact sounds that you want and how much of it. For a complete stereo component system, I highly recommend the Technics SDS4400 or higher. I did some heavy duty comparison shopping and for a component system the Technics was the best buy and best sounding system. Of course you could do better, (but not much better) and pay thousands more. The univeral remote is fantastic (lazy as I am), it controls everything (tuner am/fm, 5 disc cd player, dual cassette deck, both tapes, 2 vcr's, cable, tv, dsp and surround sound system, and has two more programable buttons to control other components as well. (trying to see if I can get it to pour a drink and make popcorn) :-) Anyway... this has gotten off topic... so back on it. I uploaded the two programs I had mentioned earily about turning the Falcon internal speaker off, hope it helps some of you. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 92 Mon Mar 27, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 21:14 PST Al, Have you thought about trying a chip-mounted heat sink or fan, or adding a second fan to the TT? I've considered it but haven't had the time to try. Hopefully I'll get the chance to try plugging the CaTT into the other two TTs and see if one of them'll take the pressure! Cyrel has a 56 MHz version designed! Can you imagine? Talk about crash prone! Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 93 Tue Mar 28, 1995 REALM [Joey] at 02:08 EST I haven't had anymore crash's then before when using the CATT. Maybe I did something wrong.:) One thing you really need to do is clean the excess solder off the ST RAM board connections and make sure it fits down on there good and tight. You also have to make sure the bottom of your hard drive doesn't hit it when you re-install the lid. I had it working fine, then after I put the case back together it didn't work so good. The shield on the bottom of the hard drive was pushing it down at an angle. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 94 Tue Mar 28, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 21:33 EST Rodney, Yea, I JUST bought Technics lowest reciever (I will get a really cool one like the one you have someday, but for now a little one will do -- I don't have much money right now and I'm very confident I could sell this one for a good price if I need to.) It's the SA-GX190. I have a really old AKAI tape deck, that will VERY SOON be replaced by that Technics tape deck that has the motorized "hatch" to put the tapes in (I'm not sure what the model # is) I hope to get one of those DSP recievers someday when I need it. I definately will look into the one you have when I'm ready to buy a new one. I'm only disappointed in one thing with the SA- GX190. It has no loudness button -- so it doesn't have very good bass. I also have to reconfigure my speakers-- they all have different impedance and it really screws the sound up. Thanx for the info. m475;1 ooops! The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 95 Wed Mar 29, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 00:15 EST Dan, I took the internal drive out and set it on top of the case and still got the crashes, so I don't think it's a heat problem. I get 10 minutes, usually, although I've been able to go 2 hours on occasion. My next (and final) attempt to fix it will be shielded cabling, and then I'll send it off to Ralf. I'll be checking with him in Toronto this weekend. Joey, I wish it were that simple. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 96 Wed Mar 29, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 18:39 EST AL, I wish I were able to go to Toronto......:( Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 97 Wed Mar 29, 1995 DMJ [dmj] at 18:25 CST Al, You'll probably see quite a few accelerated TT's in Toronto. But I like mine best. ;-) Dan, Some TT's have absolutely no problem with the CaTT--mine required a bit of twiddling to let me reset reliably, but once done it's worked fine ever since. The thought of 56MHz... wow. ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 98 Wed Mar 29, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 21:50 EST Damien, Any time you'd like to take on a project of getting my TT to run at 48, be my guest. I pay well. But promise you won't paint it black. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 99 Wed Mar 29, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 19:47 PST Ooh, a black TT! But then I'd have to paint the 24" Moniterm black, too! Hmm, we use a lot of black paint at work... I've tried to keep the entire top of the case up and out of the way, thinking it was a heat problem, but it didn't seem to help one bit. I've cleaned up the ST RAM board pins, maybe I'll have to try soldering it down or something. Now if only someone would buy my Falcon RAM, I could experience the same accelerator fiddling joy on my F030! Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 100 Thu Mar 30, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 18:11 EST Dan, how much the ram? I'm not sure how much I can afford. Is it 14meg? Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 101 Thu Mar 30, 1995 D.ALFONSO1 [D.ALFONSO] at 18:40 EST Hi, I'm thinking of disconnecting the fan in my Falcon. I've heard that it is only there for the original Atari RAM and since I've got a RAM expansion board in there and the SIMM's are near the vents, I'm thinking it shouldn't do any harm. Am I asking for trouble? David ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 102 Thu Mar 30, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 21:57 EST Pete, Dan's asking $500 or so, as I recall. al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 103 Thu Mar 30, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 20:11 PST Pete, Al's right. $500 including shipping for RAM Gizmo with 14 Megs. Dan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 104 Thu Mar 30, 1995 DMJ [dmj] at 23:51 CST Al, I was going to paint my TT black, until I remembered a stoned ST I saw at the Duesseldorf AtariMesse some years back. That's when I decided to Stone the TT (although I do have black trim). We can do a variety of colors, if you don't want black. ;-) I'm not a hardware guy--Bryan is--so I doubt I'll be able to help you with the CaTT. ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 105 Fri Mar 31, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 19:50 EST Stone? Is that gray? That sounds interesting. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 106 Mon Apr 03, 1995 ICDINC [Tom] at 22:44 EDT "Stone" looked like he dipped the computer in glue and set it in some black sand. Nice job Damien. - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 107 Mon Apr 03, 1995 R.THIEMAN [T-MAN] at 23:07 EDT What have the changes been to the Falcon TOS? I've got TOS 4.04. Is this the latest or is there something better? RICH ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 108 Tue Apr 04, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 20:50 EDT Yeah, Tom, Damien did a cool job on that TT. I tried three times to drop by and talk with you at the show, BTW, but you were busy and I had people pulling on my arms. (Nathan, cut it out next time! )... Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 109 Tue Apr 04, 1995 ICDINC [Tom] at 21:23 EDT Darn, Missed you again Al. Stop by at the Indy show this time and say hello then. I did get a chance to meet John Trautshold (sp?) finally and entertain the kids. :-) - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 110 Wed Apr 05, 1995 ST.MUSE [Tomas] at 05:49 EDT Tom, John's kids are great aren't they? ===Tomas=== Assistant Sysop & Librarian ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 111 Wed Apr 05, 1995 ICDINC [Tom] at 10:46 EDT Tomas, Yep. There were about 10 regulars who spent most of Sunday wrestling for a player position in Doom Deathmatch. (Not all of them were John's though :-) - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 112 Wed Apr 05, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 17:21 EDT I just got a Motorolla 68882 33 mHz and I would like to know where it goes. there is a chip socket under the power supply... Is that where it goes? Does the little dot on the chip match up with the small arrow on the socket and the 1 on the green board? The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 113 Wed Apr 05, 1995 J.TRAUTSCHOL [Missionware] at 21:07 CDT Yea Tom - your booth certainly did entertain my kids. Whenever they seemed to have disappeared for awhile I could always find them there playing networked Doom! :-) (I sure hope they behaved themselves there!) (Argh! 10 kids for a Doom deathmatch! Nope - I sure hope they weren't all mine. If they were we ended up leaving 8 of 'em behind! ;-) ) It was great finally getting the chance to meet you and see the new CatBox. It looks like a great device. I hope you do well with it. Take care... Tomas... You're too nice. Thanks. The kids are generally good when they're out somewhere, but at home... ;-) John ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 114 Thu Apr 06, 1995 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 22:31 EDT T-man, TOS 4.04 is the latest. A beta TOS 5.0 is circulating in disk form to priviledged developers. Another item that Atari will probably never release. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 115 Fri Apr 07, 1995 W.DUDAN [Simplissius] at 03:45 EDT Hamlet: That's where the FPU goes. Just put mine in a few days ago. Haven't tested it yet with fractal prgs or the like, but it feels better having it in there anyway :) It should have a matching dot or sawn-off corner to indicate the proper position. I have a diag nostic prg somewhere to detect its (FPU's) presence. If detected presumably it's working. . Symp ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 116 Fri Apr 07, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 18:17 EDT Simplissius, Thanx for your reply - I got the FPU in and tried it out with POV v2.1. Unfortunately, I didn't notice any significant speed difference. I don't think the program written for the 68882 will run without it installed, so it does detect it. I am disappointed because this is largely what I bought it for - ray tracing. I'll have to find out some more. Thanx! The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 117 Sat Apr 08, 1995 W.DUDAN [Simplissius] at 08:02 EDT Ham: If it didn't run before: "no 6882 installed!" and now it does run, that would constitute an "infinite" speed increase. :) Wonder if anyone has a floating point exercise prg for the Falcon to demo the FPU chip.(?) Speed is always relative; it was made clear to me rather dramatically a couple years ago when I ran a year-end financial report on two dos machines. The 386dx25 took about 3 minutes and the XT took about 18 min. or more. I suppose something like games is where every ounce of speed is urgently needed. . . . Symp ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 118 Sat Apr 08, 1995 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 14:50 EDT Hmm...just wondering-ACE'95 has come and gone and I don't hear too much talk about it...anybody have any impressions? Thanks... /\ Dark> Al, I'll be looking forward to that issue of GEnieLamp, too! Thanks again, guys-you saved my life! (I had regularly posted the ACE notices on my BBS and now the Atari users want to know what happened or my blood-whichever comes first!) :) /\ Dark> Well, a Falcon owner can dream, can't they? :) Later, friend... /\ Dark> I haven't seen an Atari dealership since 1989. I don't even have a clue as to where the closest one is. Don't really care either, just keep my Toad Catalog handy. :-) David, Use a "real" sequencer. Band in a Box is cheating. (that's a techno- musical type joke, if you know what I mean) Damon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 158 Fri May 12, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 21:09 PDT All, I run 'em all, and my personal machine will _always_ be a TOS computer unless someone gets their act together in the computer world. Of course it's easy for me to say since my wife's gonna buy a DOS box soon, but I've got a DX2-80 w/ VLB everything (SCSI too!), except for video, and it _sucks_!!! All the software is big and bloated and the OS accesses the hard drive almost constantly, even with 16 Megs! Sheesh! My boss's Mac is even worse. An LC040 machine with equivalent speed at a lower resolution with (than?) my Falcon? Give me a _break_! With the Speed Res Card, I'll be as fast as a PowerMac! So what if I don't have the latest software, the stuff I've seen for sale on the other platforms doesn't hold my interest long enough. 'Course I may have to buy a WinBook of some sort eventually, but if I can get a '486 emulator, I'll carry my Falcon for business. If the code for the Intel machines was worth a $%^&, I'd port it! And I _hate_ programming. Stick with it unless there is a _specific_ package you have to have for work. I don't get it. We (Americans) aren't really so stupid that we believe the ads about the best computer, do we? We _do_ compare before we buy, don't we? DOS boxes and Macs are like Yugos with spoilers and cool rims and tires. The accessories (software) may seem nice, but they're on a piece of junk car (OS). A Yugo will never handle like a Ferrari, no matter what. A DOS box will never (again) run like TOS/GEM. Sorry, got worked up there, ;^) Dan AUGH! I can't _stand_ it! To quote Charlie Brown. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 159 Sun May 14, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 18:24 EDT Welcome aboard Perf.... Its been all mail order for me since about 1989. The Philadelphia area has never been very Atari strong. Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 161 Sun May 14, 1995 S.WINICK at 20:55 EDT Dan (Phillips), I couldn't agree with you more regarding your great dislike of the inefficiencies inherent in a DOS-box. The standard solution for operating system and software problems is to throw more hardware at it. Can you imagine what processing speed would be possible if Atari's TOS ever had the hardware power of a contemporary DOS-box to run on! I'm going to keep my Ataris as my primary systems also for as long as I can keep them running, and they continue to provide me with the speed and ease of use not available elsewhere. Sheldon (Computer STudio - Asheville, NC) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 162 Mon May 15, 1995 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 07:31 EDT Sheldon, Nice to see you're still around. I'll be in Asheville for a few days the weekend of 7/22, and hope to stop in. I agree with what you said about our favorite computers. I'm not gonna change until I have no TOS system to use anymore. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 163 Mon May 15, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 17:58 EDT Ken and Captain Sheldon the All Mighty Software and Hardware King, I too love my Falcon and all of its potential, but will exit the market sadly when a computer comes along that grabs my attention. It will probably be a Power PC of some kind, plain and simple I like to be different. Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 164 Wed May 17, 1995 J.WHETSTONE [Hamlet] at 21:48 EDT Not too surprised about Atari going foom in Utah. I remember way back, oh, say, six or seven years ago when Electronics Boutique used to carry old ST stuff, ya know, way back when the ol' 520 was the hot item (among us Atarians, of course). Now the ONLY place at all I can find ANY Atari stuff (besides the Jaguar, maybe, which costs an arm and a leg at EB) is Toad, which is only about an hour and thirty away, fortunately for me. The fact that those crummy DOS machines are the BIG pop things right now just blows me too. Mac's are a little better (at least they have the good old Motorolla in them) but they are slow... I wouldn't use any other computer after seeing what the Falc can do audiowise. And I know I haven't seen the half of it! :-} I'd really love to get Q-base audio sometime when I get the $$$. You know what I really hate? Those people you just can't convince. Oh, yes, Bill Gates, he's so splenderiffic, you know, just the great old loose guy who doesn't care about anything. The guy who just walks around that Corporation and shouts at everybody. The 14th richest *astard in the world. Yea. he's great. And good ol' Microsoft just writes the greatest programs, don't they? No, Microsoft isn't a Monopoly, is it? I just want to wring those people around their filthy stinking necks. Microsoft is what makes Dos machines such a pain in the a**. (Oh, yes, and I guess it would help if the Pentium chip could divide 22 by six...) Rock on. The Rogue and Peasant Slave Hamlet ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 165 Wed May 17, 1995 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 23:04 EDT The latest ST Informer has a letter from Sheldon Winnick talking about how he was getting computers and other Atari products yet, back in November, Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 166 Thu May 18, 1995 W.MARTZ1 [Lucky Man] at 01:52 EDT Just gotta put in my 2 cents! (Looks more like 25!) I'm a full-time church musician, and I had no use for computers untill shown a 1040 in '88. I never did rely on dealers, so I don't feel their absence as much as many would. At the same time, as I've slowly learned about Telecomunication and Genie, I've gotten more help than ever before. I've never used Band in a Box, so I don't know what we're missing there. The first reason I started to use a computer was for scoring, and I'm pleased to say that IMHO, Q-base has surpassed Notators capability, so for now, I'm pretty pleased with the status of scoring on the Atari. When I moved to a new position in Oct. '93, I thought long and hard about switching platforms, and even bought a Mac to play with, but decided to go with a Falcon at work for the lure of digital audio. I don't regret it, and I hope to get a Ram upgrade and 1 gig HD for Cuebase Audio this summer. I feel dissapointed somtimes at the lack of certain neet-o wiz-bang stuff coming out for other platforms, and not available for a Falcon, like a graphical net browser. But for me, since music is the highest and best possible use for a computer,;-), the Falcon and Cuebase audio is at the cutting edge. My needs as far as Data base, spread sheet and word processing goes are handled very nicely with Atari works, and the power of Calamus SL exceeds my humble needs. I'm also fairly pleased that a fair number of neat things have come out or been upgraded for the Falcon.(especially Gem-spool!) I also got an excellent deal on a used Falcon for at home, which is what I'm using now. I can surly understand why some Atari users are dissapointed with the state of Atari programming, but as a musician, I feel lucky to have this much power available to me. That's why I chose the Handle "Lucky Man" when first getting on Genie. I'll be with this platform for a few more years at least! S ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 167 Sat May 20, 1995 S.BUSHMAN3 at 17:35 EDT I hope someone can help me this time.... I have a Falcon030, and have experienced hundreds of problems with poor audi quality...well now it's something else! I downloaded the OSUTILS.ZIP, and it somehow made my Falcon boot up in overscan every time after I ran it. I tried deleting the program, but it still came up in overscan (in which my SC1224 cannot display the whole screen. I figured my NVRAM must have been set like that, so I downloaded the Falcon NVRAM reset program. After running that once, my Falcon has gone to sleep! I turn it on, and the screen stays blank...the hard drive doesn't get accessed, and neither does the floppy (even when I hold ALT down.). I thought I was going to go nuts with all the audio problems, but now I have gone nuts! Can somebody help? No more 8-track for me...sigh... Shane ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 168 Sat May 20, 1995 D.ATKINSON3 [Damon] at 20:25 CDT Shane, Try holding down ++ when you boot. If it boots and you still have an overscanned screen, throw away your desktop.inf file and reboot. If it doesn't boot, maybe someone smarter can help. Damon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 169 Sat May 20, 1995 S.BUSHMAN3 at 22:02 EDT Damon, Thanks, but it didn't work...sigh...I feel I can't avoid sending my computer off again...sigh...bummer... Shane ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 170 Sun May 21, 1995 REALM [Joey] at 00:43 EDT Shane, try hooking it to a TV and see what happens. Booting with the ALT key held down was a good idea. You may want to try that a couple times since it's kind of tricky to get it right. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 171 Sun May 21, 1995 S.BUSHMAN3 at 13:13 EDT Joe, Thank you for the suggestion, but I already tried that. What I got was 3 purple, pulsating lines which went form top to bottom at a fixed rate. What I think is that the reset program I ran set my Falcon to 50hz, and my machine is going nuts trying to do 50hz at bootup. Unfortunately, even my drives don't get searched. Do you think I sould mail it? Shane ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 172 Sun May 21, 1995 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 21:06 PDT S.BUSHMAN3, Try deleting your Newdesk.inf file and reboot... you'll hafta do another one probley... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 173 Mon May 22, 1995 REALM [Joey] at 01:07 EDT Shane, You did try hooking it to a TV via the RF output? I wouldn't think that would be bothered by any monitor settings. Don't know what else to try. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 174 Mon May 22, 1995 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 06:08 CDT Or find someone with a SM124 monochrome monitor... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 175 Mon May 22, 1995 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 07:15 EDT Shane, You didn't use one of those programs that messes with your monitor, but has a warning about how it might destroy your system, did you? I'm not kidding. I've downloaded a file with such a warning, and assumed it wasn't a joke, although I didn't know software could damage hardware. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 176 Tue May 23, 1995 DMJ [dmj] at 18:13 CDT Ken Van, Software can indeed damage hardware, if given direct access to it. A program could repeatedly ram your floppy drive's head past its normal boundaries, eventually knocking the drive out of alignment. And when dealing with monitors, if you send a monitor a sync rate it can't handle, eventually something in it would get fried. This is why banging on hardware is usually left to the operating system, where all the protection from abuse is put. ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 177 Wed May 24, 1995 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 07:00 EDT dmj, Thanks. I didn't know that. Apparently they aren't kidding when they give those warnings, then. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 178 Thu May 25, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 18:52 EDT Well, Just read the new issue of CN and boy is it sad. Joe Walters is hanging it up and the whole issue was filled with retrospectives and what could have beens. Harry Carson will be the new editor, but from the tone of some of the contributors it seems like it could be all over soon. I know I am not alone in thinking that I have enjoyed my Atari stay... will enjoy it for as long as my Falcon has programs to use on it.... But realize the dream is gone. Not only for those of us who have stayed with Atari, but also for Atari themselves. It seems it may be time to close up shop... take their chips and slowly walk home. Sorry so misty eyed, but I guess there is a time when defeat doesn't seem so horrible anymore...and I will always have the memories of my 400 all the way up to my Falcon. Maybe 50 years from now these suckers will be collectors items because nobody ever bought em. :) Pete '*s ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 179 Thu May 25, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 22:28 EDT Pete, How could Joe Walters be anyone else's reason for jumping ship? I dind't buy my first 800XL, or my third 130XE, or my second ST, or my TT, or my Portfolio, because Joe Walters or anyone else was hot or cold on the Atari. And I'm not fading away. I hope you can see the point and not give up just because others have gotten tired. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 180 Thu May 25, 1995 ICDINC [Tom] at 22:46 EDT Pete, I also read Current Notes today and had many of the same feelings. But Joe is leaving because of failing health. We all get old. And I can't think of a better reason for Joe to change pleasures. He has done an admirable job. Having been a participant myself in many of those events, it was fun to think about the "good old days". But I also can't help thinking about the "good old days" to come. I think David Troy and many others would agree with me that there is still a fair amount of life left in this crowd. I'm not going anywhere. Just changing slightly with the times. - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 181 Thu May 25, 1995 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 23:53 EDT Pete, it's Joe Waters :-) So is it Howard Carson of TAF who is taking over Current Notes? That is not such a bad thing since the TAF newsletter (The Phoenix) is one of the finest user group mags ever published... and still being published. As a former author of Current Notes (I assembled 18 installments of GEnie Notes) I can say it was an honor working with Joe Waters. His decision to leave the scene was a hard one for Joe. He has been a faithful and loyal supporter of our computer and is owed our gratitude. Current Notes was a full time job that was paying less and less in the dwindling market. Joe did an excellent job to hang on as long as he did. Personally, I feel he could have bowed out gracefully over a year ago but he decided to try and honor his subscriptions. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 182 Thu May 25, 1995 GREG at 23:09 CDT Peter: Since January 1994 we have released a new product every month for the Atari machines and plan on continuing to do so in the future. I've been busy this week testing a new Atari front end for the Time Almanac of the 90's and UFO-2. Both will be available shortly along with a couple other surprises. There are over 1,200 commercial CD's you can use with your machine and more being released every day. In fact only last week Roger Burrow's of Anodyne updated ExtenDOS to read Mac format 9660 CD's, opening up several hundred titles to your machine that I haven't added to the list yet. Our World Travel CD series can be used on an Atari, Mac, Windows, DOS, CD-I, 3DO, Sega or Kodak player. You may even be able to use them with a Jaguar in the future. You still have a lot of life left in your machine. We will miss Joe Waters, but the new publisher may bring new ethusiasm to Current Notes with him. It's All Relative ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 183 Fri May 26, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:39 EDT Tom, Lou, Greg, Well said. Al (and I even know he's Joe Waters, not Walters. Argh! ) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 184 Fri May 26, 1995 POTECHIN [Nathan @ DMC] at 09:48 EDT And this entire discussion should be in the Current Notes topic in Category 15. Thanks. Nathan ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 185 Sat May 27, 1995 P.FLETCHER4 [STumped] at 15:44 EDT Thanks for the nice words guys. I just feel a bit depressed at times when one of the last remaining constants in my Atarian existence goes through some changes. I am glad that the magazine isn't going under and I am not jumping ship, but I have truly grown up around Atari and the thought that I will inevitably eventually have to say goodbye is some what depressing. I got a 2600 for Xmas when I was ten. Saved my allowance for a year to buy a 400 at 11. Got a 800xl and 1050 for Xmas at 13. Bought a 520st at 16. Got a lynx at 19. Bought a Falcon at 23. And finally two Jaguars at 24. I work on PCs at work and know more than I care to know about them so my Ataris hacve always given me peace of mind. I guess its just my hobby, but it is a hobby that I love and know it will pass away sooner than I would like. I'm hanging in there with the rest of you, but cannot help but be a little sad at times. Thanks again, Pete ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 186 Sat May 27, 1995 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 23:18 EDT It's nice to know MagicMac and PC-Xformer are available when we need them. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 187 Sat May 27, 1995 P.LOUIE1 [Phil @ABACUS] at 23:26 PDT New Falcon user here with questions: 1. When I load off the Language Disk, all the icons are nicely multi-colored. (The file cabinet has lots of colors) However, I can't seem to do that when I boot off the hard drive. I have the XControl Panel loaded with all the CPXs from the langauge disk. Am I missing something? 2. A weird one. I open a window such as drive E: on the desktop. Then I load an application that is on drive D: via its icon on the desktop. However, the application looks for its configuration files on drive E:. Huh? I'm using TOS 4.04, Pinhead 2.1, NVDI 3.01, Xcontrol 1.31, 16-color VGA mode. TIA, Phil ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 188 Sun May 28, 1995 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 00:01 PDT Phil, My guess is that when you load off of floppy there is no DESKICON.RSC, so you're using the internal icons. And when you boot off of the hard drive it's loading DESKICON.RSC, which has icons less colorful than the internal ones. I see the 'pretty' icons myself when I hold down Control to bypass the hard drive boot process. (tm) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 189 Sun May 28, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:29 EDT Phil, When you boot off the floppy, you're getting the icons from the floppy. When you boot off the hard drive, you're getting the icons off the hard drive. Now that we got THAT underway, it's actually not that simple. The NEWDESK.INF file controls things when you boot up. It stores the look and arrangement of the desktop, and so you are getting one NEWDESK file on the floppy but another on the hard drive. As I recall, the multi-color icons are stored in a different file from the standard ones, so a Falcon user (I'm not one) can help tell you which icon file you need to have in the root of the hard drive. (All Ataris work more or less the same way, but I haven't run the standard TOS desktop in years, so I'm not good at this advice.) Number 2 isn't odd; it's the way TOS works unless you set up apps differently, or do a different kind of drag-and-drop. Just select the icon for the app and go to the main GEM menu and set up the app to use its own location for its config files. (The other choice is Top Window or Active Window.) But it's easier just to open the app window, open a window for data files, and drag the data file(s) to the app icon; it will run and auto-load the data files. (A word processor is a good example of this kind of operation, but it works with many types of application.) Terry may have the answer on the icons -- but Terry, there are TWO icon files, one for color and one for b/w, more or less, right? Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 190 Sun May 28, 1995 T.STARACE1 at 10:04 EDT Phil, To get the color icons when you boot from the hard drive, all you need to do is copy the DESKICON.RSC file to the root directory on drive C. (If you use MultiTos then copy the DESKCICN.RSC file instead.) If it's not there then the computer will use the plain built in icons. Also you don't need 2 files for color and mono icons. They are ALL in the DESKICON.RSC file. Tom ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 191 Sun May 28, 1995 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 10:45 EDT Phil, Highlight the ICON you have for that program. Now, go under Options and select Install Application. On this dialog box, you will notice at the bottom 2 options beside 'Default Dir'. You need to set it as Application and not Top Window. Also, set the Full Path option and any other options on this dialog box. You then needto save your Desktop. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 192 Sun May 28, 1995 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 14:43 EDT Phil, 1. Copy the DESKICON.RSC file from the floppy drive that gave you color icons. This is the file containing the color icons. Without it you will get the default icons. 2. If what the others said don't work, check that application's settings (normally under Preferences or Path). You might see where it's looking for its files. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 193 Sun May 28, 1995 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 20:30 PDT Al, As Tom said, you don't need different resources for color and mono icons. Each icon is actually three different icons: One for Color, one for Color Selected, and one for Mono. I know exactly what Phil was referring to. If you boot without ANY resource file you get multi-colored file cabinets assigned to your drives. These are internal (inside GEM) icons. I get them when I bypass the hard drive by pressing down Control (which does _not_ cause me to boot from floppy, because no AUTO programs, ACCs or DESKTOP.INF gets loaded). ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 194 Sun May 28, 1995 B.DEWITT [Perfesser] at 21:42 MDT While the following comment isn't strictly Falcon oriented, it is about graphics and that's what I bought my Falcon for, so maybe it's appropriate. Anyway, while watching PC-TV on televison the other day, they had an interesting segment on a new graphics chip that has been developed. The presenter was German, but I don't know whether it was developed in Germany or not. The chip was called a 'GLINT' chip or something like that (I couldn't understand what they said very well). It was running on a Pentium-equipped computer, but the rep implied that it was designed to work on other platforms as well. The thing that was exciting about it was that it is a dedicated 3D chip that rendered 3D graphics at blazing speeds. He demonstrated a roller- coaster animation (you know the type: like a camera is fixed on the front of a roller-coaster car while the thing zooms at break-neck speed around the rails) that really flew--and the whole thing was rendered in real time! It essentially brought high-end workstation-type 3D graphics to the home computer. The price was not mentioned, but the implication was that it was affordable. Has anyone heard of such a chip? Anyone care to hazard a guess as to whether such a chip could ever make its way to the Falcon (after all, if it was designed in Germany where the Falcon hasn't died yet....)? Or am I being a hopeless optimist? (Of course I am, but no harm in dreaming.) Th'Perfesser ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 195 Mon May 29, 1995 AEO.1 [Albert Dayes] at 01:08 EDT Perfesser, The Glint chip has been around since 1994 I believe. I do not recall if it is the same chip. But there is one what puts Silicon Graphics graphic standard OPEN GL on a chip. -- Albert @ AEO ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 196 Mon May 29, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 09:38 EDT Thanks, Terry. I'm learning more than I thought I'd have to learn about the TOS desktop. :-0) Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 197 Mon May 29, 1995 D.ATKINSON3 [Damon] at 14:27 CDT Phil, 1. Copy the Deskicon.rsc file from the language disk. I had the same problem at first and just copied both DESKICON and DESKCICN to my hard drive and let the Falcon figure out the rest. :-) Other than that, make sure the resolution you are in has at least 16 colors. 2. Boy, it's been awhile since I looked at the desktop but, here goes: One of the desktop menu items (I'm pretty sure it's the last dropdown on the right) has an option to set for either "top window" or "full path". Set this to "full path" and save your desktop. Damon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 198 Mon May 29, 1995 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 14:24 PDT >A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 09:38 EDT > >Thanks, Terry. I'm learning more than I thought I'd have to learn about >the TOS desktop. :-0) And I'm teaching more about it than I ever thought I would. ;^) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 199 Mon May 29, 1995 P.LOUIE1 [Phil @ABACUS] at 15:48 PDT Thanks everyone for your help. I fixed the problems. Now another question. Whenever I try to copy a folder from my hard drive to drive A:, the computer crashes (2 bombs). I tried this in all RGB resolutions with NO auto prgs or accs. Is this a TOS/GEM bug? -Phil ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 200 Mon May 29, 1995 D.PHILLIPS25 at 18:00 PDT Speed Res is here!!! See Topic 12. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 201 Mon May 29, 1995 ST.MUSE [Tomas] at 23:51 EDT Phil, >Now another question. Whenever I try to copy a folder from my hard > drive to drive A:, the computer crashes (2 bombs). Do you mean from the Desktop? ===Tomas=== Assistant Sysop & Librarian ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 202 Tue May 30, 1995 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:16 EDT Phil, I remember reading about a copy-to-floppy bug when you do it from the desktop. What happens if you use a utility like MaxiFile, Kobold, or one of the advanced item selectors that provides copying facilities? Al ------------