[net.micro.atari] 800XL, Action! & Indus

bsw@whuts.UUCP (WALDEN) (06/19/85)

I have an 800 and a new 800XL. I also have Action! and an Indus drive on 
the 800.

I tried putting them on the XL and came up with the following
observations:

	1) With *ONLY* the Action! cart. (No disk)
	 The XL boots to Action! fine.
	2) With Action! + Indus with a SINGLE density disk
	 with  OSS DOS XL (Original version (2.2?)):
	 - starts to read disk then it "locks up" (blank
	 - screen, disk stops)
	 - push RESET and disk starts and BASIC comes up
	 - (even with Action! in machine!)

	3) With Action! + Indus with SINGLE density + holding
	 down the OPTION key:
	 - boots Action!
	 - can write to disk, but cannot read (CTRL-SHFT-R)
	 - any programs, but can get a directory (?1:*.*)
	 - Try to read a program off the disk "locks up"
	 - the system, the only way out is RESET which tries
	 - to boot the disk but fails as in 2)

	4) With Action! + Indus with DOUBLE density DOS XL:
	 - tries to boot but fails, system is "locked up" 
	 - push RESET, but locks up again after trying to boot

	5) With Action! + Indus with DOUBLE density DOS XL +
	 pushing the OPTION key:
	 - System boots Action!, acts just like 3) but
	 - on RESET it locks up like 4)

	6) With Action! + Indus with ATARI DOS 2.0 (format "C"):
	 - boots Action!, works perfectly.
	 - can Read/Write, can use RESET normally.
	NOTE: the OPTION key does not have to be pushed
	to disable the BASIC like the others above.

	7) Using the 800 operating system (XLFIX)
	 (see Analog, July 85):
	 - then booting SINGLE or DOUBLE DOS XL with
	 - Action! boots off drive but goes into BASIC.

	8) Using XLFIX + pushing OPTION key:
	 - booting SINGLE or DOUBLE density boots Action!
	 - works perfectly.

	9) Without Action! ALL DOS's boot fine with or
	 without BASIC.

I don't know why the three don't work together, but do work seperately.
Has anyone else experienced these same problems?? Can anyone give me some
insight in to what may be wrong, the 800XL, the Action! cartridge, or the
Indus drive.


Thanx in advance.

Brian Walden

....!ihnp4!whuts!bsw

Action!,Indus,OSS,ATARI, and Analog are probably TradeMarks and therefore
all are ACK'ed